The Fearless Royal: A Reverse Harem Urban Fantasy (Annabelle's Harem Book 3) Read online

He gave me a mischievous smile. “Good thing.”

  2

  I made my way down the hall, not even bothering to put on pants because the oversized shirt covered midway down my thighs.

  And I’d lost a lot of my modesty, anyway. I lived in a house with three guys, two of whom I was sleeping with, and none of whom seemed to place any value on covering up. Their shifter inclination toward nudity was obvious.

  But I liked that they’d made me more relaxed. It was nice to just walk around the house and be totally comfortable with my body. It made me feel almost… powerful. I could understand why my witch ancestors used to walk around their castles naked without a care in the world. Something about it was just… incredibly empowering.

  I knocked on Rhyion’s door quietly, hoping not to startle him if he was still asleep. I wasn’t sure why, considering he was basically never asleep at this time.

  "Come in,” he said, as he always did. He was sitting at an old desk in the corner of his room.

  It was a desk that had been left here by whoever lived in this cabin before, probably fifty years ago. This island used to be an old shifter compound until they outgrew it and moved to the new island—the one where I had originally been taken to by Angelo.

  The island we couldn’t return to because Robert found me there and subsequently killed off some of the shifters who lived there.

  That still ate at me. And being in this cabin ate at me too because in a way, it was a reminder of why we couldn’t go back to the other island. A gorgeous place that I learned to love. It was where I first saw ocean and forest, where I first learned that getting in touch with nature helped me to get in touch with my true power.

  One day, after I defeated Robert, I was going back there. Maybe we could all vacation there sometimes… Wait, did witch queens get vacations? Was that a thing?

  I hopped onto Rhyion’s bed… another piece of furniture left here by whoever lived here before.

  “Do witch queens get vacations?” I asked him.

  He laughed. “What? That’s what you came in here so early in the morning to ask me? Aren’t we getting a little ahead of ourselves…?”

  “Okay, no, not what I came in here for. My mom took me through another old memory again.”

  He dropped his book and zoned into me. “What was it?”

  “It was an old moment between Jacob and Robert. A really important moment, actually. It was when Robert told Jacob he would no longer be watching me or pretending to date me because my mom was hot on his trail. Jacob was furious at this and suggested they just kill my mom—which Robert refused to do—and then Jacob stormed off.”

  “Wow…” Rhyion mumbled. “So what he told us that day we went back to your parents’ apartment was absolutely true, then?”

  “It was.”

  “That must have been really weird to see.” He looked at me empathetically.

  “Yeah, it kind of was. I mean, it was just weird because I remembered that time in my life. Jacob was going on about how I was totally in love with him and wrapped around his finger, and… I kind of was back then, you know? It wasn’t until after my parents died that I distanced myself from him. It makes me feel so stupid that I was in love with this guy, ready to move out with him, and he was manipulating me the whole time. My mother and I even had a fight about me wanting to move in with him just a couple days before she died.”

  His eyes widened. “Really? You never told me that.”

  I shrugged. “I didn’t really remember it until now. I think I had blocked a big chunk of my life out for a while. But I definitely remember that she told me I couldn’t move out with him but wouldn't tell me why. Probably because she was starting to get suspicious of him. At the time, he told me he was on a work trip… but I don’t think he actually ever worked at all. All his work trips were probably just him visiting Robert.”

  “Are you okay?” Rhyion frowned at me.

  “Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. I’m good, actually.”

  And I wasn’t lying. My past was hard to face, yes, but honestly it had been way harder to face before I realized I could talk with my mother. Because I mostly sat around and wallowed in the loss of her and beat myself up for how I couldn’t prevent her and my father's death…

  And that still sucked. A lot. But for me, she wasn’t really dead. I was going to be able to keep seeing her. Throughout my life, I could keep seeing her. I used to lament that she never told me I was a witch and I was never able to learn everything I could from her… But that had all changed now. I was still able to learn so much.

  I still missed my father a lot, but my mom told me about him in detail. I felt like we could talk through her. She would tell him how much I missed him, and she’d do the same for me. Apparently he was very proud of everything I’d done and how I came into my witchhood.

  It was still weird to think my father knew I was a witch all along.

  “Good, you really do seem happier,” Rhyion acknowledged. "And it’s nice to see, after how much time you spent beating yourself up.”

  "I am happier. I really am.”

  We stared at each other for a brief moment, and I could’ve sworn his eyes slowly went from my shoulders, down my torso, and to my legs. The oversized shirt had slid up a little as I laid on his bed, and I caught his eyes glancing.

  It put a little flutter in my heart for a moment. But he quickly looked away, and I brushed it off just as quickly.

  “What are you reading?” I asked.

  “Just a history of Elderan… the human version. I’ve read it several times, but… I don’t know. I guess I’ve run out of material to read. I'm searching for any clues that might have been accidentally left within these pages."

  “But no luck?”

  “No luck,” he concurred.

  "So, I learned something else from my mother today. It’s… not the best news."

  “Oh?” he asked, clearly interested. "What was it?"

  “She has no idea how or when I’m going to defeat Robert.”

  He laughed. “Well, of course she doesn’t."

