The Red Queen Read Online Free PDF Page A

be an idiot, Blazek!” the silver-haired boy hissed at him. “You should not provoke her.”
    The hazel-eyed glared at the silver-haired, but stopped. When he turned back to her, there was tender boldness in his eyes. “I’m not provoking her. I want to show her I’m her boyfriend.”
    Boyfriend?
    She rolled a bead between her fingers as silver-hair growled. He didn’t agree, but one of them could be her boyfriend. Which one, though? The two were clearly rivals and much more likely to attack each other than her. Lucienne loosed a tight breath and tilted her head to study them. They were both striking, yet in opposite ways. It was hard to judge which one was more attractive. Her grandfather warned her not to trust a man, especially a pretty one, and she had two in front of her.
    They both wanted her. The way they looked at her—they knew her well and pined after her. But why didn’t she remember them? She decided it best not to trust either one.
    Then, from a distant memory, a song reached her. The lyric was ancient— a language she couldn’t place. It entranced her. She was a princess in a blooming garden; a moonbeam of gold dust twirled around her. Winged fairies put a crown of delicate flowers on her head before shooting back into the air. A prince stepped into the picture. It was the silver-haired boy. He gazed at her with love, yet she wasn’t sure about her own love for him. Still, her desire for him arose in response to his presence.
    “Ash?” she asked, her eyes sparkling with delight at the recognition.
    “Lucia.” Ashburn blew out a breath.
    She liked the way he said her name, as if she was indeed his princess. He was grateful that she identified him. Fondness toward him swelled in her, and she had an urge to touch him. She put her beads back on her wrist and stepped toward him, but then stopped in her tracks. Maybe she shouldn’t do that. There were so many people around them, gawking at her.
    “Láska,” the hazel-eyed boy called again, trying to step in front of Ash and remove him from her sight.
    She darted her gaze toward him, amused that he was trying so hard to get her attention. Fine, she could give him a few seconds for his effort. As she fixed on him, her eyes widened, not at the nasty cuts on his face, but at the amount of pain in his eyes. Did he lose someone dear to him? Sympathy for him brought back a memory. She realized who he was. He was the real prince, not the other boy.
    “What happened to you, Prince Vladimir?” she asked.
    “I picked a fight,” he said.
    “Why would you do that?” she asked.
    “My opponents were extremely annoying,” he said.
    “You can't fight everyone who is annoying,” she advised. “Soon you'll be fighting the whole world.”
    “Then I'll fight the whole world,” he said.
    He’s a wild card.
    A light illuminated another slice of memory. Why did she keep having fragmented flashbacks? “Vladimir Blazek,” she said. His name associated with so many things.
    He quirked an eyebrow to flaunt his carefree charm, but Lucienne had caught a flash of disquiet in his eyes. Did he often brace for the worst? She wouldn’t doubt that by looking at his swollen face.
    “If I’m not mistaken,” she said matter-of-factly, “‘being extremely annoying’ is what everyone usually says about you.”
    Vladimir blinked. Then there was a spark in his eyes. She used to talk to him like that when they’d met at Desert Cymbidium, her family’s military school.
    “That’s slander,” he said. “Now you see why I had to teach them a lesson and show them the consequences of infuriating me.”
    She cocked her head to the side, regarding his slit bottom lip. “It seems you got the consequences.”
    Ashburn snorted in delight at her mockery of the other boy, as did the men in the room. Lucienne swept her gaze to Ashburn. His hostility toward the Czech prince was like an open furnace. Obviously, he wasn’t thrilled that Vladimir grabbed her attention. Was Ash the