CHAPTER 3: VIRGIN

RAEA’S POV

I woke up groggily, the heavy fog of sleep clinging to my brain as I rolled across the vast mattress to the side table on the far side of my queen-sized bed. Pushing the tangled silk bedsheets off my legs, I reached out and grabbed my phone. The screen lit up, casting a sharp glare in the dimming room. I blinked at the digital clock. It was nearly evening, the golden hour bleeding into a dusty, amber twilight outside my tall arched windows.

I sat up, arching my back in a long, satisfying stretch that made my spine pop. After sliding out of bed, I padded over to the en-suite bathroom. I quickly combed through my wild, sleep-mussed hair, splashed cold water on my face to shock myself awake, and then opened my bedroom door to call my inner circle inside.

By “everyone,” I meant my absolute lifelines: Lyra, Pippa, Kai, Rowan, and Elias.

When they filed in, I gestured toward the plush velvet armchairs and the edges of my unmade bed, telling them to sit down. The air in the room shifted, growing thick with curiosity. I took a deep breath. The news I had to tell them was massive.

I laid out the entire afternoon, recounting every single detail of the baffling conversation in the throne room with my parents. As I spoke, the reactions around the room were priceless. Pippa, Kai, and Lyra looked completely stunned, though in totally different ways—Pippa’s jaw practically hit the floor, Kai sat up straight with his eyes narrowed in sudden calculation, and Lyra looked genuinely worried.

I turned my gaze to Rowan, raising my eyebrows in a silent question. I purposefully bypassed Elias. To be completely honest, I wasn’t expecting any visual reaction from him anyway. So far, in the entire time I’d known him, the man possessed exactly three facial expressions. He had spoken maybe a hundred words to me in total—which, according to the palace staff, was actually a historic record.

“Well, Princess,” Rowan began, his deep, gravelly voice breaking the silence. He leaned back, crossing his thick arms over his chest. “I’ve been a guard in this palace ever since I started working here at seventeen. It’s been twenty years now…”

He was suddenly cut off by a loud snort from Kai.

“What?! Wait, you’re only thirty-seven?” Kai interrupted, his eyes wide with mock disbelief. “I swear to God, I thought you were at least forty-five with the grueling way you carry yourself.”

The entire room—including me, but excluding Elias—burst into a fit of laughter. I glanced over at Elias and actually caught a fleeting, incredibly rare sight: the very corner of his mouth twitched upward in a slight raise of his lips.

Rowan, meanwhile, leveled a deadly, soul-crushing glare at Kai.

“Oh, come on,” Kai chuckled, raising his hands in mock surrender, his signature smug grin plastered across his face. “Everyone in this room was thinking it. I’m just the only soul brave enough to say it out loud.”

We all rolled our eyes in unison while Rowan cleared his throat aggressively, trying to steer the conversation back on track. “As I was saying… because of my time here, I managed to hear about the tradition from the older guards who served before me, back when the King and Queen were first wed.”

I nodded slowly, the lingering laughter dying down as I sat back on the edge of my bed. My smile slipped away, replaced by the heavy reality of the situation. Sensing my shift in mood, Lyra moved to my right side and slid onto the mattress, while Pippa quietly took a spot on my left.

“Hey,” Lyra said softly, placing a comforting hand on my arm. “It’s going to be okay, alright?”

I offered her a tight smile and nodded. “Yes, it will be. Because I actually have a plan. Two plans, actually, and I’m going to need all your help to pull them off.” I leaned forward, looking every single one of them dead in the eye. “Though, to be fair, I am completely certain that only Pippa and Kai are going to agree with the second one…”

Kai smirked, leaning back against the wall with his arms crossed. “Yes, baby. I always knew I was your favorite.”

I rolled my eyes. Before Kai could gloat any further, Rowan’s elbow found its way sharply into his ribs. Kai let out a quiet groan, his smirk instantly vanishing as he clutched his side.

“Well then, let’s hear it!” Pippa urged, practically vibrating with excitement.

I nodded, laying out the first part. “Alright, so I was trying to think of what to choose for my trials, and I’ve got absolutely nothing. But I want to set a task so ridiculously, impossibly hard that within the two-week deadline I’m giving them, not a single suitor will be able to complete it. That way, when they all fail, I can marry whoever the hell I actually want.” I paused, looking around the circle for feedback.

Almost everyone opened their mouths to object or offer counterpoints—except Elias, who remained as still as a shadow—but Rowan’s booming voice beat them to it.

“Unfortunately, Princess, we cannot help you brainstorm,” Rowan said, his tone firm but sympathetic. “The ancient rules of the Princess Trials are very specific. Only a princess of the bloodline is permitted to pitch ideas or draft the quest…”

My shoulders slumped, a heavy sigh escaping my lips as I deflated.

“Although,” Rowan continued, a sudden glint of mischief in his weathered eyes that made me snap my head up with renewed hope, “…the key word in that rule is *Princess*.”

I stared at him, thinking over his words for a split second before the realization hit me. I leaped off the bed, squealing and scaring Pippa, who jumped slightly. I laughed, doing a ridiculous, triumphant little happy dance on the plush carpet.

“Of course! Eliana! Why didn’t I think of her?”

Lyra nodded, a fond smile breaking across her face. “Of course. If anyone in this palace is going to have the exact, ridiculously complex ideas you need, it’s going to be that bookworm of a little sister of yours.”

I beamed, feeling a massive weight lift from my chest as I sank back onto the mattress.

