RowenaI stifled a yawn as I glanced at the clock; only nine-thirty in the morning. I still had a few hours left of my shift in the manager’s office.Normally, I wasn’t this sleepy in the mornings. But I had been up later than usual last night with Eric, practicing my dance moves. I had to admit, though; he was right about us making good dance partners.After spending the night practicing together, it felt surprisingly natural. It was probably just because we were siblings. We just clicked, in a way.Suddenly, the door swung open. I looked up and felt my heart almost stop when I saw a familiar head of black hair push into the room.“Adrian.”“Rowena.” Adrian walked up to me and sat down in the chair across from me. “Can you look at my shoulder? I think I pulled a muscle.”Nodding, I set my notebook down with trembling hands and circled around the desk to look at Adrian. I swallowed as I poked at his shoulder, tugging the collar of his shirt aside to peer at his tense muscles. We were
RowenaFor the first time in a while, I walked into the house without Eric. I dropped my bag by the door and kicked my shoes off—maybe a little too angrily, because my mom heard me.“Rowena? Honey, is that you?”I sighed and wandered over to the kitchen where my mom was preparing dinner. “Hey, Mom,” I said as I slid up onto one of the stools at the counter.“Hey, honey.” She stirred the pasta in the water and tapped the wooden spoon on the side of the pot. “Carbonara for dinner tonight. Your favorite.”Normally, the idea of my mom’s homemade carbonara for dinner would have gotten me excited; but I hardly had an appetite today after my fight with Eric. “Thanks,” was all I could manage.My mom shot me a surprised look. “What’s wrong?” she asked, then glanced around. “Where’s Eric? You two usually seemed attached at the hip lately.”I shrugged and rested my cheek in my hand as I idly flipped through a magazine that was sitting on the counter. “I don’t know where he is.”“Are you two figh
RowenaA pair of strong hands encircled my waist and whipped me around beneath the flashing lights. A moment later, as I came back to my senses, I found myself looking up at none other than Eric’s face.My eyes widened slightly. “Where’s Heather?” I blurted out.Eric simply shrugged and nodded over my shoulder. I followed my gaze to see Adrian and Heather dancing together, although a little stiffly. It wasn’t uncommon for warriors to switch partners during songs like this, but I hadn’t planned on it. I came here with Adrian, not with Eric.“Are you having fun dancing with Adrian?” Eric asked.I remained silent. I was still too angry to speak with Eric, and so I tried to turn to go back to Adrian—but Eric’s grip tightened on my waist, and he pulled me closer so that our hips were now touching as we moved on the dance floor.“I was having a great time, before you pulled me away,” I said in a slightly snarky tone. Although, I wasn’t so sure if I was telling the truth.If I was being hone
Rowena“You taste sweet.”I was left stunned beneath the bright flashing lights of the homecoming dance. In an instant, Eric was gone; I was alone on the dance floor after an intense kiss with…My brother?This had to be a joke. But even if it was, it was too far. The incident in my room on the couch was bad enough, but this? This was way over the line.Suddenly, I felt a hand on my arm. I spun around, breathless, to see Adrian standing there. He still looked a bit confused. “You okay?” he asked. “Your brother took you away so abruptly. Did he need to talk to you or something?”I swallowed and nodded. “Yeah, uh… We just needed to talk. I’m sorry,” I said. “I hope your dance with Heather was nice.”Adrian shrugged. “Want another drink?”“I, um…” I froze, staring down at my empty hand where the punch cup had been before but was gone now. The idea of sipping a bit more to calm my nerves was appealing, but…“I think I actually need to go home,” I blurted out.Adrian’s eyes widened. “What?
RowenaI sank down into the hard plastic chair of my little office and looked around with a sigh.How was this possible? For three weeks, I had been working my ass off in the manager’s office. For three weeks, I had been receiving top scores in my internship assessments. Hell, since I had come to this school, I had done nothing but prove my abilities and my worth.
RowenaEric’s hand felt like an electric shock as his fingers grazed across my cheek.I slapped it away. His eyebrows shot up in surprise as I wrenched my wrist out of his other hand and walked across the room.“Enough of that,” I ordered. “I’m tired of your pranks.”