  "Of course she doesn’t?” I repeated, in surprise. “I thought she did! I thought that was the whole point of her telling me that she was going to show me how to defeat Robert.”

  “Annabelle, think about it. If she knew the answer, why wouldn’t she just tell it to you? There’d be no reason to train you, she’d simply explain herself. But she hasn’t told you. I knew she didn’t know, that’s not the kind of thing you keep a secret. Besides, how can she know? She’s not the one who saves Elderan. You are. She can only teach you as much as she can so that you can do what you were meant to do… Figure out how to beat Robert.”

  I sighed and put my face down on his pillow, my dark brown hair spreading out around me.

  “But what if I can’t figure it out? All the training that I’ve done up to this point has come so easily. The combat training I’ve learned with you guys, the spells you’ve taught me from these old books… I was a natural at everything. But this dream thing? I'm no good at it. I’ve yet to have one important dream on my own. Every dream of the past that I have, my mother brings me into it. She’s the guide here. I don't know what I’m doing."

  Rhyion nodded. “That makes sense too, Annabelle. This is the gift you’ve been shunning your whole life. Your powers were easier to accept because you’ve never had them before. They were something brand new, something you just learned. But dreaming? You've spent your whole life shoving that down and pretending that power doesn't exist."

  “I have?” I asked.

  I never considered this. I wasn’t sure why, but now that Rhyion was saying it, it seemed so obvious. I guess I had just assumed that the power to dream came out of nowhere, developed when I developed my current powers.

  But was that true?

  “Can’t you think of any dreams you had in the past that actually ended up coming true?” he asked.

  Immediately, a dream came to mind—a dream I had tried so hard to forget that
I nearly had. But as he said that…

  “Yeah, actually. The night before my parents died, I did dream of my mom’s dead body… But I mean, it wasn’t exactly a futuresight dream. It wasn’t specific, and it wasn’t true to what happened. It was weird. There was this man at a table in the dark telling me that I could comply with him or suffer the same fate as my parents… And then I ended up tripping over my mom’s body in the dark.”

  “It was symbolic," Rhyion said thoughtfully. "I hear that futuresight often is symbolic. Unlike the past, the future isn’t written in stone. You can’t see things exactly as they’ll happen because, well, who knows exactly what will happen? Things are always subject to change. At the end of the day, futuresight is mostly a guess… and it’s almost always vague.”

  I couldn’t believe we hadn’t talked about this before. I guess it wasn’t necessary considering I didn’t have futuresight myself. At least, not in the conventional way…

  Apparently, I did in my dreams.

  "I guess you're right. I did shove that dream down and pretend it didn’t exist. I guess I have fought dreaming my whole life.”

  “And now you’re struggling with it. That’s perfectly normal, to be expected.”

  I had to smile at him. I wasn't sure why, but his bit of logic genuinely made me feel better. He was always so wise, so analytical… and I loved that about him. I’d never met anyone like that before, not in my life.

  He was smart, but not in the way that I used to think of as smart. For me, smart used to mean the kids who got good grades. The class valedictorian… people like that.

  Rhyion wasn’t smart in that way at all… but I’d come to learn that type of thing wasn't true intelligence anyway. What you can memorize, how you can regurgitate what someone tells you… that wasn’t intelligence.

  Intelligence was the ability to think for yourself, to come up with new answers, to advise people on the topics you’ve learned so much about. He was very likely the smartest man I'd ever met.

  “How do you do that?” I asked him.

  “Do what?"

  “Effortlessly figure things out. You’re just always giving me answers to questions I didn’t know I had.”

  He shrugged. "That is my role in your life, right? To provide the answers. To give you guidance. Every queen needs a capable advisor…”

  Such a practical answer from him. I should have expected it.

  But was there a hint of disappointment in his voice? Yes, it was faint, but it was there. He wasn’t altogether happy about that answer.

  And I had no idea why. As smart, open, and honest as Rhyion was… he was so hard to read emotionally.

  Because he, simply put, didn’t seem to be very outwardly emotional. If he had feelings, he kept them to himself. He was right—he was the guy who always gave advice, but never seemed to need it himself.

  “To answer your earlier question," he said, changing the subject quickly, “I think it’s fair to say you won’t be getting a vacation anytime soon.” He smirked.

  “Well, duh. I have a whole kingdom to overthrow. I'm not even a queen yet. Unless we overthrow Robert tomorrow, I'm well aware a vacation isn’t in the cards for me.”

  “Even if we overthrow Robert tomorrow, a vacation still wouldn’t be in the cards for you,” Rhyion said very matter-of-factly.

  I wasn’t following. “Why not?”

  He sighed. “So… there’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Actually, I’ve been thinking about it before we even began training you. But when you were overwhelmed with the possibility of defeating Robert, I didn’t want to overwhelm you more. Then you got captured… then you lost Angelo… then you started working with your mother. It never exactly felt like the right time.”

  I looked at him skeptically. “You think you’re going to overwhelm me?”

  “Well, it’s a lot to think about…” he said gently.

  I shrugged. “Hit me, I can take it.”

  He nodded. “Well, defeating Robert is only going to be one step in you becoming Queen. In fact, it might even be the smallest step.”

