Chapter 1: 10.15.3030--2:46 ​PM

Jo is arrested after insulting the King, soon discovering that she's not being sentenced to life in prison, rather being recruited for a society of peacekeepers trying to reunite racially divided US.

One would think that running so hard for so long would leave your legs powerless and unable to move. That wasn’t the case for me. If you were a street girl who’d grown up around muggers and thieves, you’d have built up significant endurance too. But not only the positives are learned with such an upbringing. I was taught my individualism in the midst of the quite present politics of Orientem, which were highly corrupted.

Apparently, telling a royal guard that his king was a pig wasn’t legal.

Orientem’s social system was a mess. In New York, one race was stuck on the east end of town, where the factories and all of the financially unstable and thieves resided. Most of the Pales were isolated to the southern border, but there was still a small population of us in the capital. After the Great Cleave in 2033, those of us left on the east side of America were forced into the Florida peninsula before they could cross the border. To be fair, Occidente--West America--did the same with their Darks. 

I passed many a painting of a plethora of kings as I was dragged down the grand halls. Pointy features ran in the royal family. No matter if it was a lush brown beard or withered gray, icy blue eyes or deep brown, large nose or small, it was all pointed, and every single one had dreadlocks. The king in the throne room looked no different from the rest except for the lack of beard, although he was the first I‘d known to have green eyes and stark--probably dyed--white hair, unlike the brown eyes and black hair in the paintings. 

His lack of height only added to the king-like charisma.

The young king was known for his chaotic politics and impulsive decisions. At the age of only sixteen, he ruled with an iron fist. Any soul who dared speak against him was taken away, and there were rumors of several who had managed to talk their way out of punishment, but I’d never been given any real proof.

My last shot at resistance failed me as I entered a large room and was pushed onto my knees. I caught a glimpse of the brightly colored walls as my eyes flew to the black and yellow checkered floor. I almost laughed when he started talking. 

“Another?” I swore his voice cracked three times in that one word. “What’s her problem?” It took me far too long to realize he was referring to me. I desperately wanted to taunt him, but, as I’d learned in the last hour, it probably wouldn’t help my case. Of course, I chose to anyways.

“You know how if you bake a bad meringue, it cracks?” He didn’t answer, just questioned my mental stability with his emerald eyes. It was fine though--I’d gotten what I wanted. “What am I here for, again?”

“She called Your Highness a vile name, Sire,” the guard on my right reported.

“And what might that name be,” the king asked with a raised eyebrow. I bowed mockingly.

“Swine, pig, hog, boar, sow, grunter, although my personal favorite is ‘cow,’” I also reported, copying the guard’s tone.

“Unhand her. She probably won’t hurt anybody.” 

I snorted. He had no clue what I was capable of.

The moment my arms were untangled from the guards’, I whipped out the knife that was sheathed at my side, underneath the layers of street clothes. “Won’t hurt anyone, will I?” I hurled the blade at his heart. It’d be an honor to be the one to personally rid the world of this boy king.

About a yard from his chest, an arrow flew out of nowhere and knocked it off course so it buried itself in the wall beside the throne.

“Sorry. ‘Can’t’ was probably a better word for it,” replied the king, completely unphased. He nodded respectfully to an archer against the wall on the side. “You have good aim. I’m lucky Thane’s is better. But tell me, why do you want to hurt me?”

“Easy. You’re a cow.”

“Last time I checked, I am not black and white, nor do I produce milk.”

“Of course you don’t produce milk. You’re not a girl.”

“In the case that you really want to be so technical, I also don’t believe I walk on four legs.” 

I shrugged. “I dare you to try.” 

“How about we stop arguing about my ability to crawl and get down to business? Before I try to tell you why you’re here, do you have any more knives I should be concerned about?”

“Heck, no. A Pale like me can only afford one. Although if you’d be so kind as to pull my life’s earnings out of the wall and give it to me, I’ll be eternally grateful.”

“Yes. And then you’d tear out my heart with it.”

“I can’t argue with that.” In reality, all would be fine even if he didn’t return the knife. I had another tucked at my waist. “What is it I’m here for, then?”

“Guards,” he gestured for them to leave. When the doors closed, he stood. Before throwing the next knife, I checked to make sure the archer had left. Sure enough, he was gone.

This time, the knife made it a little closer than the last time, but that idiot Thane peeked out from behind one of the curtains and shot it out of the air again. The king continued as if I hadn’t just attempted to assassinate him twice. “I have a proposal for you.”

