Page 75 of A Wise Prince

Kate

I leave the room as my father, King Michael, and Jack all begin to speak about Conrad and Senator Farrington. There’s nothing more I can do here.

I can’t find Auggie. I decide he needs time to process. I climb the stairs, aimlessly wandering the palace. It’s nowhere near the size of the Royal Palace but it’s still impressive. There are at least eight guest rooms as far as I can tell, mostly located in one wing. The rebuild of the palace matches so well with the original structure that I can hardly tell it apart. I ponder what happened here when Anna figured out her former uncle was trying to kill her family. How did Auggie take that news? He’s had so much tragedy in his life—his mother, his uncle, his aunt nearly dying. My life has been a fairy tale in comparison, until now. But what did I really expect from my father? Did I think he was as virtuous as he portrays himself?

I’m so deep in thought, I don’t realize that I’m not alone until I nearly run into Anna. She’s in a corner of the library, her headphones on her head, she’s wearing weird glasses, and her fingers move across the keyboard at such a rapid pace, they look like butterfly wings, barely recognizable as human flesh.

I clear my throat and Anna’s head jerks up, a frown on her face. I suddenly feel bad for interrupting her.

“Sorry,” I mouth as I start to step away, but she holds up a hand, stopping me as she pulls her headphones down to her neck.

“Everything OK?” she asks me.

I laugh at that because everything is not OK; everything is a fucking mess at the moment. A grin spreads across Anna’s face and I’m momentarily transfixed by her beauty. She’s breathtakingly gorgeous. I mean, I knew she was beautiful, but at this moment with her hair piled on her head in a messy bun, free of makeup, wearing an oversized sweater and leggings, her natural beauty shines through like a ray of light in a dark room.

“Bad choice of words,” she says on a giggle. She takes a deep breath and motions for me to come sit next to her. I comply, sliding into a giant leather chair.

“I feel like an idiot,” she confides in me, her fingers are still moving on the keyboard, as though they are controlled by a second brain. “I never considered that my server was compromised. I was so sure of my skills, so sure of my security, but…I was careless.” I see her eyes glimmer with tears. “God, was I an idiot.”

I reach out and squeeze her arm. “We all have our moments. I didn’t think my father was capable of deceit,” I murmur, looking down in shame. She gives me a sympathetic look but otherwise doesn’t respond to my admission.

“When the palace…when the explosion…well, I had left my computer in my normal hiding spot. It was still connected to my server. Whoever got inside my server and started watching me, has been doing it since that day. They know everything, every search I’ve made, every corner of the dark web that I’ve discovered.” She pauses. “My ignorance compromised my family…and yours.”

“Anna, it’s not your fault. You’ve done nothing wrong,” I say because it’s true.

She shakes her head. “I’m smarter than this. I should have known better.”

She sighs. “But it’s in the past now. The good part of all of this is that I can now use this to our advantage. I just planted some…nuggets…and I think all of the guilty parties are going to walk right into my trap.” She grins a devious grin, much like a cartoon character that’s just devised a brilliant evil plan. I grin back at her, my body involuntarily mirroring hers.

“Have you seen Auggie?” I ask her, remembering what I was doing when I started my mindless wandering.

“Yep. He’s out in the garden, stewing over all of this.”

I stand, ready to leave but Anna reaches out and grabs my hand.

“Be gentle with him. There’s so much more to Auggie than he lets people see,” she says to me, her eyes wide with the truth of that statement.

I squeeze her hand. “I know,” I whisper because I do. Auggie is one of the most complex men that I’ve ever met.

I walk with purpose as I head to the gardens. My feet move of their own volition, my mind still races with all of the new information I’ve assimilated in the past hours. I shake my head, trying to clear the cobwebs in my mind. I don’t know if it’s the lagging effects of the drugs that Jared injected into me, or if it’s just the overwhelming amount of information that I’ve been bombarded with since returning to the palace.

I hear murmuring and follow the sound, finding Auggie and Chris sitting side by side on a bench. Their heads both pop up as I walk toward them. Auggie stands, and when I’m close enough, he reaches out and pulls me into his arms. I wrap my arms around his waist and breathe in his scent. I feel his lips on my hair as he plants a kiss on the top of my head.

“What now?” I ask him.

“Anna’s—”

“I know. I just talked to her,” I interject.

“Oh?”

I nod and look up at him. “Her server was compromised.”

Auggie frowns. “Shit.”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“We should go back inside,” Chris says as he stands and looks at us.

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