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The only good thing about Crysauralia was the food. Burgers were the best in my opinion. But in this particular restaurant, the burgers sucked.

I should have known better than to eat here. The place was called Wackdonalds for crying out loud. I stared at the greasy, oily mess in front of me. It still amazed me how the common people ate stuff like this. At least for us, our bodies could handle it. And even I didn't want to try this.

My phone vibrated and I dug into my pockets to see who it could be. It could be one of two people, my brother or Callie, the common girl I'd saved on a whim three years ago. She'd made it her duty to stay in touch with me.

"Demetri," Malekh's smooth voice came over the line. "What are you doing? Can you talk now?"

"I'm just clogging my arteries, nothing major. What's up?"

"I'd like to make an adjustment to the plans."

I was silent as I waited for him to continue. I'd already waited three years for this chance. What kind of adjustments could he possibly want to make?

"Don't go after the king of Crysauralia. I-"

"What the hell?" I growled. "What the f*ck do you mean don't go after him?!"

"I'm calling it off for now. Getting rid of King Caden is not your main objective anymore."

My mood turned icy as his words registered. There was no way he could be thinking of backing out of this now. I still needed his help. It must be them, his new little toys that were causing him to make these changes.

"Calm down, brother," he placated, knowing I was already pissed. "You'll still get your revenge, just not yet. I want you to keep an eye on someone. Prince Ashton."

"Prince-" I paused and glanced around the room to make sure no-one was paying attention to my conversation. I lowered my voice. "Where the hell am I supposed to find him?"

"He's closer than you think." I could hear Malekh's smile. "Lucky for you, he's in Crysauralia."

"He returned?"

"He never left."

I narrowed my eyes at his nonchalance. "Since when did you know about this?"

"I have my ways."

"And you wait until now to mention it?"

"It didn't matter at the time."

I rolled my eyes. I shouldn't even be surprised. This was just like him to keep all his cards hidden until the right moment. But the prince being in Crysauralia was a surprise. A welcome surprise. I smiled.

"Just tail him for now. He's going to Westwood High."

"Got it."

There was a click and he was gone. I was working with Malekh for three reasons.

One. He was the one who'd given me this taste of freedom and I at least had to repay him for that.

Two. He had the same goal. The destruction of Crysauralia's royal family. They were the root of the kingdom, but they absorbed nothing but poison.

Three. He was the only person I could stand.

To be fair, I didn't know that many other people. But everyone else I'd met since getting out of that prison just straight up annoyed the hell out of me. I wasn't a people person and too much social interaction killed me, but it was necessary to gather information.

Malekh was the only one who truly understood me, albeit in his own weird way. Sometimes I could never figure out what was going on in his head, but we were more alike that we knew.

Being the illegitimate prince of not one, but two kingdoms sealed the deal that I wouldn't be accepted by either. My father, the half-prince was murdered for his soul-mate by King Caden, his brother and my mother... well you know how she ended up.

I was raised in absolute secret in the Spade Kingdom. It's hard to say I lived there. A life like that could hardly be called living. The king was angry because of his wife's infidelity and the most logical solution he found was to take it out on both of us.

At least for her, she was the queen. She had to be out in the public a lot so her abuse was kept to a minimum and was usually emotional. However, he could go all out on me and he did so with pleasure.

I existed in the deepest, darkest dungeon under the castle grounds. And darkest wasn't an exaggeration. There was barely any light at all, which is why I had to wear contacts now. Glasses were a pain.

I only saw my mother once and we couldn't even talk. I was weak from hunger and she couldn't stop sobbing silently in the corner of the room. I wasn't even allowed to go to her funeral. I was a slave in the place that so many people called a home.

Everyone was a puppet to the monarchy. They dazzled the people's minds with pretty words and money, but they were a poisoned root that needed to be uprooted from society. I wanted to watch the royal family topple like a stack of playing cards. We were doing everyone a favor.

King Ludwig had been taken care of.

King Caden was next.

Or he would have been if Malekh hadn't side-tracked me. Now, I had to hunt down the prince. He wasn't even the crown prince. Just the younger brother of the crown prince. I had no interest in him. It made things even weirder because he and Malekh were childhood friends. If he had to, would Malekh hurt Ashton?

Maybe, maybe not. He was simply complicated because he was so complicatedly simple. He did the most unexpected things if he had good reason to. Sometimes he stirred things up just because he was bored.

Whatever his reason, it would be best to find Ashton quickly. Now how would I manage to get close to my precious little cousin?

My burger collapsed upon itself in a sorry, gross mess of oil. Ugh. I placed the money for the food on the table and was about to leave when I heard an excited gasp.

