POV
King Knox De La Rosa
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Loud, fast, and persistent knocks beat against my office door. Without even waiting for my response, the door swung open. I turned in my swivel chair and frowned. My right-hand man, Emilio, froze in the doorway. It was not out of the ordinary for him to enter my office unannounced, but only when I was not occupied.

I was on a hologram conference call with the king of Italorum. It was an impromptu call, so Emilio wasn't aware.

"King Luigi and I are just shooting the breeze, Emilio. It's not official business," I offered, hoping to mollify the panic on my friend's face.

Emilio crossed the room and slid down into the chair across from my desk.

I returned my attention back to the holographic King of Italorum. He continued his dialogue in rapid Italian without pause. He was passionately listing all the reasons his niece would be the perfect wife for me. Luigi called himself the matchmaker. Every few months, he had a different relative he thought would be my perfect queen. He was as bad as my mother.

The old king paced in his office arms flailing a bit as he spoke, I grinned at his theatrics. His full-sized hologram walked through the oak chest in my office, glitching slightly to correct his form.

I quirked an eyebrow Emilio's way to see if he was catching any of the show.

There were sweat beads across his forehead as he flipped a stylus pen over and through his fingers mindlessly.
I stood, and the suddenness of it stalled King Luigi long enough in his speech for me to get a word in.

"When I have some free time, I will invite your niece out to lunch," I replied in Italian. Seemed like a harmless enough blowoff.

"I have to cut this call short, King Luigi. Something emergent has come up."
The king gave a quick nod, and I ended the call.

The hairs on the back of my neck rose as I observed more of Emilio's foot-tapping panic-like behavior. Emilio was the calm eye in the middle of a hurricane.

"Problem?" I demanded.

Without a word, Emilio slid a glass rectangular device as thin as a sheet of paper across my desk.

Reluctantly, I picked up the tablet and touched the screen to wake it up.

My heart gave an involuntary squeeze at the image on the screen. A reaction I haven't had since I was an adolescent teen.

"Why are you showing me a screen shot of Queen Ariadne?" I tried to pass the tablet back to him, but Emilio simply rose from his seat, hands tucked behind his back in a military parade rest.

"That isn't Queen Ariadne."

His statement hung  in the air while I waited for the pun. He swiped left on the screen and double-tapped to play the video of a young woman in a garden practicing the martial art of stick-fighting. Her technique was seamless as she flowed through her steps like liquid.

"This woman..." I pointed at the screen. "...is not Queen Ariadne?" I inquired, sitting in my swivel leatherback chair.

"No. She exited a bus from United Greecia into the town of Valoria two days. This is a park near the hotel she is staying in. Lancet Rivera, the director of our cybersecurity..."

Emilio explained when I frowned, trying to place the name. I nod my head, and he continued.

"Lancet said almost six weeks ago, this same woman entered our kingdom from some connecting flight from Freedom. She was only in Elysium for a few days, that by the time facial recognition flagged her, she had already left our kingdom. Here's the strange part... according to our scans she isn't wearing a photostatic veil."

"She is not wearing a veil capable of replicating anyone's face?" I repeated the words slowly so that he understood what he said.

Emilio gave a reluctant nod.  "Lancet said the only foreign body on her were some kind of lenses in her eyes."
He tapped his finger on the screen. "This is live footage of the park right now." I stare down at the screen, watching a young woman who apparently wasn't Queen Ariadne pause in her stick-fighting to speak with someone.

I swipe over to the photo of the young woman and slide it over on my screen, pulling up a picture of Queen Ariadne to compare the two. This woman was identical to Queen Ariadne except for the brown eyes.

Photostaic veils were not authorized for the public. It was for official military use only. More specifically only my Ghost had the authority to use it.

There were laws that prevented even my military from impersonating a royal.

"I don't understand what I'm looking at." Frustrated, I push the tablet away from me.

"There's a theory floating around amongst the few privy that have seen this video..." Emilio leaned forward, propping his elbows on the desk with his fingers clasped.

"Do you remember Nico Adamos?"

"The biotechnologist that cloned his father a few years ago?"
I slid my hands down my face, pushing my fingertips into my throbbing eyes. I was trying to understand where Emilio was going with this.

"He was executed for his illegal activities." I was beyond agitated and I didn't understand his point.

"He was a Greecian biotechnologist, and the Greecians were the ones to carry out his execution and 'destroy' all of his reports and documentation." Emilio made finger quotes around the word 'destroy.'

My eyes widened at his implication.
"You think they cloned Queen Ariadne?"

