Adelina was in the Queen’s solar with the rest of the females in her family, including her goddess-awful grandmother. The old crone was a bitter woman who lived too deeply in the past. Nadyah was thankful she kept mostly to herself until the weekly tea. Her power and influence only extended to Queen Adele for the most part as the dowager had trained her. Praise Amora her time was nearly past for even that.

The council meeting had been enlightening to say the least, but there was a tension between Prince Nash and Adelina she didn’t like. Well, her informants had given her Nash’s location and after dropping off her princess at the Queen’s solar, she’d planned her time accordingly. Nadyah checked her simulcast again. She didn’t have very long before the royal tea would be over and she had to be back at Adelina’s side. There were a few things she still needed to do before then.

She swept into the kitchens and commanded a servant take a platter of food to Adelina’s rooms at a certain time. No one questioned her presence or why she would come down herself. Nadyah had enough rank to send another to the kitchens for her, but the staff was overtaxed and new hires were still learning. The housekeeper had only received the approval for the new staff a few weeks ago for all the events. Not nearly enough time to prepare, but with the royal family so distracted by the king’s illness, Raena’s ascension, and Adelina’s coming-of-age it was understandable.

Someone bumped into her. “Excuse me, mistress,” the small maid murmured.

Nadyah felt something slide into the pocket of her dress and didn’t even bother to look at the girl. The servant she’d originally spoken to rushed up and muttered apologies and a confirmation of her request. “Thank you,” Nadyah said softly. The poor boy was speechless as he openly stared at her. The ruddy cheeks and bulge in his pants was a reaction she was used to.

The average citizen could barely handle the sexual scent she gave off. It was part of her genetic makeup, but Nadyah wished she could pass unnoticed sometimes. She turned, knowing that her skirts flared and made her exit look dramatic. Everyone was too busy gaping at her as she passed to notice the maid who’d bumped into her.

Quickly she climbed the stairs up to the main floor of the palace. Nadyah checked her simulcast again. She had a few moments to conveniently place herself in the right spot. Her steps were quick, but Nadyah didn’t rush or run. She moved efficiently through the palace to the outside, where the conservatory, maze, gymnasium, practice yards, and stables were – among other important buildings.

Nadyah had spent her entire life staring across Stella di Draga at the palace. Despite the distance it had always been clear against the sky, detailed and shining. The hovering ramparts only drew the eye more to the glittering palace. All those cycles and she never considered how massive the palace would be once she was actually there.

It wasn’t just where the royal family lived.

The palace and its grounds took up half of Draga Terra. It had hospitals, schools, its own farmlands, gardens, and bakeries, boarding for the staff and their families, rooms for each noble family and their staff, the state rooms, galleries, library, and all the offices for the officials. It was a never-ending maze and despite all of Nadyah’s training she had a difficult time remembering where everything was, the faces of the staff and their positions, each courtier, noble, and their rank and dominance. This position tested her in ways she’d never anticipated.

Weaving through the other nobles and guests staying at the palace for the Choosing Ball and Coronation was simple enough. Even the commoners invited paid no attention to her as they gawked at every little thing on their strolls. Nadyah made a beeline for the gymnasium and made sure she would be downwind so her scent wouldn’t give her away. Her simulcast chirped and she grinned. Nadyah’s timing was perfect.

“Oof!”

“Pardon me, lady. I did not see you coming in,” Prince Nash said. Then he got a good look at her. “Oh, it’s you.”

Nadyah cocked her head as she looked up into his face. The prince was sweaty and in some kind of workout gear. His eyes became cold when he recognized her. The tone of his voice barely polite, but she smiled brightly anyway.

“May I speak to you, in private?” she asked, looking around for listening ears. “There is something I’d like to talk to you about.”

Nash crossed his arms over his large chest and looked down his nose at her. “I’m not interested.”

She grabbed his arm and gave him a glowing smile, her sharp nails dug into his flesh as she pulled him towards the maze Adelina seemed to like so much. Thanks to the blueprints, Nadyah knew her way through the hedges.

“I do not care if you’re interested in speaking with me,” she hissed through her fake smile. “You are going to whether you like it or not.”

Nash didn’t resist her insistent tugging until they were safely hidden in the maze. He yanked out of her grip and flipped her around, arm across her throat. Nadyah was fast. She let him pull her, but then used that momentum to flip him over her hip. He landed with a resounding thud on his back. Before he understood exactly what happened she had her knee on his chest with her knife to his throat.

“You seem to think I am incapable of intelligent thought, prince,” she snapped, pressing the knife a little harder into his skin. Nash didn’t move as he eyed her warily. “I am what I am, but I am also more. I protect Adelina’s life with my own, and I’d like to say I’m rather good at it, perhaps even better at the fighting arts than I am in the bedroom.” Nadyah’s face was only a breath away from his.