I sighed as Callie came rushing over to my table. In a city this big and in a restaurant this crappy, how'd she even find me? I'd been so distracted by the smell of the oil, I didn't even realize she was here. If I'd caught a whiff of her, I'd have made myself scarce.

"Hey, Demetri," she beamed.

She fidgeted with her handbag. "Your hair is a bit longer. It looks good on you."

"This is just my winter coat."

She giggled although I'd hoped she'd catch the not so subtle hint of sarcasm in my voice. I didn't understand her.

"I texted you... a few days ago," she continued.

"I only use my phone to keep in touch with my brother. I've told you this."

"Maybe you can use it to keep in touch with both of us," she grinned. "I missed you."

Why wouldn't she leave me alone? She didn't like me or anything, right?

"There's gonna be a huge party next Friday," she mentioned while twirling her hair. Her cheeks were flushed. "It's gonna be wild. Do you wanna come?"

"A high school party. Hmm... I think I'll pass. I'm not exactly the target demographic."

"Oh come on, Dem."

Dem?

"It's his birthday and for some reason it's all inclusive. Everyone from their teens to their twenties is lining up to go. You can't miss it! Ashton's parties are the best, trust me."

Ashton? I glanced at her uncertainly. "Which school do you go to again?"

"Westwood. Did you forget?"

Of course I did. My mind can only hold so much things I couldn't care less about. But it was a good thing she brought it up because he just might be the guy I was looking for.

"Maybe I'll show up and charge my social battery."

"Great!" She clapped excitedly.

"It's a date."

"A date?" Her eyes lit up. "Yeah, a date. Our first date. I've been trying to convince Liz to go. You remember my best friend Liz, right? She's a total sweetheart."

I nodded, although I didn't remember her. I probably should have paid more attention when she was talking about her friends because I didn't remember this 'Liz' even though we did meet once before.

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The night of the party came in the blink of an eye. I wasn't really interested in anything. I had my own agenda. When I arrived to pick her up, Callie was over to me in a second.

"Dem, I still can't believe we're going to the party together."

That made two of us, but I needed her as an excuse to be there. Who'd have thought she'd be useful after all. Maybe after all this was over, I'd erase her memories of me. Although, messing with someone's memory too much could have side effects. I was still thinking about that when something caught my eye.

The girl who Callie pointed out as Elizabeth was wearing a very interesting bracelet. The Crysauralian coat of arms was etched onto the side. Did she love her country that much to make it a fashion choice?

After spending three years with Callie, I could safely say I didn't really understand how the female mind worked. It was a mystery that I'd rather not try to solve. I liked women. I was attracted to them, but my heart was incapable of loving anyone. I didn't believe in love and I wasn't looking for anything serious.

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For a prince trying to keep a low profile, this party was the last thing I'd expect. It was every bit as loud and wild as Callie'd predicted. She wrapped her arm around my waist and leaned into me. She was probably cold. I sighed and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

I kept an eye on Elizabeth all night and then she went upstairs with Kevin. I noticed Ashton going up too, and then Kevin came down looking confused and a bit pissed.

As soon as Kevin came down, a guy came up to him and whispered something to him. His brown hair was neatly combed and he looked extremely formal in the sea of scantily clad people. I could sense that he was a noble, a Beta.

Kevin glanced upstairs and seemed to contemplate going back up, but the formal guy pointed at his laptop with urgency, so Kevin sighed and followed him out. Elizabeth came downstairs a few minutes later looking shaken up, but there was no sign of Ashton.

I wondered if there was something going on between them. I needed to talk to her.

"Dem," Callie pouted. "What have you been staring at?"

"Nothing," I murmured.

She slipped her hand in mine. "I'm really happy you came tonight."

Her smile of happiness was somewhat cute.

"You know, I'm eighteen," she reminded me for the fourth time tonight. "I don't want you to feel like you're babysitting me. Can we dance or something?"

I did not want to dance.

"Maybe later."

"Dem."

If she called me Dem one more time I was going to pull my hair out. She trailed a hand down my cheek.

"I like being with you."

I cocked my head, trying to figure out what she wanted. She placed a kiss on my cheek and then it dawned on me that maybe she did like me. This was bad. I shouldn't have let it get this far. But I was this close to Ashton and Elizabeth. She was my ticket to getting closer to them. I'd give her what she wanted.

I tilted her chin up and kissed her. She froze in place for a moment before wrapping her arms around my neck and kissed me back. I guess I was stuck with her for now.

Melissa interrupted after a while and said she was taking Elizabeth home. Then Callie insisted on going along. I was upset. I wouldn't get to talk to Elizabeth and now the kiss was wasted.

I had to wait patiently for the next time I'd see her, which happened to be a few days later at Callie's house. I'd come by to give her a gift. She had been going on and on about being a butterfly and I'd seen a necklace at a jewelry store downtown.