“I’m not going to marry you, if that’s what you want.” 

“Why the heckity-heck would he want to marry you,” snorted Thane. 

The king rolled his eyes. “Just shut up, Thane. Try to be slightly more shadow-like. It’ll add to your intimidation factor. My younger brother, Prince Thane,” he added to me. “Other titles include Royal Pain in the Butt and King of Not Being Shadow-Like. He’s training to be my bodyguard, but he’s still working on the hidden part.” The prince sunk back into the curtain. “Anyways, I have a propos--an offer to give you.”

“And why should I take this offer?”

“You don’t even know what it is.”

I tapped my foot impatiently. 

“Your other choice is death by firing squad.”

I leaned my head to the side. “In that case, I’m in.”

“What if I told you that the offer was death by slow, painful torture while listening to me talk about politics?”

My head leaned to the other side. “I’m out again.”

“That’s what I thought. That’s not the actual offer, by the way.”

The head switched sides. “Then I’m in.”

“I feel like you might be doing this just to annoy me,” he said, crossing his arms across his chest.

“Darn right.” And I didn’t feel the least bit bad. Any boy younger than me with power over an entire freaking country--and dreadlocks--didn’t deserve my pity. 

“I know you hate me, and I understand why, but hopefully you’ll hate me less after I offer you a job.” He pulled back one of the red curtains and stared out into the dimly-lit palace courtyard. “‘Almost one hundred years ago, America split in two--’”

“‘--and Pales in Orientem and the Darks in Occidente were trapped and became the closest thing to slaves without actually being called slaves. There were, of course, those who were mixed race or of another race completely. Most of those with mixed races were treated like decent human beings in both countries and simply called themselves whatever was more convenient. Those of completely different races were simply regarded as whoever they looked most like--Pale or Dark.

Occidente became the victim of a dictatorship in the first decades, then redeemed itself and established an empire. Orientem, on the other hand, converted to a monarchy only a few years after the Cleave,’” I quoted from the history book I’d stolen several years ago. “Can you tell me something I don’t know?”

“I apologize, my dear,” he mocked. “But I thought maybe a lowly street girl such as yourself may not be educated on matters so high up on the food chain.”

“I have my ways of knowing. Stealing books is a fun challenge.”

“After the Cleave, the Pales on this side of the border were forced to stay and the Darks on the other side had to do the same. The skirmishes at the border made it dangerous to deport anyone from either country.”

I snorted. “I swear that’s not how it went. Your great-great-great grandfather wanted to keep some of us here as slaves, so he made Florida our little colony.” 

Flustered, the king tried to deny it. “It doesn’t matter why there are Pales still in Orientem, because we’ve been smuggling Pales back to Occidente, and Occidente has been sending us their Darks as a way to better the lives of those oppressed.”

“One: why don’t you just announce that the Darks from the west are coming here and the Pales from here are going to the west? That much easier than smuggling. Two: what does this have to do with me? Am I getting smuggled out?”

“Heck, no. Do you really think I’d just forgive you for calling me a cow and then make your life ten thousand times easier?” He flung the curtains shut in a rage and got himself very close to my face. He managed to instill the slightest bit of fear in me before he did the spitting laugh and sprayed his spittle all over my face. “That’s exactly what I’m doing though. Not smuggling you, no, but I am making your life a ten trillion times easier after you’ve called me a--what were they again?”

“Swine, pig, hog, boar, sow, grunter, and cow.”

“Thank you. You mentioned that we should just announce that the Pales here and the Darks there are just switching places. We can’t do that. I’ve proposed it before, but my advisors think that the Darks here and the Pales there might not like it, and frankly, I agree. They’ve all lived with their minority to do their dirty work, so no one wants them to go. That’s why you’re here. I want you to--”

“Because some rich people don’t want to work?”

“Are you physically capable of letting me finish a thought? No, that’s not why. I want you to help me make peace and reunite America.” He looked to the heavens ,as if he were asking for help.

I have no idea how long I stood there staring at him in disbelief. Reunite America? Me? Heck, yeah. Have someone who has zero motivation to unite a country do it all.

“You do realize that I have no reason to want to do this, right?” The king’s smirk made me only slightly nervous.

“You could always go with death by firing squad.” 

I held out my hand to shake and close the deal. “Right, Forgot about that. I’m in.”