[ E D I T E D ]

♕✿~♕✿~Chapter 33//: Late Night Talks♕✿~♕✿~

I toss and turn, unable to fall asleep even though the hour is late. I finally give up. Pushing the bed covers aside, I walk towards my door. I put on some slippers and shiver a bit as the cold hallway air hits me.

It was a wild hope, but maybe Rose would be down in the kitchen today. I could use a late night talk with her, especially with everything that happened today.

Yesterday, my conversation with the king was definitely weird. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what his smile meant. As if that wasn't enough to worry about, today at breakfast, lunch and dinner, the other Chosen girls were constantly whispering and looking at me. I caught Alexis glaring at me more than once, which isn't really anything new. But Emily, who I thought I might be finally getting along with, ignored me completely. She looked at me once when walking into the dining hall, but she would just frown and look away. I didn't know what was happening. Even the king was scowling at me throughout the times when I was dining. Juliet was maniacally smiling at me with a knowing look, which made me a bit worried.

I tentatively push open the kitchen door. Please let Rose be here, I think to myself as my eyes scan the dark kitchen. A wide smile breaks over my face as my eyes land on Rose. But she's not the only one here.

"Nick! It's been a while," I greet him, a bit astonished to see him here. When he notices it's me, he smiles and immediately stands up from the table he and Rose are sitting at.

"I've missed you, Madi," he tells me as he pulls me into a warm hug. I can't help but smile into his shoulders. When we pull away from each other, I turn to Rose, hugging her in greeting.

"I was hoping you'd be here. How has everything worked out for you guys?" I ask them. They smile at each other, a secret smile for each other.

"Nothing much," Nick tells me, still smiling. I narrow my eyes at him and Rose. They were obviously keeping something away from me, but I wouldn't try to push the subject. If they wanted to tell me, they would tell me.

"Anyways, Madi. I was hoping I could speak to you." A giddy smile is on Rose's face. I raise an eyebrow. "Yeah? What do you want to talk about?" I say as I go to sit in one of the chairs at the small table Rose and Nick were sitting at prior to me entering.

Nick and Rose follow me to the table, sitting down. Rose picks something up from the floor, and I stare at her hands suspiciously, not knowing what I should expect.

It's a magazine. More specifically, the Norta News. It's the most popular magazine, as far as I know. I open my mouth to ask what the the importance of this magazine is when I catch the picture on the front cover, my eyes widening considerably.

I reach across the table, trying to snatch the magazine away from Rose, but she's too quick for me. She passes the magazine to Nick, who raises his arm high above his head. I scowl, knowing I can't reach it without possibly breaking bones in the process.

"What is that?" I demand, crossing my arms over my chest. Now I understand the giddy look on Rose's face and the humorous one on Nick's face.

Nick lowers his arm, flipping through the magazine until he comes to a certain page. He then passes it to me, and I take it with shaking hands.

My face immediately heats up in embarrassment. The article on this page was featuring...Ahren and I.

The title of the article screams Could There Be A Red Queen? in big, bold letters. In the middle of the page, there's a picture of me and Ahren on the night of my birthday. It was a faraway shot, probably by some creeper photographer in the garden, but you could still see it was me and Ahren.

And we were kissing.

I quickly scanned the first paragraph of the article. It talked about my mini birthday celebration with Ahren. It talked about the cake, the small talk, and then the kiss we shared. I slowly close the magazine, and stare blankly at the table. Then, I lower my face in my hands, groaning.

No wonder I was getting all of those looks from the girls. They knew I lied to them about not having a date with Ahren. And now they knew about how I spent my birthday with Ahren. No, scratch that. The whole country knew. Norta News was bought by almost everyone in the country, and lower castes would look through these magazines in stores whenever they could. I realized with horror that my family most likely knew about this. They told me they were going to come tomorrow, along with the families of the other Chosen girls. I would most definitely be bombarded with questions from both mom and Sydney. I groaned again, already dreading it.

I hear Rose giggle, and I scowl at her. She looks at me, beaming like some proud mother. "Why are you so happy?" I demand, still in a cloudy mood from the fact that the whole country now knew about Ahren and I.

"Oh, just remembering the conversation we had the night before your birthday." Rose is uncontrollably smiling. "I specifically remember you denying any feelings towards Ahren. But look what we have here," she says in a sing-song. I look towards Nick, looking for some form of help from him, but he just shrugs at me and tries to hide his smile.

"This is not good," I mumble. Rose looks confused. "Why not? This is pretty great news. I mean, I get to say I know the future queen personally."

"I'm not going to be the future queen," I immediately say. Nick and Rose look at incredulously. They look at each other and then both say at the same time: "She's definitely in denial."

I lean back in my chair. "I'm not in denial. I mean, I accept the fact that I...like Ahren." I mumble the last part, embarrassed at my friends' excitement. "I just don't think you guys should jump to the conclusion that I'll be queen," I tell them. They just sheepishly smile in apology.

