"Prince Fallon, is this your girlfriend?"
"Where is she from?"
"Does she really seem like the best choice for our next queen?"
I yanked Veda's arm pulling her to my chest and slamming the door shut behind her. The loud thud as it closed in the frame commanded the attention of everyone in the room. Madame Madeleine waved her arm, beckoning us. "Out the back, darlings. It'll buy you a few minutes peace."
I tugged Veda’s hand and rushed into the kitchen, nearly falling as my shoes hit the greasy floor, but I slid across to the rear door and burst into the alley. The voices around the front of the building echoed through the narrow passageway, but no one thought to chase us back here. At least not yet.
"This way." I jerked my head up the hill, toward the forest and ran down the alleyway, trying to keep our heads in the shadows. We rushed a few blocks and came out on the main street, but the nagging, questioning voices appeared behind us. Predators who’d caught the smell of fear and blood. Flashbulbs from cameras lit up the sky. I dashed into the next alley, Veda quick behind, her foot clipping my back heel as we ran, but I had no time to stop. We meandered through the streets rushing uphill, the added strain from the incline clear in Veda’s labored breath on in my neck.
Finally, we reached the edge of the city, the dark green leaves of the forest, full and beckoning. Miles of grounds where we could hide.
"Hold on." Veda ripped her hand from mine and bent over gripping her knees. Her breath came hard as her chest heaved in and out, her face blazing fire-red. I leaned against the stone wall of the last building in town and closed my eyes, listening for the reporters or anyone else who had decided to chase us, but the shouts seemed to have fallen away.
Veda’s breath slowed and she slid her arm around my waist. "I didn't know that lunch could be such an adventure."
I opened my eyes and stared right into hers, the emerald glow drawing me in like the forest. Cool. Safe. Mysterious. I rested my forehead against her brow as our breaths mingled together and came to a slow even rhythm that spiked my pulse to pick up its pace.
"I'm sorry about all this." I swooped the few strands blowing across her face behind her ear. "They're normally not this bad, but with everything going on I guess everything I do will be public now."
She cast her eyes downward, breaking the connection between us and lowered her voice." It's fine. But I believe you still owe me a debt, Fallon."
I watched the words roll off her soft red lips as my memory took me back to the temple, the last time we'd been this close. The last time I almost kissed her. I struggled to swallow, my throat desert dry. "Not here."
Her arm slipped from my waist and the sweet familiar smell of her faded as she stepped away.
"Don't worry about it."
I wiped my hands over my face, the cherry lemon scent still heavy on my skin. "It's not that I don't want to, but what if someone saw?"
She crossed her arms, her sad expression hardening faster than clay and more rigid than granite. "Oh. I get it. You’re only interested if no one knows.”
“No, not at all." I tried to take her hand but she backed up further. "It's just that being king has certain obligations and I need to be very careful with how I act and what ends up in the newspaper."
"So, let me make this simple. You’re king now and I'm not good enough, if I ever was. I understand."
She stuck her thumb and forefinger in her mouth and let out a high-pitched whistle.
"That's not what I said."
“But it's what you meant."
She slammed her hands on her hips. I tried to form words, but the guilty flame of my face spoke first.
“No, I…it’s just…”
She shook her head and cast her glassy stare toward the trees. I took her hand, but she jerked it from my grasp.
“Don’t.”
Alizeh appeared in the sky barreling toward the one open patch of ground before the forest treetops.
“Don’t go. Please, let me explain. The Council…and my new responsibilities…I don’t want to mess things up.”
“Then I’ll make it easy for you.” She tossed her hands in the air and backed up a few steps, a seething anger building in her pointed stare, then she ran towards Alizeh without looking back.
"Veda!" I screamed after her, but she'd already mounted the great bird and started off toward the sky. I smacked my head against the stone wall, the pain a punishment for my stupid mouth. One too light for what I deserved.
3
29th may
The gold-handled switchblade came from Draconis. My father always took me with him for his fall trade trip on the chance that we’d get to see a real live dragon. We never did, so he bought me the knife instead. The first addition to my collection. The straight blade with the ivory roses inset on the crimson leather-wrapped hilt came from our family trip to the Floris flower festival when I was twelve. The swords that stood tall in their showcases along the wall, each of them glittering with rubies, emeralds, sapphires, or even just the rarest crystals, each had their own stories to tell. Every blade a memory of my father and somewhere we’d gone together, or an adventure we had shared. Now they just reminded me of how much I missed him.
I pulled my
