There were three rules every Imperial Princess had to follow.

Hats were traded in for tiaras for dinner, dresses were always worn below the knee and the Sector Aptitude Test was mandatory.

Melena finished the test in under an hour. Each question seemed to be more rhetorical than the last, but Melena did exactly what her grandmother would have wanted her to do. She'd taken the test and gotten every question correct. Other Sectors had a thing where they would miss questions on purpose trying to evade being chosen for the Tournament. If you failed in London Town, there was nothing left for you.

You were no longer important.

And to Melena, being important was everything.

Melena watched closely as her sister settled into the square. Once upon a time, the two girls were closer than anyone could ever imagine. There was something about the bond of sisters that couldn't be broken.

Until Melena managed to break it.

She shook away her thoughts as she joined in the clapping for Old Prosperity's Pieces. She was proud of her sister, even if they hadn't talked in almost a decade. London Town was home to the children of the highest leaders of the Republic, it was only fitting that they'd fought against the strongest fighters the Republic had to offer. London Town versus Old Prosperity wasn't just smart.

It was a perfect balance.

A head nod from a boy on the Board took Melena's attention away from criticizing the other team. She hated the fact that nods were how she and Minho communicated with each other

Melena closed her eyes as she managed to catch her breath. Certain nods meant certain things and this one meant that Minho knew the scores already. He'd probably hacked into the system the minute that they'd left the testing room. Melena stared into his eyes as he transferred his memories to her.

A jumble of numbers and letters flashed into her mind and she bit her lip. The numbers stopped when they reached the final two. Minho had gotten a perfect score. The coveted 2900. Everyone knew that the King Piece was just one step below the Queen, meaning if Minho had a perfect score, so did Katherine.

She wanted to reach out and provide him with comfort. Katherine being Queen was one thing but Minho being King would make him the King of the one thing Melena couldn't protect him from. They'd grown up in the Palace together side by side. His mother was the Queen of Scotland and her grandmother was the Empress of the Republic of Scottish American States. By that alone, Melena was more powerful than Minho ever would be.

Which is why she'd get him out of state dinners and court meetings and in exchange, he'd sneak her into his physical training sessions. Minho went out of his way to make sure that Melena knew there was more to just being a Princess than dresses and waving at dinners.

Over the years, Minho had become her favorite son of Dalia Augustine.

Maybe it was because they were both the middle children. Melena's older brother was in line to be the next Emperor while Minho's brother was in line to be King. Her grandmother even managed to pair Katherine with Minho's younger brother Sebastian so that Melena and Minho could bond. It looked good for their families for their children to get along.

The rest was history.

Minho used to be hers.

But now Melena wasn't his.

Instead of her attention being on the chessboard in front of her, Melena's focus was her fiancé.

Dressed in an all-black tuxedo, every part of Maxim screamed that he was King. Jet fabric traveled down his body, gold cufflinks near his wrists shining as the spotlight glistened over the Pieces. His hair was the opposite of his brothers, light brown, short and kept together. No strand had been left out of place. Melena smiled up from beside him as he waved at the people around them.

The three tattoos on his arm were visible as he continued to wave. Melena snickered; his sleeves were too short as usual. A red flame came first, followed by a blue ocean wave and a yellow sun. They represented the metahuman factions of Flamer, Frost and Elite, respectively.

More like Maxim represented them.

"Number Sixteen, our first London Town Pawn of the night," Cassius pointed into the crowd, the yelling getting louder by the minute. "Allison Lockwood."

"You'd think we'd be used to this by now," Maxim laughed as they took their seats. He reached over and placed a hand on Melena's knee. "How are you holding up?"

"Better now that we are back in the same room," she chuckled as she leaned into him.

"And what if we were alone in the same room," he titled her chin up to face him. "Would that make things better, Mel?"

"The Rooks!" Cassius's voice bellowed over her thoughts.

"Maybe," Melena's voice trailed off as she positioned herself to have a closer look at the Board. A boy and a girl from a few rows ahead of them stood up and made their way to the black and white tiles.

Maxim kissed her forehead. "You're distracted."

"Because," she pointed her hand out to the Board. "We know them, Maxim."

"We know almost everyone in here."

"I mean personally," Melena rolled her eyes. "Pay attention."

The Pieces being reaped in this order wasn't by chance.

Maxim couldn't pick up on it because they weren't his people. While he was over in Scotland for half the year doing God knows what, it had been Melena who'd gotten to know the people of London Town. She was the one they looked to for safety and security.

