Tandem

because of one mistake. I wanted to put my arms around her, to comfort her, but I wasn’t sure if I should. There was the protocol, after all.

“Your Highness?” I turned to see Thomas at the end of the corridor, fixing his mother and me with a stare.

“Yes?”

“Prince Callum is looking for you,” he told me.

“Fine. Let me walk Mrs. Mayhew to her moto, and I’ll be right in.”

“I’ll do it. The prince is being … rather insistent.” There was a sharp edge to his words that told me he was exaggerating about Callum, but I stepped aside anyway. Maybe he wanted to patch things up with his mother; if that was the case, I didn’t want to stand in the way of it.

“Good night, Your Highness,” Alice Mayhew said with a smile. I could see hope shining in her eyes. “I’ll see you at your wedding?”

“Of course,” I told her. “Get home safe, Mrs. Mayhew.”

She looked me right in the eye and smiled. “You too, my dear.”

 

THOMAS AT ASTHALL

“I’m so glad you’ve decided to talk to me,” his mother said as they walked down the long driveway to where she’d parked her moto. “I want you to know how terribly sorry I am for what you overheard. I didn’t mean it, T, I —”

“Please, don’t,” Thomas said. “That’s not why I’m here. I’m going to ask you a question, and I need you to tell me the truth. Okay?”

“Why would I lie to you, Thomas? I’m your mother.” Her voice was wobbly, which dislodged something inside of him.

“I know,” he said gently. “I know you love me. And I’m sorry that I’ve been so distant since … since that night. But I need you to answer my question.”

“Of course. Anything. Ask me anything and I’ll tell you the truth.”

He drew in a deep breath. “When was the last time you saw Lucas?”

Alice thought it over. “Well,” she said. “It must’ve been about a month ago? He came to stay with me for a few days to celebrate my birthday.”

Thomas felt another pang. Maybe Lucas deserved to be the favored son. After all, Thomas had forgotten all about her birthday. “Are you sure that was the last time? He wasn’t there this weekend?”

“No, I would remember,” she said sharply. “I’m not addled, you know.”

He forced himself to laugh. “I know you’re not.”

“So that was it? That was all you wanted to know?” He could see a buried fierceness rise up within her. Alice Mayhew was not always the sweet, gentle being who had dined with Sasha tonight. She could also be tough and demanding, and all that suppressed intensity was rising to the surface. She wasn’t just sad, she was angry. But he didn’t have time to deal with it right now.

“Yeah, Mom, that was it. I’ve got to go back inside now. Are you okay getting home?”

“Yes, I’ll be fine.” She reached over to press her thumb against the moto door lock, then turned to face him again. “She’s a lovely girl, T. A lovely, lovely girl.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You mean the princess?”

“Yes, of course,” she said, with an inscrutable glimmer in her eye. “Who else?”

When his mother was gone, Thomas stood at the end of the driveway and reached into his pocket, pulling out a blue origami star. Gloria had sent him back for a few things she’d forgotten to pack for Sasha, and he’d seen it lying on her bedside table. Normally he wouldn’t have touched anything he wasn’t explicitly told to bring, but it had seemed out of place and significant, calling out to him to pick it up and open it. So he had.

Now he opened it once more.

T—I’m sorry, but I can’t. I wish I was better, but I’m not. —J 

THIRTY

As it turned out, there wasn’t much to do at Asthall Cottage after dinner. I ended up playing hearts with Callum, who was extremely good at it and beat me three hands out of four. Finally, I pled exhaustion and turned in for the night. Callum walked me to my room, lingering at the door.

“I like it out here,” he told me. “It’s so peaceful.”

“Me too,” I told him. It was such a relief to be away from most—if not all—of the prying eyes at the Citadel.

“When we’re married, we should come out here all the time,” Callum said. “Every weekend if we can.”

“That’s a good idea,” I murmured. Briefly, I tried to pretend that I was actually getting married to Callum, that any of his plans for the future might come to pass. It wasn’t an altogether unpleasant prospect—if I was going to be forced into marriage, there was no one I could think of better suited to being a husband than the sweet, considerate young prince—but it didn’t feel right, either, and not only because I was way too young to get married.

He kissed me on the cheek. “See you in the morning.”

I smiled. “See you.”

He got halfway down the hallway before turning back. “You know what’s weird?”

“What?” I asked, hand on the doorknob. It was ridiculous, but I was overjoyed by the fact that all the doors in Asthall had knobs. There were no panels, no biometric scanners, no codes to memorize. I could have stayed there forever.

“In a few days, we’ll be sleeping in the same bed,” he said, raising a playful eyebrow.

I swallowed hard. “Yeah. Weird. Well, good night!” I slipped through the bedroom door and shut it firmly. Kissing Callum was one thing, but sleeping in the same bed with him … we had to find Juliana by then. We just had to. I did the calculations in my head. Two days. We were running out of time.

“Hey.”

I jumped. “Thomas, you scared me. What are you doing in here?”

He rose from where he was sitting, in an armchair close to the window. “I was hoping to talk to you,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“About what?” I sat down on the bed and watched as he paced the room. “How jealous I am? And manipulative? Are you here to call me a liar again?”

“Stop, please.” He hung his head in shame. “I spoke to my mother, and I asked her when the last time was that she’d seen Lucas. She told me that he came out to her house for her birthday, April eleventh. Except Lucas told me that he’d just gotten back from seeing her this weekend. Which means that first of all, he lied, and second of all, there’s no explanation for his absence during the time when you saw him in your visions.”

I sat perfectly still, not even breathing. I knew where he was going with this, but I wasn’t going to make it easy on him, not after the things he’d said to me.

“And I found this.” He held up the origami star. “On the nightstand in Juliana’s room. Do you know what it says?”

I nodded. “I saw her write it. Through the tether.”

“You were right. About all of it.” He shook his head, despair etched all over his face. “She left. She turned her back on us and she left. I thought bringing you here would buy us time to rescue her, but she doesn’t want to be rescued. I ripped you out of your world for nothing. I’m so sorry, Sasha. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Please don’t,” I said, tears springing to my eyes. I was so tired, and he looked so sad, that my anger evaporated. “It’s all right. If I were you, I wouldn’t have believed me, either. She’s your friend, he’s your brother.