Chapter 54

“He’s one of your volunteers here, isn’t he?”

Cindy nodded and said, “Oh, my. I didn’t know… why would he…”

“He didn’t want you to know. Because he wanted to help out here and he didn’t want special treatment.”

Cindy’s shoulders relaxed.

She must have been worrying about some interaction or another. Replaying something embarrassing in her mind. Something she wished she hadn’t said or done in the presence of the future King.

She stared down at Nolan’s photo and shook her head slowly.

“Cindy,” I said, pulling her back to the present. “Can I call you later today? Nolan and I actually need your help with something.”

“Of course.” She rummaged through a drawer and produced a business card with her contact information. “But what I could I possibly help you with?”

“Have you been watching the news lately?”

“Oh,” she said. “The whole thing with…” She trailed off, looking a little embarrassed.

I waved her off and said, “It’s a big mess. Adan set it up to make Nolan look bad. But I think you can help us set the record straight.”

Cindy assured me she would do whatever she could to help. Then she got called away to some emergency, and I took the opportunity to steal away. I needed to get over to see Alaster.

To my relief, the elder care facility was still standing. A little shed behind it had a big fallen branch sticking out of its roof. But the main building itself was undamaged, as far as I could see.

This time, Alaster was expecting me. And he had another guest.

A tall man with a dark, bushy beard was sitting next to him. They stopped talking when I entered the room.

I said, “Hello,” and the bearded man stood and crossed the room.

He held out his hand and I went to shake it. But then he clasped it between both of his hands and dropped down onto one knee.

“Your Highness,” the man said. “It’s an honor.”

I started blushing badly. My face felt like it was on fire.

“Please stand,” I said, “and thank you. It’s not necessary but thank you.”

The man introduced himself. He was a reporter and an old colleague of Alaster’s.

“Declan has agreed,” Alaster said, “to film an interview with you. And stream it live on the internet.”

“Wow,” I said. “When can we set it up?”

Declan smiled. “How about right now?” He nodded at the corner of the room.

A big tripod and video camera were leaning against the wall.

“Oh, shit,” I whispered under my breath, before I could stop myself.

Both men laughed. Unfortunately, this made Alaster start coughing again, but he smiled all the while.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I just didn’t realize I was going to be on camera today. But yes, let’s do it, and thank you so much.”

“Great,” Declan said. “Where should we film?”

“Could we do it at the orphanage?” I asked cautiously. I realized while I said it that I didn’t know if Alaster was mobile, or bedridden.

The old man nodded in agreement.

ADAN

Kerr and Clarice were bickering in hushed tones. They were in Kerr’s home office with Adan, who was pacing the length of the back wall slowly in silence.

Clarice was refilling her lipstick-smudged wine glass. The bottle was low, so she dumped all the rest of it in, filling the glass to the very top. She took a long, careful sip as her brother droned on.

Adan was trying hard not to be furious. He looked straight ahead at a big window.

The world was full of icy sludge today. Everything was thawing after last night’s storm.

Today was supposed to be the day of the big vote. And their plan had almost gone off without a hitch.

All that time Adan put in, ingratiating himself to Yena. It was working just the way he planned. Nolan walked right into the trap and went for the bait.

But then the storm threw everything off.

It just figured that the one night the weather was severe enough to shut the city down, was the night before their big move in Parliament.

Adan became aware that his comrades had quieted down. He turned to look at them.

Kerr pointed a remote at a big TV. It turned on and a talking head filled the screen.

“We’re receiving a live update,” the news anchor said. “Princess Yena, the woman at the center of this week’s royal scandal, has announced that she will be giving an interview tonight that will stream live online.”

Adan crossed the room to join his friends in front of the TV.

The reporter gave a tedious recap of the past week’s events. The “scandal.” The storm.

Then his tone of voice changed. You could tell the news anchor was getting some cues from behind the camera that took him off his teleprompter script.

“And this just in,” the man said, “We’re hearing now that the interview has started, and we are going to cut directly to the footage, which is coming to us courtesy of our local news partner—”

And then there she was.

Princess Yena.

She was not dressed for a TV appearance. She was wearing damp street clothes and little or no makeup.

Adan had a horrible feeling.

It was the feeling of having no fucking clue what was happening.

The camera panned back to reveal that Yena was seated between two other people. One was a cheerful woman in her thirties wearing a cheap blazer. The other was a giant skeleton.

Actually, it was an ancient old man seated in a wheelchair, with huge, bony hands folded atop a flannel blanket on his lap.

The man must have been about seven feet tall, judging by comparison to the two ladies beside him. And every bit of meat had gone from the man’s body, leaving behind only skin and bones.

This was a sympathetic bunch if one ever existed.

The interview was already in progress when the news channel joined the feed.

Yena was talking.

“People should know the truth about Nolan,” she said. “He’s been working harder than anyone even knows, preparing to be a great King for his people. We’re speaking with you today to set the record straight about who he is.”

Adan hadn’t even realized he was still holding an empty whiskey glass.

Until his fist clenched so hard that the glass shattered in his hand.

YENA

“My husband knows I am sharing this information about him,” I said to the camera. “But he would’ve preferred to keep it private. I just feel I must speak in his defense right now, after the way everyone’s been talking about him this week.”

Declan pointed to Cindy, cueing her to speak. He panned the camera to zoom in on her.

“I didn’t know until today,” Cindy said, “that one of my best volunteers here at the werewolf orphanage was the prince himself. The prince was one of our benefactors, and he helped secure the government grant to open the orphanage in the first place. But he also came here in the guise of a commoner, so that he could volunteer his time in service to the children, without receiving special treatment.”

Cindy gave some more details about her time with Nolan. She shared stories about how much the children loved him. About how he was willing to do any job at the orphanage, even changing diapers in the infant room.

I hid my own surprise as I listened to her speak. It was all still new information to me as well.

Now it was Alaster’s turn to speak to the camera. Declan cued him on after Cindy. The old man took much longer to get his story out, having to fit it in between little fits of coughing.

Alaster spoke of how gentle, kind, and patient Nolan had always been with him. And how generous the boy had been to spend years visiting and caring for a sick old man to whom the prince was not even related.

“This young man,” Alaster said, “picked up my prescriptions, took me to the doctor, and sat at my bedside to keep me company. For years. And he never asked me for anything in return.”

Then the camera was back on me.

“The man my friends here are describing,” I said, “is not a violent maniac. The video they’ve been playing on the news was created deliberately to make him look like that. But the real story about Nolan’s character is the one we are telling you now.”