Pyper’s 3 Deleted Scenes from Prince Zadkiel

Big Plans for Pyper

This is from book two: Prince Zadkiel.

I had big plans for Pyper, Countess of Centaurus, and was going to put her in the top 5 contestants in RMC3: The Fate of the Empire. She was more unique in style compared to the other contestants in that she was very sporty. After getting feedback from RMC1 that there were too many characters, I made the hard decision to take Pyper out, almost completely. Sadly, she almost has no lines in RMC2 anymore.

This also meant that I had to take the scenes out with Pyper’s three brothers, Pytor, Payley, and Percival. Overall, I think my readers will appreciate having less to remember.

1) Entering the Bachelorette Pad the first time

Notes from the author

This takes place after the opening ceremony and ball, when the girls enter the Bachelorette Pad for the first time.

The Deleted Scene:

Pyper of Centaurus burst into the room with both doors flying open, as if she owned the place. Then she put her hands on her hips and took a good look at the room’s decor. 

With a smile on her face, Pyper said nothing to the contestants in the room and skipped around to check out all the main areas, then stepped into her private room next to Grace and Esperanza’s bedchambers. She heard as the two girls chatted in the room next door about dresses and frilly things that mattered very little to her. She owned dresses, but found trousers to be far more comfortable and versatile.

Her bed had four large wooden posts and a deep blue curtain falling on each side with hand carved dressers and a desk, plus a vanity and ottoman. It was as big as her room at home, and these were the shared quarters. It made her wonder how extravagant the royal family’s wing might be. She flopped on the bed and laughed at how luxurious this palace was, how excited she was to finally meet the crown prince of Velazia, and how she likely stood out from the other girls in her choice in attire. She smiled as she recalled how happy he’d seemed about the stallion, and felt confident in winning his hand.

2) The Talent Show

Notes from the author

My attempt was to introduce some main characters right away, and slowly trickle the rest in after the reader was more comfortable with those already introduced. At this point in the story, the readers knew: Grace, Kaitlynn, Esperanza, Aaliya, and Makayla fairly decently. That’s a lot. If I were to rewrite the book, I’d do a better job and limiting the amount of characters overall, but that knowledge gained came with having already written it. Adding Pyper into this scene only complicated things. So I took her out.

The Deleted Scene:

Only two more performances remained. Pyper had sported men’s clothing at the opening ceremony which was a bold approach. Still, she sat in the back of my memory, the opening ceremony had become a blur in my mind, the dull introductions had rolled one contestant and their families into another, without understanding of how wonderful each girl truly was, or what great talents they possessed.

Countess Pyper took out several balls and began juggling. But as entertaining as it was, my thoughts remained on the previous performance, until someone’s snarky comment from the side threw me from my hypnosis.

“What is she, a jester?” Aaliya said from a row over.

The juggling became more impressive when someone threw balls at her from the side and she caught them. Then she started rolling them up one arm, and down the other, then juggled them through her legs, and even threw them to the ceiling, did backbends and backflips, then caught the balls as they returned.

“I’d hire her for my entertainment. That is if we had a medieval table we all ate around, but the Renaissance is far above thirteenth century stature,” Saqoiya said haughtily.

“I like it,” I protested with furrowed brows.

3) The Magic Carpet Ride 

Notes from the author

Originally, Pyper had won the sword fighting competition and went on the magic carpet ride and date. However, there weren’t enough scenes with Kaitlynn and I had gone through a long process of eliminating Pyper from books two and three before Prince Zadkiel went out to reviewers. Therefore, I gave this scene Kaitlynn instead.

The Deleted Scene:

A guard approached us. “Your Majesty, the magic carpet ride is ready.”

“Shall we?” My hand reached out to Pyper, who was having a jolly good time after her commanding win, and surely won the hearts and respect of many in the crowd today.

“It’s my honor,” she said and took my hand. Her nails were painted green like her eyes today.

Everyone cheered as a cobalt blue magic carpet with swirls of geometric patterns flew onto the royal seating area.

“Not fair!” I heard Aaliya from the crowds.

Pyper and I sat close together as the carpet wasn’t very big, and depending on how high we went, it was a long way to fall. We waved as it slowly flew up and over the crowd, then over the palace. Then I began to realize how dangerous this thing was. There should have been straps or something to hold onto in case a big wind came along, but there was nothing.

My hand wrapped around Pyper’s waist to hold her close. She leaned and and we snuggled together. Of course, I held onto her because I liked her and not because of fears of falling off… But Pyper took no cares and scanned the world below us with an innocent heart.

The carpet was slow, but it was a good thing, for we had to direct the carpet where to fly. It didn’t have a mind of its own and if we fell, it wouldn’t know how to catch us. The trainer had given me an hour long carpet flying lesson, but I had been instructed that if we went over the city, we had to fly high enough to be out of a bullet’s range. At this moment, I didn’t want to do that.

“Where do you want to go?” I asked through the breeze but dared not move too much on this thing.