Rowena“Eric, I want you to teach me how to swim.”My words came out so fast that even I was just as surprised at hearing them. Eric blinked at me as he propped himself up on one elbow.“What?” he asked with a slight chuckle. “You’re serious?”
Rowena & EricRowenaI dried myself by the poolside. In the stone fire pit on the patio, a crackling fire flickered beneath the night sky. It warmed my skin—soothing after nearly half an hour spent in the water.Eric, who was sitting in one of the chairs by the fire with his feet up and his hands clasped behind his head, smirked at me.
RowenaThe sun cast golden rays on the carpet as I stood in the middle of my bedroom, surveying the half-packed bag on my bed with a frown. Would this be enough for three months of training?Finally, after deciding that I wasn’t quite ready yet and stuffing in a few more shirts, I zipped it closed and slung the strap over my shoulder. A soft sniffle made me turn toward the doorway, and I felt my face drop slightly when I saw the sad faces staring back at me.My parents lingered there, my mom’s eyes red-rimmed and glistening with tears. She attempted a watery smile when she saw me looking, but I could see right through it. She didn’t want me to leave.“You’re really going, huh?” she murmured.Crossing the room with a sigh, I pulled my mom into a tight hug and shot my dad an apologetic look over her slender shoulder. “It’s only for a few months, Mom,” I reassured her. “I’ll be back before you know it.”“I know, I know.” She squeezed me tighter, her fingers digging into my back. “It’s ju
RowenaI stood in the hallway just outside the parlor, my heart pounding in my ears. The voices behind the door were hushed, but I could still make out every word through the thick wood.“Your Majesty, we can’t thank you enough for making this journey,” my father’s voice echoed softly. “I can assure you that, had circumstances been different, we would have liked to have met you much sooner.”There was a pause, and then a deeper, richer voice responded—one I didn’t recognize yet. “Please, call me Stefan. And the honor is all mine—you protected my daughter despite everything. Although a part of me still can’t believe my little girl is actually alive after all these years.”My heart leapt into my throat. My father—King Stefan from the Northern kingdom. I knew he was coming to visit, but to finally hear his voice… It was unreal.A trembling hand came up to rest against the door as I tried to conjure up any memory of my father, of my past life. But there was nothing, of course; I had been
RowenaMy heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest as I watched Eric mouth those two simple words to me.“Kiss me.”His bright blue eyes bored endlessly into mine, and in those moments, time stopped. Kiss him? Kiss him? Now? In front of everyone?“C’mon, Ro,” Eric murmured, sensing my fear. “You promised.”I gulped, unsure of what to say; and at that second, I felt myself being thrust back to our childhood, back to one summer afternoon so many years ago when things were so much different…“Hey, Ro?” “Yeah?”“Do you ever wonder what it would be like if you were born in a different family?”I remembered that day clearly; Eric and I had been laying out in the grass beneath the big oak tree behind our house, watching as the leaves waved back and forth. I was nine, and he was going on twelve. Oddly enough, I remembered exactly what we were wearing: he had on a blue shirt, and I wore a pair of overalls. I think I remembered the shirt because it matched his eyes, and the color
EricI tightened the cloth wraps around my fists, feeling the familiar ache in my knuckles as I stared across the sandy expanse at Darius. With Adrian and Heather gone, it was just the two of us left.Darius grinned at me, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Quite a show you and your girl put on back there,” he said, loud enough for just us to hear over the roaring crowd.I allowed myself a slight smirk, although my stomach still twisted painfully when I thought about how close I had just come to losing Rowena forever—all thanks to Adrian and some demented scheme to assassinate the Northern princess.“My girl?” I said, feigning ignorance.Darius smirked at me. “Oh, come on; everyone has suspected that she’s not actually a Griffith for months. And we both know what you two were doing the other day in her office.”The tips of my ears turned pink, but I couldn’t help but shake my head and laugh. Of course everyone had known. I hadn’t exactly put in the greatest effort to hide it since I