Stunned to silence, I sat there, staring at a nonexistent spot on the wall behind him.
No. That couldn't be right.

If Queen Ekko allowed that to happen, it could end a seven-year alliance with United Greecia. She was no fool. In fact, Queen Ekko's wisdom was the very reason her country wasn't at war after the broken pieces she had to clean up from her son's disappearance.

The kingdom of Elysium would never stand behind something so morally and ethically wrong. Not to mention the dangers that come with cloning humans. Cloning could push the human species to the brink of extinction.

"What other explanation could there be? That woman is an exact replica of the late queen. Our drones didn't detect any type of advanced technology on her. There doesn't really seem to be any other explanation. " Emilio made all valid points.

"Clear my schedule. We leave within the hour. That's a serious accusation to make when we have no proof."

Emilio stood quickly from his chair, closing the door behind him.

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"The drones have tracked her location,  she's finishing her meal at a nearby restaurant right now," Emilio said as we depart from the two passenger navigation pods. The quick traveling hyperloop pods did not come without its draw backs, sure you could travel anywhere in the world within minutes, but it left you feeling a bit nauseous.

"Can we call the clone a she? Is it an it?" Emilio asked, offering me a pill to counter act the nausea.
"It's form is a she. So maybe calling it a she seems like the way to go," he continued.
I snorted a laugh at his ramblings.

After a long while of us walking up a winding path, Emilio asked, "How are you doing with all of this? Not sure if it's a strange question, considering you haven't harbored a crush on Queen Ariadne since you were twenty-one ..."

"I wasn't twenty-one. I was at least fourteen when I got over that phase," I objected with a slight grin.

He chuckled. "Still, this has to feel a little personal."

"Other than righting a wrong, I feel nothing," I affirmed.

My ascension to the throne had been thrust upon me at a very early age; I was only 15. The only other country to allow hierarchy that young was Greecia. The other kingdoms had laws preventing anyone younger than twenty from taking the throne.

That was a lot of pressure on a young boy. So, I clung to the story of Queen Ariadne. I tried to emulate her strength and fearlessness. As a reminder of her incredible leadership, I kept a picture of her in my office. A visual reminder to rule my kingdom fearlessly. It didn't hurt that she was pleasant on the eyes.

In my eight years as the king of Elysium, my kingdom had grown and become the largest kingdom in the world now that I had officially taken Alkebulan under my regime.

The Greecians felt as if Queen Ariadne was the very heart and soul of their country. They still did.

That was an allegiance I strived for from the citizens in my nation. No Elysanos king had ever come close to my level of loyalty from Elysium. The devotion I had for my kingdom bled through to my people in a way that could not be fabricated, and I had Queen Ariadne to thank for setting such a high precedent for all nations to follow.

I could have let Emilio deal with this clone situation alone while I dealt with more pressing matters but the reason I dropped everything to be here was to resolve a problem before it caused a war against a country I had a genuine love for.

The lingering scent of blooming peach trees filled the air as the restaurant finally came into view. It was a rustic, beautifully restored farmhouse with wide porches draped in flowering vines. Peach trees stretched out as far as the eye could see, their branches heavy with ripening fruit.

The clone chose a great spot to have lunch. This restaurant was a local gem, nestled in the heart of a vast peach orchard. I hadn't found the time to eat here myself but it'd been on my to do list for years.

Every language I knew vanished at the sight of the clone, strolling out of the restaurant.
My heart beat a frenzied, untamed beat against my rib cage.

It?

She?

Was breathtaking, even from a distance. She wore a pair of well-fitted, high-waisted dark denim jeans that accentuated her long legs and a crisp, white blouse, made of lightweight fabric, that billowed gently in the breeze.
A purple ribbon tied her dark, wavy hair back into a low ponytail, while a few loose tendrils framed her heart-shaped face, softening her striking features.

She paused under a tree near the porch and plucked a ripe peach from the branch. She admired it for a moment, inhaling the delicate fragrance with her eyes closed before placing it carefully into her black bag. With a graceful turn, she continued with a leisurely stroll down a path beside the restaurant.

"When the target is out of view of civilians, secure her," I ordered through the comms device to my men positioned closest to the clone's location. She turned a corner that led her through the orchard, and my men followed. Minutes later, she emerged, looking left and right, surveying her surroundings. The sun glinted off a small object in her hand, catching my attention.

A blade.

"Holy shit," I breathed, wondering where the hell my trained Ghosts were. Considering the clone came out alone and not in cuffs.