She laughed. “To Payonna.”

“The carpet is too slow, it’d take all week.”

“I’m okay with that.”

I pulled her even closer and our foreheads touched. For a moment, we gazed into each other’s eyes. How I would take her there if I could. Our moment was ruined, however, by a small breeze and I quickly reached down to hold onto the carpet. She laughed at me.

“Ah, it’s nothing.” I played it down. “Just a little… breeze…”

Instead of Payonna Queendom, we went north over the palace and toward the mountains. But the carpet had a harder time the higher the elevation we climbed, so we headed back down and circled the palace and pond. Many people looked up and waved as we floated by. The entire venture took nearly forty minutes before we safely landed on the roof.

“Burr. The breeze was cold up there.” She shivered, so I put my cloak around her and led her to some seats overlooking the front of the palace and with a good view of the city beyond.

“You should have told me you were colder earlier, I hardly feel like a gentleman anymore,” I said.

“I was so mesmerized by everything that I didn’t notice my own body temperature.”

The servants arrived with our lunch.

“We definitely have to sword fight now,” I said before popping some fresh grapes from our garden into my mouth. “And try that backflip thing you did.”

She laughed. “You certainly dominated the floor today, but I could never defeat you. The only reason I’m as good as I am is because I had trained with my brothers.”

“We’ll play just for fun. I’ll teach you a thing or two as I know their weaknesses now.” I stretched my arm behind her on the couch.

“I actually learned the backflip on our ship. I’d start out by flipping into the water. And I think it was in the Seaweed Cove that I did it for the first time on land.”

“Why in the world would you travel to the Seaweed Cove?” Mermaids, sirens, and other dangerous creatures dwell there.

She took a bite of her salad before replying. “Once, a man was stranded on one of the smaller land masses. My father was busy in a meeting, so my brothers dared me to row out there and rescue him. And I did. No problem. Took him to land, did my backflip, then returned victorious. But my father wasn’t too happy when he heard. But really, mermaids aren’t so dangerous. I’ve met and spoken with a few, it’s the sirens that you have to watch out for. ”

She sipped on some orange juice. “In case, I knew we were safe. Sirens don’t like being in shallow water or too close to humans who sometimes catch and kill them.”

“Yes, your profile sparks many interesting conversations,” I recalled.

“What adventures have you been on?” She turned the tides.

Our lunch was over, so I scooted as close as possible and took her hand in mine. My thumb traced the lines in her hand.

“My mother was cooped away in the palace her whole life so she—not only wanted to explore for herself—but for me to see the world before I got too bogged down with duties. She took me to see Nololay for my coming-of-age elven ceremony. We also stopped by Moonstone, and I later went to Centaurus to ride a ship. But I’ve never been to Baylor, Tildon, or Ogarz because of opportunists from Baylor who might try to harm me.”

“Do you not think it’s important to know all your people? Many feel Ogarz is neglected,” she said.

“If the magic carpet could only go a little faster,” I joked.

Then I reached up and pulled a hair back from her face and debated kissing her but I was still conflicted. Already I kissed two other girls and I figured I should be more reserved for fear of breaking their hearts, or of upsetting the one I’d end up marrying. Seeing how McKinley couldn’t move on from my mother … I just couldn’t decide. However, the urge to kiss her lingered in the air like a cloud beckoning to release its water.

“I suppose we should do more for Ogarz. They have such a unique culture and people. But we are distant from them,” I admitted.

She looked up at me with eyes that peeked out from under her bangs. My finger continued to tussle with her hair, which she seemed to enjoy.

We went on to discuss our views about each of the cities—their people, culture, and politics—as well as the more about our families. Then we agreed to have a sword fighting match when she wasn’t tired and to go hunting together in the woods near the palace. After that it was getting late and Reynolds came to remind me to prepare for my date this evening.

We walked toward the staircase together and my hand caressed her back. Maybe I should kiss her, I debated. I want to. We shared a hug at the bottom of the staircase, where I held onto her just a little longer than normal, stroking her back. Then her neck.

We started to pull away, but I pulled her back in. She responded by squeezing me into a bear hug. Then our cheeks brushed against each other. Our faces were an inch apart. And…

I kissed her forehead.

“I can’t wait to see you again.”

I Kissed her forehead?!? Her forehead? Quick, I can still give her a real kiss, I can…

She pulled away and walked down the hallway without looking back.

Argh! I missed my moment. Next time. Will there be a next time, right? We had chemistry. I could’ve, would’ve, should’ve kissed her just … my hand pounded my forehead as I walked away. She felt that moment between us too, I could see it in her eyes. What if I was hurting her heart more by not kissing her because she needed the validation that I wanted this relationship to grow? But what if I didn’t like our kiss as much as Esperanza or Grace? Or I liked her kisses more than them and …

“What are you mumbling about?”

“Ah!” I yelped like a little girl at the sight of Saqoiya. Was I mumbling out-loud?