“You will tell me where you’ve gotten your knowledge or you will never see the light of day again,” Val said.

“Val, I didn’t know the circle was yours—“

“That makes it even less sensible!” Val snapped, interrupting me.

I hesitated, crossing my arms. It was more an attempt to comfort myself than anything else.

“Promise me you won’t do any weird experiments on me once I tell you?” I asked, voice pleading.

Val’s fury seemingly drained from him, and he just stared at me blankly for a long moment.

“I promise,” Val said.

I hesitated, sighing. I didn’t trust that. But… well. Spells were kind of really important to mages. Like obscenely so. Like if Valentine told the king I’d stolen his spell I would at the very least have to be imprisoned, even as his daughter.

“I… got the information from…” I shook my head, “No, does it really matter? It’s not like I know anything about it! I just knew it was lightning and saw what it looked like, anyone could have done what I had if they’d seen it.”

“No one has seen it,” Val rejected, stressing his words in an odd way.

“How do you know that, though?”

“Because I haven’t finished it yet!”

I hesitated. Oh. Oh, wow. Val and I stared at each other, both of us caught off-guard.

“Well, um, that’s cool,” I said awkwardly, looking at my hands and fiddling with my nails.

Oops.

“Let me rephrase,” Val mentioned, walking closer in the void-space he’d pulled me into, “Just in case I haven’t been clear enough already. If you do not tell me where you get your information from, I will take that information from your soul.”

I looked up, backing away, “Uh, uhh, fuck, okay.” What was a believable lie? “So, um, G-God told me?”

“Which one?”

“Uh the, the… the um.”

“You’re lying. Tell the truth now or I will take your soul and tear it to shreds finding out.”

Why did he have to grow so out of character? Why didn’t he stay the fluffy golden retriever? Why were his blue eyes so intimidating?

Shit.

Shit.

Fine.

“Okay! Okay,” My hands rose as I continued backing away, panicking when he didn’t stop, “I’ll tell you, just-just give me a-a mome—“

“A moment to come up with a lie?” Val dismissed, his steps slowly gaining on me.

He reached out, and I flinched back, “I’m-from-another-world-and-readaboutthisworldinabook!”

I didn’t feel his hand touching me, and slowly, I stopped cowering away. I opened my eyes. Val looked thoughtful, eyes intently focused on me and hand by his side.

“Another world? Interesting.”

The void around us fell, and I stared at him for half a second before tears came to my eyes and I hit his shoulder.

“You scared the shit out of me, Val, don’t do that!” I cried, fist still hitting his shoulder.

I collapsed against his chest with a whine. Tears fell down my face. His arms wrapped around me. I felt comforted.

“Am I the only one who knows this?” Val wondered.

“Uhh….” I thought for a long time, then I shrugged, “Dunno. I got really drunk with Kairos, once—“

“Kairos? The leader of the guild of Moonlight?” Val wondered.

I hesitated, “Uh, no,” I lied. I hesitated again, sighing wistfully, “I wish.”

Val stared at me, frowning, “As your ally and confidant, I would suggest you stop lying to me.”

My expression twisted, and I held Valentine tighter, pouting into his chest, “Whatever. You learned the truth anyway.”

Val sighed, pushing me away and holding my shoulders so he could look at me, “So I know, and Kairos, who gives any information he knows away to anyone for a price, might know.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“To be fair to me, he’s hot as hell and smart and I was drunk and am the definition of stupid,” I muttered, frowning up at Val.

Val sighed, and his magic reached out, pinning me in place. Soulmancy was not fun when you were on the receiving end. Jesus Christ.

The next day I found pants in my wardrobe. Soon I was in a t-shirt and pants, cloak wrapped around my shoulders.

Sadly, I was stopped at my door.

“You have to wear a dress over that,” Kairos said, easily preventing all of my attempts to get around or otherwise past him.

Eventually I found myself pinned to my door, staring up at Kairos. His cyan hair had grown longer, some strands falling just over his glasses, honey eyes focused on me. He had bags under his eyes.

“You look tired,” I mentioned quietly.

“Yes,” Kairos agreed, “You hardly if ever sleep. I only rest after Viscount Porter takes you from the library.”

Who the hell was that? Whatever, it was probably someone I knew.

“You should take a break,” I mentioned, “You deserve a few days off.”

Maybe he would leave right now and allow me to leave without putting on a dress. That would be great.

“I fear that if I do you will never look my way again,” Kairos said quietly, softly.

I stared up at him, into his honey-brown gaze. Reaching up, my hand caressed the side of his face. I found his lips meeting mine, and I didn’t push him away.