“Okay…” Kai slowly piped up, his eyes darting between me and Pippa. He raised a single dark eyebrow. “So what’s this highly controversial second plan you mentioned?”

Before I could even open my mouth to explain, Pippa beat me to the punch. A wicked, knowing smirk spread across her face, and she began bouncing in her spot on the bed like an overcaffeinated bunny.

“Let me guess,” Pippa purred, her eyes sparkling. “This little matter is about your V-card, isn’t it?”

A collective sound of coughing and choking erupted from the boys. Even Elias, who usually looked like he didn’t possess lungs, let out a sharp, choked cough. Lyra’s face turned bright red, looking at Pippa as if she had just uttered the most scandalous profanity in the history of the royal court—which, to be fair, she basically had.

“What???!!!!!!” the boys choked out in unison, desperately trying to recover their composure.

Pippa ignored them entirely, turning her attention to the rest of us. “I mean, think about it! It’s completely obvious. Astraea has never even had her first kiss, let alone sex, and now there’s sudden talk of an arranged marriage to some random guy she doesn’t even know. That is literally the first thing anyone in her shoes would be worrying about right now!”

“Uh, I am pretty sure *I* wouldn’t be thinking about that,” Lyra muttered under her breath, her cheeks still burning.

“That’s because you’re not a normal female, Lyra!” Pippa scoffed. She rolled over, lying flat on her stomach on my bed and propping her chin up in her hands, looking up at me with a massive, eager grin. “So, what’s the play, Rae?”

“No, Princess. Absolutely not. We are not helping you with whatever *that* is!” Rowan barked, his face darkening with protective panic. Next to him, Elias and Lyra both nodded in firm, silent agreement.

“Tch, speak for yourself, old man,” Kai chimed in, a wicked grin returning to his face. “A, I am one hundred percent on board with this.”

Rowan snapped his head around, glaring daggers at Kai.

I looked between the disapproving trio—Rowan, Elias, and Lyra—and let out a heavy sigh. “You see? That’s exactly why I said only Pippa and Kai would agree with me. Come on, guys, please. You have to help me with this,” I pleaded, turning on the charm and flashing them my absolute best, most devastating puppy-dog eyes.

I watched closely, catching the exact, hilarious millisecond where Lyra’s resolve completely shattered.

She let out a defeated groan. “I suppose… I could quietly find and arrange a suitable, trustworthy gentleman from the city. And then, of course, pay him a small fortune and threaten his entire lineage if he ever breathes a word of it.”

“Honestly, it’s not like any guy in his right mind would need to be paid to sleep with Raea anyway. They’d jump at the chance,” Pippa pointed out.

“And Elias and I can map out the absolute best patrol routes to sneak you out of the palace gates and back in without raising a single alarm,” Kai offered, nudging Elias, who merely stared back at him with a look of quiet resignation.

Rowan looked around the room, glaring at each of us as the conspiracy took hold. “No! We cannot do this! Do you have any idea what the King and Queen will do to us—to our heads—when they find out?”

“That’s *if* they find out, Rowan. And they never, ever will! Come on, pleaseeeeeeee,” I dragged out the plea, practically begging.

“Besides, it’s not like those royal suitors arriving tomorrow are going to be virgins themselves,” Pippa added logically.

“Exactly!” I yelled, pointing at her. “So come on, Rowan!”

Rowan looked at me, then at the rest of the eager faces in the room. He let out a long, tortured sigh, rubbing the back of his neck. “Fine!” he snapped.

“Yessssssssss!!!” I cheered, throwing my hands in the air. I turned back to the group, my heart racing with a sudden rush of adrenaline. “Okay, we need to start planning right now. Remember, it has to happen *tonight*!”

Immediately, the room erupted into chaotic, simultaneous chatter. Everyone started talking over each other—debating which gentleman would be the safest choice, which high-end hotel in the city would offer the most privacy, who would act as the visual decoy in my bed, and what our cover story would be if my parents called for me.

As their voices blurred together, I slowly zoned out, staring at the floor with a dazed, giddy smile.

*I actually have a really good feeling about this,* Thalia’s voice chimed in, sounding unusually light.

*And for the very first time in my life, Thalia, I completely agree with you,* I replied in my head, sending a warm, mental smile her way.

*I have a horribly bad feeling about this,* Lumen groaned from the back of my mind.

*You literally have a bad feeling about everything, Lu,* I countered mentally, rolling my eyes and scoffing.

By the time the group finished coordinating the logistics and filed out of the room to set the plan in motion, only Pippa remained behind. She closed the heavy bedroom door and turned to me, her eyes gleaming with a manic, sisterly energy.

“Alright, now we need to get you properly made up, and I have a serious amount of wisdom to impart on you,” Pippa declared, grabbing my hands and hauling me off the bed. “You need a hot bath, some gorgeous lingerie, and a nightgown that will make the lucky bastard absolutely salivate the second he sees you. Let’s go, move it! Into the bath!” She began dragging me toward the adjoining bathroom.

I rolled my eyes, though a nervous chuckle escaped me. “Aren’t you supposed to be nineteen?”

“Yeah, and I have an incredibly active, highly successful sex life,” Pippa shot back, beaming proudly. “So there is literally no better teacher in this castle than me. Unless, of course, you want Kai to be the one explaining sex positions and anatomy to you?”

I paused, a violent, full-body shiver running down my spine as my brain briefly tried to picture Kai giving me “the talk.”

“Nope,” I said quickly, shaking my head to erase the mental image. “You seem like an absolutely perfect option.”

Pippa beamed, her grin widening. “I thought as much.”

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