Page 1 of The Royal Flame (The Royal Academy #3)

MADDISON

R eality is becoming harder to exist in, and it’s been worse since I entered the Royal world. I had thought being a northsider came with complications, but this is an entirely different level of complexity.

I’m waiting for the DNA test results in Grey Devenport’s living room.

I’m restless, tapping my foot up and down as I fidget with the watch on my wrist. The battery is dead, so River won’t be able to track me.

I want to call him and tell him I’m okay, but my potential new father has my phone. Or, well, one of his bodyguards has it…

I’m honestly not sure.

“Hey,” I say to one of the men looming near the doorway. “Can I please have my phone? I need to make a call.”

The man gives me a tolerant look, then rotates away from me and overlaps his hands in front of him.

“Asshole,” I mutter under my breath. I face forward on the sofa again.

The material is soft against my skin, and the cushions are beyond comfortable.

The room I’m in is massive with high ceilings.

The Royal City sparkles against the starry night just out the ceiling-to-floor windows.

It’s clear Grey has a lot of money, so if he is my father, that means…

Wait…

It dawns on me: Could he be the anonymous person who paid for me to attend the Royal Academy?

That thought bounces around in my mind for a while.

Eventually, I get up and start pacing the room, my jitteriness building.

It’s been an hour since they swabbed my mouth so they could run the DNA test. From everything I’ve heard, getting results for DNA tests can take weeks.

But apparently, having money makes it quicker?—

The man who turned his back on me suddenly enters the room. I stop pacing as he halts in front of me and sticks out his hand. My phone is in his palm. I snatch it up, confused why he changed his mind.

“Mr. Devenport has permitted you to make a phone call to your friend River Averson.,” he informs me. “But only to let him know you’re safe, so he’ll remove the missing person’s report he’s filed.”

“He’s filed a missing person’s report for me?” The question is rhetorical, but the bodyguard nods anyway.

I know the police won’t look that hard for me even if River files it. I’m eighteen years old and from north side, but my chest fills with butterflies at the idea that someone cares enough about me to do that—to care that I’m missing.

I might really like River. Grey said it was dangerous to be around him, but I’m not so sure I can give up the gothic prince that made me feel things I thought only existed in fairytales.

I dial River’s number and then turn my back toward the bodyguard, who’s watching me like a nutjob.

“Maddy?” River answers after one ring.

“Yeah, it’s me.” I chew on my thumbnail. “I called to tell you I’m okay, and you can tell the police that too, so they won’t look for me.”

“Where are you?” he asks.

“I’m… I’m safe.” I wish I could tell him where I am—it’s so frustrating. “That’s all I can tell you right now.”

“Baby, I can’t call off the search because you call me and tell me you’re safe. For all I know, someone could be making you say this.”

“Did you just call me baby?”

A beat or silence stretches by.

“I did… Do you not want me to?” He sounds unsure.

Usually, I’d tell a guy off if they called me that. But I think I like it when River says it to me.

“I don’t know… It doesn’t bother me that much. At least when you say it.” A smile touches my lips but then falters. “Look, I promise I’m okay. No one’s making me say this. You know me. If they tried, I’d find a way to rebel.”

“Yeah, maybe.” He gives a short pause. “When am I going to see you again?”

I glance at the bodyguard. “Hey, dude. Do you know when I’ll be able to leave?”

“Sometime tonight,” he replies vaguely. “Once the results come in.”

“I’ll see you later tonight,” I assure River as I turn around. “Are you okay, though?”

He hesitates. “Honestly, I’m not sure.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I… I’ll talk to you when we’re together again. I don’t want to stress you out about this.” He pauses as a man says something to him in the background. “I have to go. I’ll remove you from the missing person’s list for now, but if I don’t see you later tonight, I’m putting you back on it.”

With my lips smashed together, I nod. “Okay.”

“I’ll see you soon.” With that, he hangs up.

A second later, Grey enters the room with a piece of paper in his hand.

“Maddy, can we sit down and talk?” he asks, gesturing toward the sofa.

I eye him over, trying to determine if I look like him. We have the same eyes and hair color, but that doesn’t mean much. Maybe he’s wrong about this.

“Sure.” I take a seat.

He sits across from me and props his foot up onto his knee. “I got the results.” The way he’s looking at me reveals what he’s about to say.

Because he’s looking at me in disbelief, as if I’m a goddamn unicorn.

Or his long-lost daughter.

“The results for me and you are a match,” he tells me with a slight tremble in his voice. “You’re my daughter, Maddison.”

To say I’m surprised would be the understatement of eternity. Sure, I suspected that this could happen. But it also seemed so implausible.

It also leaves me feeling lost and confused, questions flooding me like a goddamn canal in a pouring rainstorm.

“I don’t understand,” I mutter. “If that’s true, then… Why in the hell did you and my Aunt Ellie let believe those abusive assholes that raised me were my parents.”

He blinks in shock. “I didn’t know you existed. If I had, I wouldn’t have allowed that to happen.”

“It still doesn’t excuse it,” I snap, my voice quivering with rage. “Even if you didn’t know… and my aunt Ellie did…” I shake my head furiously. “Why did my aunt Ellie lie to me?”

