MOLLY

I stormed through the corridors of the palace and my heels clicked against the marble floor and my heart was pounding with fury. I had been searching for Jayce all morning and I had been told that he was in his chambers and I was determined to find him.

I needed to talk to him about the Luna Games and I needed to secure my position and I needed to make sure that Samantha did not get any more attention than she already had. The girl was a threat and she was a nuisance and she needed to be put in her place.

I reached Jayce’s chambers and I pushed open the door without knocking. I had done it a hundred times before. I was allowed. I was special. I was the Gamma’s daughter.

But this time, someone else was in the room. Who could that bitch be?! I hoped it wasn’t Samantha?! I would tear her apart, I swear. Ugh!

A woman was lounging on Jayce’s bed and she was wearing a silk robe that barely covered her body and her hair was loose and her face was perfect and she looked like she owned the place.

I froze in the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded.

The woman sat up slowly and she looked at me with amusement in her eyes. Her smile was lazy and confident and it made my blood boil.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Who are you?" she countered.

"I asked you first."

The woman laughed and the sound was like silk and honey and it made me want to slap her. "My name is Seles," she said. "I am an old friend of the princes."

I stared at her and recognition dawned on me. I had heard stories about Seles. She was the woman who had broken Darlington’s heart. She was the woman who had left him and then come back and then left him again.

"You are Darlington’s ex," I said.

Seles’s smile faded. "How do you know that?"

"Everyone knows," I said. "You are famous. The woman who could not handle the beast. The woman who ran away when things got hard."

Seles stood up and her eyes flashed with anger. "You do not know anything about me."

"I know enough. I know that Darlington discarded you. I know that you are only here because you have nowhere else to go. I know that you are desperate and pathetic and clinging to the past."

Seles stepped closer and her voice was low and dangerous. "At least I have been with a prince," she said. "Can you say the same?"

I felt my face go red. "You do not know what you are talking about."

"I know that you have been chasing the princes for years and they have never even looked at you. I know that you are jealous of Samantha because she has what you want. I know that you are nothing but a bitter, angry woman who cannot stand to see anyone else succeed."

"You are a liar," I said.

"I am honest," she said. "There is a difference."

I lunged at her.

She grabbed a vase from the table and she threw it at me. It shattered against the wall behind my head and the shards flew across the room.

"You crazy bitch!" I screamed.

"You started this!" she shouted back.

We crashed into each other and we fell to the floor and we rolled across the carpet. I grabbed her hair and I pulled it and she screamed. She scratched my face and I felt blood on my cheek. We were kicking and clawing and biting and we did not stop.

"Get off of me!" I yelled.

"You get off of me!"

We rolled into the furniture and we knocked over a lamp and we crashed into a table. The room became a battlefield and we were the only soldiers.

Guards rushed in but they could not separate us. We were too tangled and too angry and too determined to destroy each other.

"Stop this!" a guard shouted.

"Someone get the king!" another guard yelled.

We ignored them. We kept fighting. I grabbed a pillow and I hit her in the face. She grabbed my arm and she bit me and I screamed.

"Let go of me!"

"Make me!"

The door flew open and the room fell silent.

King Lionel stood in the doorway and his eyes were cold and his voice was sharp and his presence filled the room like a storm.

"What in the name of the moon goddess is going on here?" he demanded.

Seles and I froze. We were both covered in scratches and bruises and our hair was a mess and our clothes were torn and we looked like we had been through a war.

The king’s gaze moved from me to Seles and then back again. His expression was unreadable but his voice was filled with ice.

"You will explain yourselves," he said. "Now. And someone had better give me a very good reason why I should not have both of you thrown in the dungeon."

I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out. I was terrified. I was humiliated. I was furious.

Seles looked at me and she smiled. It was a small smile and it was bitter and it was full of victory.

"It was her fault," Seles said.

"You liar!" I shouted. "You started this!"

"I was sitting on the bed and she attacked me," Seles said.

"That is not true!"

The king raised his hand and we both fell silent.

"Enough," he said. "Both of you. Guards, take them to separate rooms. I will deal with them later."

The guards stepped forward and they grabbed my arms and they dragged me out of the room.

I looked back at Seles and I saw her smiling. She had won this round. But the war was not over.

I would make sure of it.