Chapter l436

Chapter 0436

Early the next morning, I awoke to the sound of loud and persistent knocking on my door. It was so early, Charlotte hadn’t even arrived yet and the curtains were still drawn over the windows.

The guards were talking with the morning visitor, who was nearly shrieking in her reply. It was Bridget. She sounded upset.

I checked on Elva, she was still sound asleep. Then I rolled out of bed. I threw on a silk robe and rushed to the door.

The moment, Bridget saw me, the tears began to flow down her cheeks. “Oh, Piper! I have to talk to you at once.”

Fortunately, at that same moment, Charlotte was approaching us down the hallway. I asked her to keep an eye on Elva, and went with Bridget to her own room where we could speak privately.

Bridget plucked a handkerchief from her nightstand and dabbed at her tear tracks. She was still wearing the same clothes she had worn at the party. Had she been up all night?

Where? And… with whom?

“What happened?” I asked. “Are you alright?”

As much as I distrusted Bridget, I would never wish her harm. With the underground organization out there, and their teleportation powers still unchecked, if Bridget had been out alone, she could have run into anyone.

My stomach tied up in knots. Maybe it wasn’t right to keep so many secrets from the royal guard. Nicholas and Julian’s personal guard couldn’t possibly be enough to keep the entire palace safe.

But then, I smelled it. A touch of cologne. A cologne I recognized as Julian’s.

Oh no.

My stomach totally dropped out.

He didn’t. Couldn’t. Wouldn’t.

“There’s no easy way to say this, but Julian confessed his feelings to me last night,” Bridget said. “He told me he had been in love with me most of his life. I couldn’t believe my ears.

1/2

He’s so clearly in a relationship with you, and yet he still has these feelings for me.”

+15 BONUS

I wasn’t surprised. Just, disappointed. I had thought he was making progress in moving on from Bridget. Small steps, sure. Baby steps, even. But steps forward all the same. 2

Surely that loss during dress rehearsal should have been the final nail in the coffin, when she’d used him to try to make Nicholas jealous.

Yet maybe he felt he needed to confess to truly move forward. To tell Bridget his feelings, receive her firm rejection, and then move on.

I sighed but wasn’t otherwise affected.

Holding her handkerchief to her cheek, Bridget watched me. “You are handling this news quite well… Admittedly, if the man I was dating told another woman he has loved her all his life, I would be furious.”

“I’m going to talk to him about it later, sure,” I said. What, did she expect me to cry?

Though maybe I should have made more of an effort, or she might have suspected that we weren’t actually dating.

“I mean, I am pissed as hell,” I said. “But…” I tried to think of some excuse for my lack of true upset. “It is unfortunately the nature of the competition. I’m Julian’s favorite, but he’s

not here to find love. It’s about who would make the best Luna.”

That was a good enough reason, right?

“It’s not just that,” Bridget said. Fresh tears started. “It was the way he was talking about you…”

That gave me pause. “What? What was he saying?”

“Oh, he said such terribly things, Piper. Things I don’t even want to repeat.”

I frowned. What could he have said? We were friends.

“But I must repeat them!” Bridget said suddenly. She walked closer to me. “Oh, Piper, you should know the kind of man you are dating. He will give you roses to your face and then. spew the most hateful rhetoric behind your back.”