Me? Never looking his way again?

“Impossible,” I refuted the moment our lips separated, sighing as I dreamed of the future, “Once I have free time and am out of danger, I’m certain I will do nothing except admire you.”

“Danger?”

“Ah, yeah, you were passed out,” I realized, head thudding back into the wood of the door, “The Demon King will kill me, next he sees me.”

Kairos rested his forehead against mine, “I wish you had told me this much sooner.”

I chuckled, grinning, “Ah, it’s fine. Either Persephone will return, or—“

“Persephone is dead,” Kairos refuted, “The ritual she did killed her. Aphrodite used magic to puppeteer her after discovering her body.”

Wait what? Aph… Aph puppeteered her sister? That would mean that everything I knew about Persephone was just Aphrodite’s actions! What? Why would Aph do that?

Not only was she useless, but she was a white lotus too? That made no sense! Or, well… It kind of explained her actions toward me as of late. It explained the sorrow-filled reluctance Sora held with her in the novel, seeing as he literally watched her grow up.

Sora was the greatest assassin, but he still had a soft side to him. He’d fallen into a platonic love with the main character, adoring her after watching her grow up.

If she was really a white lotus, wouldn’t that mean that he could be under some sort of mind-control spell?

I sighed.

“Well then yeah. The Demon King will kill me next he sees me. If he fails, I’m certain he’ll oust me, since he only vouched for me in the hopes that he could get Persephone back.”

If Sora was under mind-control, then wouldn’t he be a useful tool to have for Kairos? It was part of the reason he died, after all. Sora was the one who found Kairos, releasing Aphrodite. The Fae King was just the one to kill him after he fled.

“Sora might be under mind-control,” I mentioned, breaking the small silence.

“Sora? Aphrodite’s servant?”

“Yeah. He’s the greatest assassin. I don’t know his other name, I think it was, um… Silver… No.”

“The greatest assassin would be the Night’s Herald.”

Kairos shifted, wrapping his arms around me and setting his head on my shoulder. His breath ghosted along my neck.

“Yeah, him,” I agreed, hugging him back, “He was meant to kill Aphrodite, but if Aphrodite knows magic like that I bet she knows mind-control stuff, too. I bet he’d be useful to you, if that’s the case and you release him from that.”

Silence engulfed the room.

“You should definitely allow me to leave the room like this,” I mentioned.

“No.”

“Tell the person in charge of paying servants to give you a bonus of however much gold you want, and take like a two-week break. You really need it, dude.”

“Bribery won’t work,” Kairos the spymaster who’s whole thing was all things had a price lied without any shame, “It is disgraceful to have so many people see you so barren.”

“Dude,” I whined, “Please? I’ve seen chicks out in pants all the time, why can’t I wear them?”

“You are a princess. You have a higher standard you must upkeep.”

“No I don’t,” I muttered, “I’m wearing pants at the Academy. You can’t stop me.”

Kairos sighed, “Each noble is only allowed to bring three servants along to the Academy with them. I do not doubt you will choose me, James, and Elizabeth. I can and will prevent you from ruining your own image.”

I huffed, pushing at Kairos, “You’ll be doing your actual job while I’m in the Academy,” I refused, struggling harder when he refused to let me go, “You can’t stay by my side 24/7.”

“I do not have to. I can simply send a replacement,” Kairos said.

I hesitated, then stopped struggling. What could I say that would convince him that it was a lost cause. Something pricked my back, and I reached back to scratch at it as I spoke.

“I think physically fighting a princess to force her into a dress is illegal. Now that I have pants I’m never wearing a dress again.”

Kairos hummed, “Confronting someone head-on is not my expertise,” He refuted.

I huffed, shoving at him. Unlike before, where he had to tighten his hold to keep me in place, though, nothing happened.

“Huh? Wait, what… oh you bastard,” I managed as everything became much harder to do. My struggles grew weak, and soon I was leaning on Kairos just to remain standing.

Then I was in his arms, being carried through my office back to my room.

“This is for your own good,” Kairos refused, tossing me onto my bed.

I tried getting off the bed, but I couldn’t even sit up. I groaned, weakly struggling even as my cloak was removed and a light and thin dress was put on me.

By the time the antidote I was given worked, a knock echoed on the door.

I opened the door, physically struggling with Kairos to be the one to do so.

“Stop doing your job so well!” I snapped, staggering out of the room, “You can slack off. Go take a break.”

“Now that you are in Duke Grayson’s hands, I shall,” Kairos mentioned easily, brushing himself off and bowing to us both.