She should have known better.

There was no way that they'd be allowed to fight against Old Prosperity without a challenge on their end. Six heirs to Melena's throne had been reaped plus five from Maxim's. It was only a matter of time before Old Prosperity would be forced to kill an heir in order to progress in a challenge. There were usually seven but, every now and then, there was the rare case of a team making it to the ninth one.

Nothing scared Melena like The Challenges did.

The first one was The Challenge of Possession. The objective was in the name. Each team would be competing for possession of the Board. It was smart to have possession first because it meant you were in control for the entire game. The losing team would have to adjust their strategy based on what Piece you moved.

Second, came Family Dinner. The object of the challenge was to work with your Chess Family to gather as much correct information on the families on the opposite teams. The only Pieces that could compete were those who didn't have a relation to anyone in the game. In the end, you only needed one correct family tree to win. If there was ever a challenge Melena wanted to avoid, it was the second one.

No one needed to know Katherine was her sister.

Not even Maxim.

There were reasons why they'd play together in secret and why Katherine could never join her on trips to other Sectors. In her family, a sister was someone that shared the blood of both parents. As far as Melena was concerned, the only sister she had that fit that rule was Emile. As far as her grandmother was concerned, Melena and Emile were the only Imperial Princesses.

Family Dinner was not going to destroy that.

Blackmail was her favorite challenge. Every year, at the top of one of the tallest buildings in New Haven—the sector where Chess is always held—were two flash drives. Each one held the biggest secret that the team as a collective had. No one knew whose secret it was or how they ended up on the drive. The only thing that mattered in Blackmail was that the dirt always came in handy for the later challenges.

The fourth challenge was when the real fun began. The Art of Seclusion was the only challenge that dropped the Pieces back in civilization. The goal was to spend two days in a Sector without being noticed by anyone that had been watching the tournament. It was usually the first time they had any real interactions with the opposing Pieces that wouldn't be caught on camera.

Meaning Melena could stir the pot in peace.

Challenge five was the boring one. It was called The Vials. It tested for knowledge of literally everything. It was basically the large version of the Sector Aptitude Test, except this time a Pieces answers would be said in front of everyone.

Now, Six?

Six was Melena's playground.

Every year, the Empress's White Gala was the home of the sixth challenge. For most of the Pieces, it would be the first time they were ever in a room with the Royal and Imperial families. For Melena, it was the opportunity to have one foot in the game and one foot in whatever bullshit her grandmother had going on. She'd been watching Pieces come and go from the time she was old enough to stand.

Then there was lucky number seven. The Dark Days was the seventh challenge. It was the big reveal of secrets past, present and future. Most Pieces turn against each other and it always does more harm than good. The Dark Days might have been the scariest challenge yet.

The Elite Elder would travel in your mind using some kind of spell that only the highest Elite could master and reveal your thoughts to everyone. A lot of Pieces ended up so shaken, they lost their minds. The ones that didn't lose their minds, lost their ability to trust themselves with secrets.

Melena didn't know which one was worse.

If you played the game long enough, you'd be introduced to challenge eight, The Abyss of Truth. The reason no one ever made it that far is because the challenge itself was halfway illegal. Each Piece remaining in the tournament would be given a government file on someone in the game. It could be someone on your team or someone on the opposing team. It didn't matter who got who, what mattered was the folders held in them.

Melena knew from watching the last three tournaments alone that those folders changed lives.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment that we have all been waiting for," Cassius's voice shook Melena from her thoughts. "The King of London Town."

If it wasn't for the chair supporting her, Melena would have fallen to her knees.

Maxim's full name escaped Cassius's lips so smoothly, Melena almost missed it. 2900 kept flashing in her mind every time she closed her eyes. Minho had tried to give her the answer before it even mattered. She'd just been too distracted by his brother to pay attention to his warning.

The auditorium fell to silence as he began his walk to his place. There were no claps this time. There were no whispers or coughs. A perfect score meant you had a reason to be in Chess, a reason worth fighting for, a reason that you were willing to die for. Melena saw his score with her own eyes. Maxim had done what few could ever achieved on their own.

Cassius held the final envelope as high as he could while the spotlight made its way over the remaining London Town candidates. No one dared to say it aloud.

There was only one Piece remaining.

The Queen.

Melena locked eyes with Minho who hung his head in defeat.

Six letters.

One word.

"Melena."