  I scoffed. “Defeating the current King is the smallest step? Then I don’t want to know the biggest!”

  “Exactly the reason I haven't told you,” he said seriously.

  My heart quickened a bit in my chest. “What do you mean?”

  “Annabelle, you’re going to have to rule a kingdom. When Robert’s gone, when you’ve destroyed him, how exactly are you going to rule that kingdom?”

  “I mean… He’ll be gone. I’ll just take over and—”

  “All those that live in Elderan are not going to want you to just take over. Think this through, Annabelle. This is a population that has been brainwashed their entire lives. None of them know the truth about Robert. They don’t know the truth about shifters, either—they treat us with absolute contempt. So you’re just going to come in—with three shifter men, mind you—kill the king they know, and they’re just going to welcome you with open arms?”

  “I mean… yes, it’s the king they know, but it’s a king who’s done a horrible job. Everyone is living in poverty! Won’t they be happy to get out of that? To have someone who is going to provide for them?”

  "But that’s just my point. How are you going to provide for them? Better, how do they know you’re going to provide for them? This is a population on the brink of starvation, and one bad leader can mean their death. That’s what they’re going to be thinking about when you take power. And as it is now, most people don’t blame King Robert for the poverty in Elderan. They just assume that’s the way it is, that it isn’t possible for it to get better. They don’t see it as Robert’s fault. They don’t know him.”

  “Then… I’m going to show them how good it can be!” I argued. "Once they see—”

  He cut me off again. “No, you have to win them over before they can ever see. Or your rule will not be legitimate to them. And you won’t be able to inflict change.”

  “Oh… right,” I said, trying to hide my disappointment. He was right, this did overwhelm me. In a way, it overwhelmed me more than the prospect of destroying Robert.

  It was one thing to beat someone, to wreck them. It was another thing entirely to win someone over. And an entire population?

  “Annabelle, we’ve been so focused on the fight of you taking power that we haven’t even thought about what comes after. We haven’t prepared you for what you’ll be… a leader. A ruler of a government, the only government that exists on this planet. You’ll be responsible for every small and big decision, for creating a cabinet of people, a security force, a—”

  Now was my turn to cut him off. “Okay, okay, I got it,” I said, trying to ignore my nausea.

  “I’m sorry. I really didn’t want to overwhelm you. But I can sense we’re getting closer and closer to overthrowing Robert, and I’m not sure we’re well prepared for the other side of things.”

  I looked up at him nervously. "You don’t… think I can do this?”

  “What? No!” he said quickly. “I think you can do anything! On the contrary, you are meant to do this. Not just overpowering Robert, but also ruling a country with peace and grace. This is your role to take, Annabelle. I fully believe that.”

  Okay, it was comforting to hear him say that, at least.

  “So… how do I prepare?”

  “That’s what I wanted to discuss with you. For months, we’ve been researching how to defeat Robert. I think at this point, there is little I can do to help with this. I think your mother is better suited now. I’ve taught you everything I know. In the meantime, I want to do other kinds of research with you.”

  “Like what?” I asked.

  He reached under his desk and pulled out several large books, then dropped them on top of it. “I want us to learn about government.”

  I looked at him, then down at the books, and then back at him. “Surprisingly, this sounds a lot less fun than dream training or magical training.”

 
He laughed. “Well, it is. But who knows? Maybe you’ll actually enjoy it. I quite like learning about politics and the governments of the past.”

  “Yeah, because you’re a total nerd,” I teased him.

  He rolled his eyes. “Regardless, it’s necessary for you to learn. I have all these books on how witches ruled in the past. They’re very detailed. They describe their cabinet members, how they set up a security force made of shifters, what powers were delegated to whom… Now, we don’t have to follow their system exactly when we rebuild Elderan, but I think it would be in our best interest to get as close as we possibly can. After all, their systems worked for thousands of years.”

  I got off his bed and walked over to the desk. He looked up at me, and his eyes once again went to the hem of my shirt before darting back up to my face.

  I looked down at the books. “Okay, where do I begin?”

  “This one.” He handed to me a large, leather-bound book. “It’s a little complicated, but you should start reading it, and when you come upon something you don’t understand, ask me. I’ll explain it in as much detail as I can. But I do think I have a pretty intricate knowledge of the government they had in place.”

  I sighed. “Alright, well, I guess we’re doing this, then.” I grabbed the book and carried it over to his bed.

  It wasn’t that I didn’t like learning, of course. I really did. And when we were researching spells to defeat Robert, I loved it! I soaked in so much of the spell work even when it had nothing to do with combat.

  But that was because I never learned anything about magic, and it fascinated me. Government did not exactly fascinate me. This felt like school.

  “Oh, wait!” Rhyion said quickly. “Before we get too far into this, I think you should tell me your dream in complete detail.”

  “Oh, right.”

  I knew why. This was something we did every morning, something my mother encouraged me to do with Rhyion.

  It all had to do with the fact that she wanted me to learn to ask the right questions. She knew I wasn’t naturally analytical and that I missed things. And I could easily miss the answers I was searching for if I wasn’t careful.