"Hey, aren't the families of the Chosen visiting tomorrow?" Rose asks, trying to steer the topic of the conversation away from my relationship with Ahren. I nod. A smile made it's way onto my face. To be honest, I couldn't wait to see my family again. It's been too long since I've last seen them.

"Yeah they are," I confirm. Rose sighs. "I wish I could meet your family, Madi. I bet they would be as fun as you," she tells me with a smile. I roll my eyes, a small smile forming on my lips.

"Trust me, there would be a difference of reactions between each member of my family." Sydney would probably try to make Rose her new friend, which would mean having someone do all the things Sydney wants to do. Mom would most likely be suspicious of her;I mean, she was one of the Chosen girls. Dad would have the most normal reaction, welcoming her like she was part of the family already.

"I bet your family will love Ahren, right Madi?" Rose says in a teasing voice. Even though it's said in a lightweight voice, a frown forms on my lips. I get up from the table and grab the water pitcher on one of the many kitchen counters. Grabbing a cup from the cabinet above, I pour myself a little bit of the water. The cold liquid makes its way down my throat, and I sigh in relief as my parched throat goes away.

Turning back to Rose and Nick, I say, "Once the royal family meets my family, I'll be gone from the competition."

Nick frowns and Rose's smile disappears. They share a look before getting up and coming over to me. "Why would you think that?" Rose asks me.

I shrug, trying to make it look like it didn't matter to me. "I'm a Five. What's worse, I'm a Red. They're never going to allow a Red rise to the throne. It's never going to happen."

By the looks on Rose's and Nick's faces, I know they understand. In this world, the Silvers will always remain in power.

"Well, Ahren seems to like you a lot, Madi. It's his Choosing, not his parents. Remember the guy who came to your house before the Choosing officially began?" I nod my head. "He specifically stated that the king and queen may tell the prince how they feel about you, but it's ultimately his choice when you should leave or not," Rose states with a serious face.

I purse my lips. "Even though that's a rule, there's no rule saying the king and queen can't do something to make sure someone doesn't become the next queen."

Rose and Nick look shocked at this. "You think the king and queen will do something to you to make sure you're not the next queen?" Nick asks in dismay. I hesitantly nod. Nick crosses his arms over his chest. "Well if he did, you know Rose and I would make sure everyone knew of it. We wouldn't let them get away with it."

I admire Nick for saying that, but his words still don't get rid of the worry in my chest. "But would the country believe the king and queen, or you guys?" They're silent at that. The obvious answer was the king and queen. Nobody would dare to cross the royal family by disagreeing with them unless they're okay with having something happen to them and their family.

"I know Ahren wouldn't allow his family to do anything to you. He would do anything in his power to keep you close to him," Rose tells me softly.

I set the cup of water down onto the counter a bit too hard. I sigh. This conversation was going somewhere where I didn't want to go yet. "Thanks guys. I appreciate you caring. But I don't really want to talk about this right now." I look at the clock. 3:00 am. I should really stop staying up so late, especially with my family coming over tomorrow. "I should probably go to sleep. You guys should go get some sleep as well." Rose looks at me with sadness in her eyes and Nick has his lips pursed. Avoiding their gazes, I walk out of the kitchen.

I pass by the guards stationed in the hallways. I try to look for the familiar face of Lucas. He's been my guard during the day, but he would always leave by night, following the deal we made. For some reason, I wanted to talk to him. Who knows, maybe I could rant about my worries to him. He would probably find something snarky to say in response to all of my problems, which was something I was needing at this point.

But to my disappointment, none of the guards are Lucas. I walked up the stairs to the second floor, heading to my room. Closing my room door behind me, I go to sit on my bed for a bit, pondering over everything that is to come.

Tomorrow, my family was going to be here. I would be able to see them after so long. They would meet the royal family and the other families of the Chosen on the day of the gathering. It could go okay, but it could go bad. The Silvers might think ill of me and my family. They may make some cruel joke like calling my family over and giving them orders like servants, then apologizing to them because they thought we were Red servants. Mom and dad already knew about this cruel world, but Sydney didn't know just how cruel it could be. I don't want Sydney to be exposed this world just yet. Maybe it was just me being an overprotective sister.

I release yet another sigh as I pull back the blanket covers. I wrap myself in the warm fabric, trying to force myself to go to sleep and stop worrying.

I would just have to wait until tomorrow to see what would happen when my family was in the house of the king who hated my guts.

♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~

Yay, finally got a chapter up!

Ok, so here's the plan: the updates will come much faster. King's Cage is going to be published in about 9 days. If you're a Red Queen fan like me, then you probably have the same idea of binge-reading King's Cage as soon as you get it. By then (February 7), I want to be in relax, reading mode. So, I want to finish this book up ASAP. This book is almost over, just a couple of chapters left to go. Once I'm finished with writing this book, I will take a little break from Wattpad because I'm pretty sure after reading King's Cage, I'll die and I'll need a few days to get over my fangirling/hatred for Maven/sobbing thoughts that I'll have to wait for a whole year until the next book. So after all of that, I will come back on Wattpad and start writing the next book in The Choosing series :)

Have a good week!

Glass_Sword