Those strange eyes of his flashed in anger. She knew he didn’t like her or what she was, but he needed to understand they were on the same side. “I would do anything for her,” she said. Blood trickled from the sharp edge of her blade. He was lucky she didn’t use her plasma knives on him.

Nash gripped her wrist and with his brute strength he lifted her up and off of him. He practically tossed her aside. “What does anything include, seductress?” he asked, wiping the blood from his throat as he stood. “To convince me to forgive her for the rejection, to ask me to overlook the fact she cannot be honest with me, and instead of talking to me herself she sends you to do her dirty work for her?” He looked disgusted as he brushed off the grass and leaves from his gear.

“The princess does not know I am speaking to you at all,” Nadyah admitted, forcing her face to go blank so as to hide her anger. I came to him for a reason, she reminded herself. “I do not know every detail of what transpired between the two of you, but I do know Adelina has to do what is right for her people, as you do.”

Nash narrowed his eyes at her. “And why can’t she tell me then, if it’s for her people?”

Nadyah still had her knife at the ready and her other hand was loose and prepared if he attacked. She had surprised him and knew it was possible he’d retaliate out of some kind of foolish male pride and embarrassment. “You are a foreign prince.”

He took an angry step forward and growled. “Have I not proven myself? When have I ever given her reason to distrust me?”

Nadyah dropped into a fighting crouch at his approach, assessing his weight and size. Fighting him would be disastrous if she wasn’t quicker than the gods, and cunning. “You followed her to the Ladrole. Khara is still your priority, as it should be, but this could cause the two of you to be at odds in the future. Who’s to say you wouldn’t use anything you could to save your people?”

Nash gave her a look of grudging approval when the skill and precision she had was blatantly obvious in every movement. He kept a healthy distance away as he studied her. “You’re in love with her.”

Nadyah blinked. That was the last thing she’d expected him to say. “I serve my princess as any courtesan would.”

He shook his head with a rueful smile. “Don’t lie to me. I know it when I see it. The loyalty you have and the fierce protection, it’s a strong drug isn’t it? There is something that drags you in, deep and darker than the ocean or the endless stars.” Nash sighed. “Adelina will make her choice one day, but I am no lovesick fool to pine away while she refuses to be honest and open with me. No amount of attraction or emotions can overcome a lack of trust.”

The prince turned and left her, walking deeper into the maze.

Nadyah watched him go, appreciating the strong lines of his shoulders and the tapered waist. Adelina had fine taste. She looked down at her blade and the blood still there. In her other fist was a few strands of the prince’s hair. She had what she came for.

This time Nadyah ran when she could. Genetics weren’t her area of expertise, but she wanted the samples as clean and as fresh as she could get them. Ian would be able to run a scan on the prince’s samples and cross-reference them to Adelina’s. Her princess would never ask Nash for the items they needed, so Nadyah had taken them.

The A.I. announced her in the labs and no one looked up as she moved swiftly through the level. Ian’s lab didn’t allow her access so she pressed the panel to request communication. “Prince Ian, it is Nadyah. I have something you need.”

Not even a second later the door opened and she slid in. The strange, fair prince stood in the center of his lab; eyes tired with bags under them. He studied her. Carefully she handed the knife over to him and the hairs as well. “These are samples from Prince Nash. Neither him, nor Princess Adelina know I have them, but if her DNA is what I think it is you will need to scan them for a possible mate match. I also need you to take samples from me as well.”

Ian said nothing as she stood before him with the bloody knife and a disheveled appearance. “You think the Corinthian prince might be a match?” he finally asked, taking the knife and the hair from her.

Nadyah breathed a sigh of relief. That was one thing done. Now they would know for sure, for better or for worse. “I know that our DNA is slightly different despite having the same human ancestry, but there is a strange connection between the two of them. I’m suspicious and with her marriage rights revoked. I’m…afraid.”

If Adelina mated and then was denied that match…goddess, denied mates were a heartbreaking tragedy and the courtesan never recovered, if they continued to live at all. The mate bond was a curse.

The goddess Amora had chosen the bond to be one-sided, and the havoc it had created over the centuries was endless. The Houses kept the suicides quiet of course, as well as the mated pairs. It was rare a courtesan would even tell their mate. They would simply court them until a proposal was made, because if mates were widely known, their life choices could be taken away.

Many courtesans never wanted a mate. They’d rather have their freedom. Many others pined for that perfect match; the perfect alignment of souls.

Ian set up his supplies and carefully scraped the blood on her knife. “I’d suggest washing this in my chemicals over there,” he said, gesturing without looking up from his work. “If the prince turned up dead, you don’t want remnants of his blood on your blade.”

She did as he suggested, keeping one eye on the bastard prince. Nadyah didn’t know very much about Ian outside what he showed the world. The interviews he gave were clever; the people who had met him in person always said how intelligent and polite he was. But there was a lot more to Ian under the surface.

Yes, she could clearly see how brilliant he was. Ian worked quickly and efficiently. The samples were in his machines before she’d finished cleaning her knife. Then he beckoned to her. With a quick jab he had a good-sized sample of her blood as well as some skin. Nadyah plucked a few hairs on her own and then handed them over. “How long until we know?”