Luckily, it was shaped like a butterfly. The insect themed necklace did the trick and she loved it. I couldn't help but smile as she all but burst into tears as I handed it to her. It was the least I could do. I'd keep her happy before erasing her memories of me.

Elizabeth spoiled my good mood by denying that anything was going on between her and Ashton but I wasn't buying it. Malekh wasn't interested in her. He didn't even know she existed, but I just knew that she was connected to the prince somehow.

The dots finally connected when I got another call from Malekh. I was to separate Elizabeth and Ashton. Apparently, she was his soulmate that he didn't want. After losing a bet, Ashton practically traded Elizabeth off to Malekh, but Malekh wasn't going to just uproot an innocent girl from her life and take her to the Spade Kingdom.

However, Ashton wasn't keeping his end of the deal. He wasn't staying away from Elizabeth, as he'd promised. If anything he was only getting closer to her. And that made a certain someone upset.

Remember Mr. Formal Guy who'd showed up to Ashton's birthday party? They were friends. That was obvious. Well, he was the one who wanted them separated now. It was a long story and I'd zoned out on Malekh a few times while he was explaining it.

So, I was going to go on a little road trip with Ashton and his gang. My plan was to make them get into a fight and break up. It was pretty simple really and after hearing Callie and Melissa gushing over Elizabeth's rose shaped necklace, I knew what to do.

It was a cinch, slipping into her room. She left the box right out in the open for anybody who was up to no good to tamper with. Tsk tsk, Elizabeth. You should know better. The fact that she and Ashton had some sort of fight the night before helped a lot.

I got rid of the necklace and then waited for the perfect time to whisk it out of the trash. Ashton was upset, Elizabeth was confused and Demetri wins.

It was nearly perfect. I still had to know how she felt about him. I decided to stir things up a bit and test how loyal she'd still be to Ashton after that.

So, I tried to kiss her and that failed. I'd have to try harder. But when we were all back in the car, she and Ashton wouldn't say a word to each other, so mission failed- but not quite.

Usually girls wanted to kiss me. Callie was one of them. And if they were my type, I'd let them and see where it went. Of course, Callie didn't need to worry about them. I was stuck with her until it was time to go back to the Spade Kingdom.

Don't get me wrong, Callie was a nice girl, attractive even. But she believed too much in love and fairytales and happy endings. It was suffocating hearing her talk about stuff like true love. She knew I wasn't interested in love, but she insisted on changing me.

When my mission was finally done, I broke it off with her. Not in a way that would only make her cry for a few minutes and then try to make up with me, but in a way that left no question that I never loved her.

I wanted her to be stronger, more independent and less smitten by love. I didn't want her to depend on me for happiness. I wanted to give her a clean break. I meant what I said to her. It was the truth. The cold, hard, ugly kind that nobody wants to hear.

Was there a moment when I liked Callie? Sure.

Was there a moment when I felt something for her? Yeah, there were moments like that.

I wasn't actually planning on having sex with her. I just used that as a ploy to make her angry. She was too... kind. It felt wrong to even consider it, so whenever things got heated, I drew a line. I was only using her after all. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Not with her.

She was nice and caring and trusting. But we weren't compatible. When I felt her starting to thaw the iceberg in my chest, it only made me build up a stronger barrier. I couldn't let my guard down around her, but after breaking up with her, I somehow didn't want to erase her memories of me. I had no idea why. But no matter what, my motive was revenge. I couldn't let anyone into my life like that.

If I hadn't spent years wasting away in lonely darkness and hunger, maybe I would still have a heart. I wasn't born out of love. I was born out of necessity. My father knew his brother was plotting something dirty, so he tried to establish an heir before that happened. My mother said they loved each other, but I never heard her voice, so I don't know how true that was.

Perhaps love was real. Who knows? Maybe Callie does.

But I know I didn't need it.

I also didn't trust people easily, which was why I got Elizabeth to meet up with me at her old school. I ran into one of her old classmates, someone I'd seen at Ashton's parties. Getting her to make a phone call and then erasing her memories of me was easy.

I needed to find out if Mr Formal Guy was acting as a double agent. He'd given his word to switch over to our side. He knew what Malekh was and he still agreed. But just because Malekh trusted him, didn't mean I had to.

Elizabeth didn't know anything about who I really was and I could tell she was confused as hell when I revealed that I was an Origen. So, I erased her memories. I didn't need to take her with me yet. We still had time. Malekh still needed time to come to terms with himself.

I watched her fall to the ground, her memories of what just happened safely deleted, and I turned and walked away. I was going back. After three years of waiting, our preparations were almost complete. The next time I saw her, she'd be in the Spade Kingdom.

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