RowenaI could only stand there, frozen in place as Heather and Adrian were hauled away by the guards. Their hateful glares burned into me until the very last moment when they disappeared into the tunnels.And then they were gone. It was over… For now, at least.A sudden cacophony of sound slammed back into me all at once—the roaring of the crowd, shouts and exclamations from students and spectators alike. I flinched as hands grabbed at me from all sides, my parents’ frantic faces appearing like a lifeline through the throng of people.“Rowena! Oh god, are you alright?” My mother clutched at me desperately and drew me toward her, tears streaming down her cheeks as she looked me over for injuries. “We were so worried, we thought… We thought…”She trailed off, unable to put her worst fears into words as she smoothed my hair back from my ears, checking me over as if I were made of glass. My father wasn’t much better, one large hand cupping the side of my face while his eyes bored into me
RowenaEverything seemed to move in agonizingly slow motion as Adrian’s arrow sailed straight for my head. Time itself seemed to go still, the crowd’s roar fading into an eerie silence.In that endless moment, a thousand different thoughts raced through my mind. Eric’s handsome face, his last wink burned into my memory. The way his fingers had threaded through my hair just this morning as we had secretly made love under my sheets. My parents’ smiling faces from their seats up in the crowd, now twisted into masks of horror.So this was how it ended, then? Struck down by a coward’s arrow in front of thousands of spectators? My identity revealed to everyone, only for it to be snuffed out before I even had the chance to meet my biological family?There was no time to move, no time to even scream. All I could do was brace myself, my eyes squeezed shut as I awaited the impact. The embrace of death. I hoped it would be quick, if nothing else.But it never came. Instead, a sudden whistle of a
RowenaThe roar of the crowd was deafening as Emma and I made our way through the tunnels toward the main arena. I could feel the vibrations of thousands of stomping feet even from here, and it made my heart pound in anticipation.Inside of me, my wolf was practically roiling with excitement; I had grown used to her presence over the passing days, although it felt completely and utterly natural from the beginning.“Are you ready for this?” Emma asked with a grin, giving my arm an excited squeeze.I took a deep breath, squaring my shoulders. “As long as I’ve got you by my side,” I replied.When we finally emerged into the bright stadium lights, I had to blink a few times to adjust. The massive arena stretched out like a desert in front of us, the sandy pit already prepped for the combat rounds. Lining the walls were the colorful pavilions and banners for each warrior and manager pair.My gaze immediately found Eric, standing tall and proud beside his pavilion across the way. He caught
RowenaEric and I sprang apart at the sound of the doorknob turning, frantically smoothing our clothes down and covering ourselves just as a group of warriors walked into my office. I felt my cheeks flush hot as the apparent leader flicked on the light, blinking in confusion.“Rowena,” the warrior at the forefront said, glancing back and forth between Eric and me for a moment. “I wasn’t sure if you were in here. Why were the lights out?”Before I could answer, Eric stepped in. “I was just helping her change the lightbulb,” he said, gesturing to the light dangling from the ceiling. “You came just in time.”“Oh.” The warrior seemed to buy that, at least. Thank goodness.“What can I do for you?” I asked in a shockingly confident tone despite myself, tucking a stray lock of hair behind my ear and pushing my glasses up on my nose.“Well, we heard that you both made it on the list and we just wanted to wish you luck,” the lead warrior said easily, shoving his hands into his pockets. “As the
RowenaTaking a deep breath, Eric and I pushed our way through the crowd so we could see the results. As we approached, we received curious looks from the other students—no doubt word of what had happened at the party on Friday, or at least what people thought had happened, had spread like wildfire.Or…As I read the names on the list, I knew now why they were really staring.“Eric,” I gasped, gripping his arm with one hand while I pointed at the list with the other. “It’s you!”I couldn’t help but grin as I looked up at him. Even Eric was beaming from ear to ear; he was at the top of the list of the three warriors who would be competing in the tournament. Of course he was—he was the best warrior at this camp, after all. He had earned it, fair and square.“Congrats, Eric!” a nearby student called out. “I can’t wait to see you fight next week!”Eric’s smile grew. “And I can’t wait to win,” he quipped, eliciting giggles from a nearby gaggle of cheerleaders who were smiling and twirling