their preparations

Lucy looked at Kiera disapprovingly as the Beast General took out her coin pouch, resplendently brimming with coin. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the prince's shoulders tremble.

"Do you know what is more valuable than money?" Lucy asked her without looking at the full coin bag Kiera held out. "Knowledge. The more you have it, the more power you will attain."

"What is it that you would like to know?" Kiera drew back her hand.

"Whispers have reached my ears about the necklaces the Beast People wear. The beaded jewelry. What are the beads made out of?"

Kiera was completely taken aback. She had prepared herself to be asked a question she could not answer, but she did not expect Lucy to ask about their jewelry.

"The beads are made of a stone that is found near the rivers and lakes throughout our homeland. They are said to be stones made by the mountain spirits that dwell in the caves." She reached into her mind to grab hold of any information she could remember about the stones. "They are abundant and they can be found quite easily so they're relatively inexpensive. The only value the stones could possess is the ongoing tradition of gifting the jewelry to your Mate or to someone you cherish."

She looked at Lucy, unsure if that had satisfied the hungry businesswoman. To her surprise, the woman looked beyond happy. She put her pipe to her lips.

"That was the information I needed." Her bright and happy grin reminded her of the prince. "I'm sure this will prove invaluable for a certain someone." She made emphasis on the word invaluable which made Kiera second-guess the importance of the stones. "I expect a heavy payment from the person who buys this information from me." She made a dramatic flick of her hand which caused the prince to laugh.

"Well, you two should get going now. It's a long way back to the capital and you don't want to prolong your absences from the palace."

"Head to a village named Kurt, it's not far from here. There the villagers are desperate for anyone to help in killing the animal."

She said her goodbyes with a wave of her hand from the comfort of her couch, and Sam and Kiera were swept out of the building by the burly man from before. In no time at all, they stood outside the first door they entered, staring at the rickety wooden mess as it closed in front of them. They were now back on the streets of Vicksburg. It was almost like the conversation they had in the building had never occurred.

"We should go now." Sam broke the silence. "We do not want to get caught in the alleyways at night." Then he pulled the hood over his head to hide his hair once more.

Kiera nodded, and they met up with the carriage they had ridden on before.

"Lucy is an interesting character Your Highness." She said when their carriage began moving. "There's something about her that intrigues me."

"Is there?" Sam smiled, happy to hear her thoughts about Lucy, the leader of the Crones.

"She's different than any of the other Solomon ladies I have met so far."

"She's not a lady." Sam corrected her.

"She isn't a noble?"

The prince shook his head. Kiera found it hard to believe, as the elegance of the woman was unmistakable. Her milky white skin and delicate features did not seem like qualities of a commoner.

"Then, is she a," she hesitated to say the words, not wanting to ruin the image she had of Lucy, "woman of the night?"

"No. Well, not anymore." Sam smiled somberly, brushing the hood off his head now that they were in the privacy of their carriage. "My mother helped her escape from the brothel. They had been friends ever since."

Kiera was stunned to know that a woman such as Lucy was once a prostitute. She was a leader of an intelligence guild, one the prince himself employed. She was strong, that Kiera was sure of, but how could a strong woman like Lucy ever be trapped into a life of giving her body away for money? And how did the prince's mother, Queen Annabel, meet Lucy, a mere prostitute?

The questions she had were too much for her to keep to herself. Kiera began asking the prince all the questions on her mind.

"Do you remember what Lucy told you?" The prince was gleaming, his mischievous smile displaying fully on his face. "Nothing is ever free."

She blinked her blue eyes at him. Kiera had never been denied answers from him before. He usually told her everything right away.

"What do you want to know?" Kiera was a quick learner, ready to trade information with the prince in order to learn more about Lucy and his mother.

"How about we do this: I get to ask you a question for every question of yours that I answer?"

She nodded immediately. "I think I could do that. Except you will ask your question first, and if it is something I can't answer then you choose a different question." He thought about her counteroffer for a moment before he eventually agreed to her terms.

There was a twinkle in his emerald eyes as he leaned forward as he started with his first question.

"What is the Beast General's favorite color?"

There was a brief moment when the General was speechless. His question wasn't at all what she had been expecting to come out of his mouth. His body language eluded playfulness, eagerly waiting for her answer.

A light laugh erupted from her mouth. She had tried to stop it by pressing her lips together but that proved useless.

Kiera quelled her laughter by coughing into her closed fist. She cleared her throat, and then they began their little game.

Kiera and Sam met up on the outskirts of the capital. She made sure to dress appropriately just as the prince had instructed her the day prior.

"You'll be my wife." Sam had said with a loving smile.

Kiera wasn't familiar with that word, but his smile coupled with the unfamiliarity of the word sent a jolt of an undesirable feeling through her.

"Wife?"

Sam blinked his emerald eyes and he cocked his blond head to the side as his smile widened.

"A wife is a Mate."

"I am not your Mate." She spoke instantly.

"Yes, you are correct. You are not my Mate. We are simply going to pretend that you are my Mate. I'll be calling you my wife in public so people do not find it odd that a man and woman are traveling alone together."

Her eyebrows scrunched together.

"And how does a wife dress like Your Highness?"

The image of the women from Vicksburg popped into her mind and she assumed the prince was not expecting her to wear the clothes of a prostitute. The other women in Vicksburg wore day dresses. The drab colored clothing was slightly worn down and tattered at the hems. She supposed she could ask Jade to dirty one of the dresses she no longer wore.

"I will send one of my people with a dress and a cloak to wear over it."

When the dress was brought to her by one of the prince's people, a maid she had seen previously, she was happy the dress looked a lot more normal than the one she had been envisioning. It was made out of a rougher fabric, a lot different than the ballroom dresses she had grown accustomed to seeing on the nobility.

She spotted a white chemise underneath the beige-colored working dress as she picked it up.

"His royal highness said it did not seem as if you owned any suitable undergarments." Kiera saw a tinge of pink just above the maid's cheekbones which also caused Kiera to flush just thinking about what ideas the maid must have of them running through her mind. She couldn't even begin to make up a plausible excuse as to why the prince would know such information.

"Thank you." She swallowed the excuse that was beginning to take form. She resigned herself to the embarrassment that had taken over her completely as she thanked the prince's maid. In turn, the maid only curtsied and left the room.

Kiera raised her head when she heard the approaching sound of footsteps and her eyes immediately went to the prince's smiling face, now dressed as a commoner. She stared at his hair, which was now brown.

"I had Kepler find me a wig." Seeing as Kiera kept staring at his head, he reached up and touched the strands of the hair.

"Does it look that bad?" He jokingly asked her, eyes shining.

"No."

"Then," he took a step closer to her, "do you prefer it this way?"

Her eyes narrowed at him.

"No."

He let out a laugh as soon as she responded. His face was full of pure joy as he ran a hand through the hair of his wig.

She frowned.

"Your Highness?"

"Yes?" The prince asked as he struggled to hold in his smile.

"There was no need to send undergarments through your maid." The way the prince's maid blushed as the chemise hung from Kiera's hands was still fresh in her mind.

"I apologize Kiera, I thought you needed something to wear underneath since," the prince's eyes shifted to one side as if remembering a good memory, "that day, you were not wearing..." He stopped but Kiera understood what he was referring to. She was remembering as well. How easy it was for him to slip his hand underneath her blouse to touch her bare skin.

She involuntarily shivered.

"Enough." She gave the prince a hard stare. "Let us depart."

The prince nodded, and he led her to where their carriage awaited.