“To protect you,” he explains. “I don’t know why she kept you from me, but I do know that…” He swallows audibly. “Your aunt Ellie is an Everford.”

I gape at him, “But that still doesn’t explain why it’d be better if my mother—Evalynn raised me. She’s an Everford, too.”

He shakes his head. “No, Ellie and Evalynn are half-sisters. Evalynn doesn’t know this.

Their mother—your grandmother had an affair.

Ellie accidentally discovered this when she was eighteen—close to the time we met.

She was looking into it then, trying to figure out how the Everford bloodline still existed when everyone believed it to be extinct, but I’m not sure if she ever found answers—her real father had already passed away by the time she found all of this out. ”

Is that why she’s gone MIA? Was she looking into this, and something terrible happened to her? Or did she have to lay low because someone discovered her real identity?

“Do you know where Ellie is?” he asks, measuring my reaction closely.

I shake my head. “No. She sent me this message saying that I needed to be careful and told me that I wouldn’t be able to get a hold of her for a while.

And I haven’t been able to.” I fall silent, attempting to sort through my thoughts.

“I still don’t understand why you suspected I was your daughter.

I know you thought I looked like Ellie, but she’s also related to Evalynn.

And even if you wondered if I was her daughter, why would you assume you were the father? ”

Sadness floods his features. “This isn’t something I’m proud of, but when Ellie and I were secretly dating, she told me she was pregnant.

” He stares down at his hands, fiddling with a ring on his finger.

“I told her I couldn’t be a father—I was already betrothed to another woman.

And while I didn’t love this woman I was betrothed to, going against my family like that felt… ominous, I guess.”

The gravity of his words presses against my chest—they sound similar to mine and River’s situation.

“We didn’t talk for a few weeks, and I hated every second of it, and I was plagued by guilt.

But when I finally did get a hold of her again, she told me…

She told me she lied about being pregnant because she was trying to get me to marry her.

I’ve always had doubt that she was being truthful.

I’ve wondered if she told me that because she no longer trusted me with the knowledge that her—and you—were an Everford.

And she had every right to. I betrayed her.

” A slow exhale eases from his mouth, and he lifts his gaze to mine.

“But when I saw you in the grocery store, you looked so much like her.” He pauses.

“And you look like me. I can see so much of myself in you. You have my nose and my eyes.”

I instinctively touch my nose but then lower my hand. “I don’t know how to feel about this. It’s a lot to process.” I bounce my knee up and down. “I think I need to go. I’m not sure what you want from me, but I need time to think about this and figure stuff out.”

“I understand that. I really do. And the reality is that until we can get more answers and find Ellie, we need to keep this as quiet as possible.” He leans forward and rests his arms on his knees.

“However, I need to ensure you stay safe, so I’d like one of my bodyguards to watch you once you return to the academy.

Based on rumors, classes start again on Monday.

I have a house near the academy, and I’ll have Trystan, my best bodyguard, stationed there.

He’ll do sporadic checkups on the perimeter of the academy. ”

I crinkle my nose. “That sounds a little too royal for me.”

“Maddison, you are a royal,” he reminds me. “Maybe you don’t want to be, but most of the blood flowing through your veins is royal blood. And dangerous royal blood.” He reclines back as he drags his fingers through his hair. “You’re friends with River Averson, correct?”

“That’s a complicated question,” I reply honestly, causing his brows to rise. “Why do you ask?”

“Because his father is a dangerous man,” he explains. “And I want to tell you to stay away from him, but with how you answered that, I’m doubting you’ll just agree to do that.”

It’s frightening how right he is.

“Just for full disclosure, River already suspects I’m an Everford. Him and I were looking into it.”

“What? Why?”

“Because of this necklace Ellie gave me that has a rose pendant. When River saw it, he recognized it as a royal necklace, so we were looking into that, and it led us down the rabbit hole of the Everfords.”

“I don’t like that he knows,” he states, displeased. “River might be trustworthy, but his father isn’t.”

“River knows that.” I slouch back on the sofa.

“And I know River is trustworthy. There’s this society at the academy that came after me, drugged me, and left me in the woods.

River found me by tracking the GPS on my watch.

He…” I have to catch my breath at how relieved he looked to find me in the woods.

I’ve never had anyone care about me like he does.

“But anyway,” I clear my throat as emotions surface that I’m unsure how to deal with.

“I trust him. He'd protect me before he’d let anyone hurt me.”

He considers this. “I’m glad you have him, but with everything you just told, I still want Trystan to move into a house near the academy.”

I resist a sigh. “For how long?”

“Until I can find Ellie and get some answers,” he replies, rising to his feet. “Until then, please keep this conversation between you and me. I don’t want anything to happen to you, Maddison. I’ve already failed you as a father once. I don’t want to do that again.”

I want to believe him, but like I’ve said a dozen times, trust doesn’t come easy to me, so until he proves that to me, I’ll be wary of him.

I’ll also continue my search for Ellie on my own because I’m not about to leave my fate in anyone else’s hands.