Ian kept quiet as he worked.

Nadyah tried not to fidget. Finally her samples were prepared and placed into his equipment. Ian turned and studied her like one of the cells under his microscope. “Adelina was here earlier; once she is finished with her tea I will show her the results. Before then they will be private.”

Nadyah started to pace. Something about Ian let her take down some of her walls and be more open than she would with anyone else other than Adelina. “But you know, you know if she has courtesan DNA or not.”

Ian watched her and then started fumbling with a portable burner. “I have the results of her genetic workup, yes.”

“Did you look at them?” Nadyah demanded. What if Adelina was a courtesan, or part courtesan? Courtesan offspring were extremely rare, which was why there were so few of them. Each House had their own breeding program, but it could take decades for one couple to reproduce. They’d taken to creating tube babies and then implanting them. It was much quicker.

The details of the reproduction were a closely held secret as most didn’t like the idea of tube babies.

Mated courtesans didn’t mate with another courtesan either. Nadyah didn’t know why it was that way. And if Elara had two children Jael would want to know about it. She would want to harvest Elara’s eggs and use them to create more courtesan children, pureblood courtesans.

The half-bloods didn’t always have all the traits a courtesan required.

Nadyah’s loyalty would be tested. Would she tell such a vital secret to Jael? This could put the royal family at risk, and most of all, Adelina. Her duty was to the Crown, but her orders came from the Spider.

“Yes, I looked at the results,” Ian finally said. “But I will not tell you before I tell my sister. So you may as well sit down and relax until she gets here.” He glanced at the floating spheres in the corner of the room. “I’d say another hour or so, and then she can decide if you should know.”

The lanky male turned back to his desk and began to work on something Nadyah couldn’t even try to understand.

The couch looked inviting and she had nothing else to do except wait. Nadyah flopped down. “You don’t like me very much, do you?” she asked the prince. It was brazen and risky, but she didn’t think he cared much about protocol.

It was strange how many males in the palace didn’t enjoy her presence. It was not a reaction she was used to.

Ian shrugged. “I don’t dislike you, Nadyah, as I don’t really know you. I do think I am not as blinded by your charms as others are, simply because I am Elara’s son.” He made a notation and then sighed. He stood and poured two glasses of tea and crossed the room to hand her one. Then the fair prince sat in a comfortable-looking chair to face Nadyah as he sipped on his own tea.

Nadyah wrapped her hands around the cup. It felt nice against her chilled skin. The labs were so much colder than the rest of the palace, and freezing in comparison to outside. “So you do not feel the seduction from a courtesan like the others do?” she asked.

Ian shook his head and propped an ankle over his opposite knee. He leaned back and closed his eyes. “Adelina’s strange request made me look into my own genetics. Of course I knew who my parents were, but each mixture creates a unique combination. What is in my genetic makeup may not be what appears in another with one courtesan parent and one Draga citizen.”

“What do you mean?” Nadyah knew next to nothing about the sciences and medicine.

“We have the possibility for endless traits in our DNA, not all of them are activated, and many can be manipulated, changed, or removed.”

Nadyah’s mouth dropped open as she finally understood. “If she does have the marker for a mate, it could be changed?”

Ian cracked an eye and peered at her. “Theoretically, there is nothing in the records about courtesan genetics being altered other than the standard for health and beauty. The marker would always be there, but it could be deactivated, or ‘turned off.’”

“Could that be done for me as well?”

Ian’s eyes fully opened and he leaned forward to stare into her eyes. It was rather intense and she felt a stirring in her stomach, the flutters of attraction when she recognized one of her own kind, but it wasn’t just that. When Ian gave her his full attention she realized how truly beautiful he was – those eyes of his were nearly identical to Adelina’s.

“It’s never been done,” Ian said. “But I could try if you like. You simply have to decide if you never want to be mated.”

Instantly she thought of Varan. She still needed to get his DNA scanned, but part of her didn’t want to know the answer. If he wasn’t her mate she would be devastated. If he was, she would be just as torn and angry. Varan was a male who didn’t forgive and forget. She’d already denied him once.

If she could turn that mate marker off, she would never have the experience only one of her kind could have. Nadyah looked into Ian’s amethyst eyes and saw the same indecision in them she felt. To deny a part of her, Nadyah shook her head. She’d think about it later, for now she would enjoy the silent companionship of the prince and his quiet ways.

Ian closed his eyes again with a small smile. He was fast asleep only a few moments later, and Nadyah felt flattered he trusted her even that much.

She pulled the small device out of her pocket the maid had slipped her earlier. It took a few seconds and then she had access. Jael had made good on her promise. Not only did she have the blueprints of the royal library and their location, the Spider had also sent a list of the missing ships.

Nadyah sat back to read the reports while she waited for her princess and the answers that would change their lives.