Chapter: 44: Eliminated

I’d been sleeping for what felt like days, but it was probably closer to eleven hours.

It had been difficult to continue reading after Caiden’s visit, even though I’d wanted to. My mind kept wandering off to places it wasn’t supposed to, so I decided to go to bed instead.

And now, with the sun obscured by clouds, the night had turned into a dreary day, and everyone had been gathered in the parlor for a meeting. Well, not everyone.

“Élodie was weak. I’m not even sure how she managed to represent the Reef Academy in the first place!

“She would have been the worst queen in the history of Heliac, and I’m glad this trial eliminated her,” I heard Alia yell in the corner about one of her former followers.

Élodie was one of the four suitors who had failed to pass the trial, and along with Devika and Amber, she had been one of the suitors who had wavered from the threat of the Faceless Shifter.

Or so Piper had told me. Kihone wasn’t among us either.

It made sense that the eliminated would be the suitors who hadn’t been able to fight the creature of the Blaze.

A queen was not only supposed to be strong, but she was supposed to be fearless, too, shaken by only a few things in this world.

Another reason that the Faceless Shifter had been right about Caiden and me. It could never be. I feared a lot of things.

The Faceless Shifter had scared me senseless, and I barely even remember how I managed to stay calm and get out.

However, eliminating Kihone didn’t fit the pattern.

None of the other suitors I’d been able to follow on the screen had fought as fearlessly as her. She hadn’t even flinched when she saw the Shifter, and others had chosen the tiara before her.

So, neither could be the cause of her elimination. Then what?

Calla and Piper didn’t have an answer to that question either, so all we could do was wait. But not for long.

“Good morning, girls.”

We heard Evie’s high-pitched voice cut through the air as she entered the room.

“You’ve probably noticed that not all girls are present, bless their hearts.” She sighed as if she was touched by the fact that four of us had been eliminated due to the horrors of the first trial.

“But the purpose of yesterday’s trials was to test your ability to think clearly under pressure.

“A queen should always be able to think of a solution, even when facing something terrifying and unexpected,” Evie continued.

That still didn’t explain why Kihone wasn’t here anymore. She had shown nothing but being able to think clearly in situations like the one we were exposed to yesterday.

“But that wasn’t all this trial was testing,” she added, and everyone seemed to be listening again.

“If you remember the second part of the trial, you’ll remember the four or three artifacts you had the possibility to choose between.”

The memory wasn’t as distinct as the encounter with the Faceless Shifter.

But I could still recall bits and pieces of the thoughts that had passed through my head as I had balanced the appreciation of each object against each other.

And I remember the scent of the rose, in particular.

“The artifacts were also a test, but perhaps not in the way you might expect.

“It was not to test if you would choose the correct artifact or the wrong artifact but to make you consider the artifacts and choose what you felt was right.

“A queen should always consider and choose with her heart. Never aimlessly and without consideration or to satisfy the expectation of others,” she said and shook her head.

I closed my eyes and tried to imagine the screen where we had been able to follow Kihone’s journey through the trial. Then it hit me why Kihone had been eliminated.

She hadn’t considered any of the artifacts. She had barely looked at them before she chose the tiara.

That answer wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to ask Evie the question that could give me the answer I was searching for, but Piper beat me to it.

“What about me?” she asked and stepped forward. “I hardly considered the other artifacts before I chose the rose, and I know that I’m not the only one.”

Evie smiled as if she had been expecting the question long before any of us had considered it. “There is a difference between knowing what your heart desires and choosing by random, Miss Weldon.

“You seemed to know exactly what you wanted, and that is a trait very much expected from a queen too.”

I saw Piper’s cheeks turn blue after hearing Evie praise her like that. Maybe she was even imagining herself claiming the title of Heliac’s protector and queen, which I thought she would be a good fit for.

Piper had proven herself to be strong as well as kind-hearted, much like our Lost Queen.

“But,” Evie said, “by eliminating four more suitors, the prince has initiated the next phase.

“We are down to the fourteen of you, which means that you will get to know more about the crown prince and he will get to know more about you.

“He will ask each of you on dates in no particular order, where you will go through a planned activity and talk. But it will be for him to decide the when and where.”

I hated this phase, and I’d dreaded it ever since the day I first saw Arawn presenting it on television.

This phase meant more lies and more publicity. And I would be forced to go on these dates with cameras following us, meaning no privacy at all.

The only positive aspect of this phase was that I no longer had to sneak around when I wanted to go for a walk and that the gardens would become available when spring returned.

“—by tonight,” Evie said to finish a sentence.

I’d forgotten to listen.

“What did she say?” I whispered to Calla, who seemed to be listening carefully.

“That we could do as we pleased today, but we have to meet here tomorrow by ten and that Arawn would announce the elimination of the four suitors tonight.”

Already? I’d hoped that we might at least have had a few days before the cameras would begin following us again.

“Did she say anything about what we were going to do tomorrow?” I asked, so I could prepare myself if we were to go through another round of proper etiquette.

“Enough chit-chat, girls! This is important,” Evie shouted in our direction, and my body stiffened.

Her eyes were drilling through me like the needles Faye had used to pierce two holes through the unbroken skin of my ears.

The Crown Trials was like her unborn child, and if anyone disrespected it, they would taste her wrath.

Calla and I quickly straightened our backs and looked like we were ready to listen attentively to every single word she was saying.

And she smiled, looking like the kind and enthusiastic Evie we had come to know while letting her inner monster return to its slumber.

“Good,” she said and continued talking about the future of the Trials.

I didn’t dare speak another word or move before she was done, but Alia’s eyes weren’t focused on Evie as they should have been.

They were resting on me, and it was the kind of eyes I had hoped to avoid yesterday by staying in my room—her burning gaze and the loathing eyes.

She hated me for making it through when Élodie didn’t. She hated me because the prince gave me special treatment and more time. But she didn’t know that it was Art who had been pulling the strings.

Evie finally excused us, and I allowed my body to relax. Unfortunately, it was quite short-lived.

I was heading for the door with Piper and Calla by my side, ready to enjoy a peaceful day before the storm, when I felt a hand on my shoulder holding me back.

“I’m sorry, Willow,” Evie mumbled before I noticed that it was her slender hand on my shoulder. “Prince Arthur is asking for you.”

My audacity from home hadn’t been eradicated with the countless lessons in proper manners, and my mouth spoke before my brain registered what I was about to say.

“But our session isn’t for another two days,” I blurted before seeing her painted eyebrows quirk at my sudden outburst.

Her condemning expression suddenly made me feel a lot smaller than I was. Not that I was a tall person, but right now, it felt like I could crawl my way through the eye of a needle without thinking twice.

“Prince Arthur asked for you to join him in his studio when we were done here,” she said and ignored my bad manners. I had been through a lot, after all.

“I might be saying asked, but he did sound very determined to move your session to this afternoon. So, I would advise you to find your way to Arthur’s door as quickly as possible.”

The way she said it made me swallow my words. I hadn’t seen Art mad yet, but I didn’t ever want to know what he was like in that state of mind.

Time wasn’t on my side, so I quickly nodded and headed in the opposite direction of everyone else.

~This better be important, Art...~