When she turned left, in the opposite direction, Emilio and I took off at a run towards her.
We were on her in a matter of seconds. She whipped around, blade in hand. "Wait," I reasoned, raising my palms.

She looked up at me through a canopy of dark eyelashes with a gaze that would make a weaker man's heart stop. There was a flirtatious tilt to her bow-shaped lips, almost challenging me to approach her as she said, "Wow, you're beautiful." Her voice was husky and soft, sending heat prickling at the base of my skull and over my scalp.

The same could be said about you, was what I wanted to say. Instead, I said, "we need to talk to you about the face you're wearing. It is illegal impersonate a royal. Past or present. Who are you?"

At my demand, her smile widened on those too-perfect rosy lips. "Who are you?" She asked innocently.
It was possible she was taunting me.

Her blade vanished into her pocket as she moved with a confidence and grace towards me that demanded my full attention. I was rooted to my spot, staring at her, trying to unravel my thoughts and appear unaffected by the amusement dancing in her gaze.

My mouth felt like dust as I swallowed hard.
I tried not to let my gaze linger on her small waist. I definitely didn't notice the way her curvy hips swayed as she walked toward me with long, shapely legs. It was like I was hypnotized. Could the swaying of hips hypnotize a man? Because that was how it momentarily felt.

Fuck, she was perfection. Like a walking wet dream.

Within a blink, Emilio had her restrained, for which I was grateful. I knew she wasn't a real person, but in that moment I felt something shift between me and this clone.
She didn't even resist his hold. "Did you kill my men?" I questioned, crossing my arms.

She lets out an indelicate snort that has me biting back a grin. "The idiots that attacked me? No." She nodded at something behind me. My Ghost Elite limped out from beside the restaurant, one holding his head, the other his arm.

I walked up to her, pulling the collar of her shirt down slightly, looking for the thin necklace that usually indicated a veil. There was nothing there.
"The lenses in your eyes. Take them out," I ordered.

She smirked. "So bossy." Her sweet melodic voice was teasing. There it was again, the amusement flicking in her eyes, and a mischievously wicked grin that had me biting back a smile as I said, "Now."

Her tone was innocent as she said, "But my hands are so filthy. I'd rather not stick them in my eyes. I'd rather put them..." she paused, and rich brown eyes dropped and dilated with a heat that went straight to my groin as they roamed over my chest, lingering on my biceps.

Her lingering gaze definitely expressed the lascivious  thoughts she left unspoken.
I did not want to like that the clone had a filthy mind. I would not fall for whatever spell she was trying to bind me within. "Besides, you've seemed to forgotten that I'm kind of restrained at the moment," her tone sounded bored as she looked over at Emilio. Like she hadn't a care in the world. Did the clone not realize that she would be wiped from existence once I received solid proof.

"When he releases you, if you try to make a run for it he will kill you," I said, as one of my guards placed a UV light in my hand.
"He can try."She flashed Emilio a wicked grin and took a step closer to me. So close our shoes nearly touched. "Hold out your hands."

Her attention shifted over to the two men she attacked, and I could have sworn they flinched under her harsh gaze, but she complied, palms up. The UV light disinfected her hands and without any prompting, she removed the contact lenses.

Heat built under the collar of my shirt and prickled over my scalp as her violet gaze bore into me. One side of her mouth lifted into a smile, and heat raced down my spine, flooding my veins and making my heart race.

My world tilted.
It felt like I was falling into the vortex of her violet eyes as they pierced my very soul.

The urge to reach out and trace the dip of her collar bone, run my tongue over the gentle slope of her throat and taste her olive skin overwhelmed me.

I started to speak, to say what? I didn't know, but before I could even breathe in the air to speak the first word someone demanded, "Step away from the princess."

I knew that voice. Even before the clone said, "Ira?"
On numerous occasions I had tried to recruit Ira into my legion. I'd wanted him to be part of my Ghost Elite. Each time he refused. He was loyal to the Greecians and stayed to protect the queen.

"You are both under arrest for cloning the Queen of United Greecia," Emilio said. Ira's eyes widened but he locked his hands behind his back to be cuffed, glancing over at the clone.

Within the span of a blink. That was how fast she moved and Emilio was on his back on the ground. One fluid motion that my brain didn't quite comprehend.

"Don't," Ira hissed, latching onto the clones wrist. There was obvious fear in his eyes as he glanced my way. "Please don't resist, princess Calina. The queen will clear up this misunderstanding to King Knox. Just don't resist," his tone was pleading.