30. Adina

30

ADINA

A s I watched James walk away, a feeling of despair settled in my chest. What had I done wrong?

Perhaps my joke about his appearance was a bit overfamiliar, but it was true, and he'd never minded such comments before.

"I—" I began, but Queen Maryana lifted her hand to stop me.

"The show was marvelous, and we are delighted to have you with us this evening." She rose from her throne and extended her hand to me.

"Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed the show." I took her hand, allowing her to lead me onto the dais, ignoring the gasps from the assembled peerage.

This was unexpected.

"I'd love to hear more about Eastern dances," she said. "And you seem knowledgeable on the subject. Please, join me for refreshments in my aviary."

She was trying to get me alone, but why?

I glanced around, noting the puzzled, even angry looks on the faces of the peerage, but more worrisome was the king's foreboding expression.

I decided it was safer to go with the queen than stay with the angry crowd. "I would love to," I said. "But I did promise more of a show."

"You can finish it when we return," the queen said pleasantly. "We won't be long."

"Maryana..." the king said in a low warning tone.

"Jaimesh."

Whatever passed between them in married-speak ended with the queen nodding imperiously and leading me to a glass building across the garden. Even from outside, I could hear the birdsong, but entering the space was a sensory overload. As the artificial lights flickered on, I looked around in wonder.

Those were real birds. Not the simple pigeons and wrens that populated the rest of Londabad but beautiful creatures in vibrant yellows, blues, and reds. Birds with long tails and curved beaks, some with calls that sounded like mournful songs, others like merry dances.

"Isn't it lovely?" the queen asked as she closed the door behind us.

"Yes. It's marvelous." I looked around and noticed that there were no refreshments to be seen. Uh-oh. Maybe she'd brought me here to murder me and bury the body in the loamy soil beneath our feet?

Oof. That's letting your imagination run wild, Adina .

"It's my favorite place in the whole palace," she continued, taking a handful of birdseed from a covered dish and raising her hand. Three blue and yellow birds flew over, vying for the prized perch on her thumb as they battled for the seeds. She let them peck at her with a look of easy pleasure, then watched them fly off once they were done. "Whenever things get too difficult for me to bear, I come here and sit with my birds, and it always soothes me, but my son doesn't have a place like this."

Ah, now we were getting to the heart of the matter. I opened my mouth, but she apparently didn't require me to speak just yet.

"As the prince and our only son, a great deal of responsibility was put on James's shoulders from a young age. He was expected to work very hard and was rarely given the chance to express his opinions or remove himself from the strains and stresses of royal life." She sighed. "His push for independence nearly led to his ruin. He might still be ruined by it."

"I don't understand." I frowned. "Does this have to do with why he left early tonight?"

"It does. James found someone who became his refuge, but unfortunately, she wasn't appropriate for him. When his father found out about her, he reacted very badly."

That was a polite way of saying he had me killed because I wanted to run off with his son.

"James has been in a state of fugue ever since. The little laugh he gave you was the first emotion he's displayed in nearly a month now."

"I'm so sorry to hear that," I hurried up and said. "I'm glad that I managed to make him laugh, but he seemed to get upset with me right after."

I hadn't known that the prince was so distraught over my presumed death, and a small part of me was glad because that meant he had feelings for me, but the bigger part of me wanted to end his torment and let him know that I was still alive and doing better than ever. Regrettably, I couldn't do that without risking everything I had built up so carefully with the help of Gene, or worse, my life.

The queen smiled sadly. "I want to hear him laugh again and find his way back to normalcy. I want to build on that small spark."

"Of course. But how do you plan to do that?"

She looked at me with her piercing eyes. "I need your help, Princess Aramar. I want you to have more of a presence in the palace and try to draw the prince out of his depression. You will be compensated lavishly for running daily shows in the palace."

Ah, so she wanted me to be the parent-approved intervention for James, and she was going to cover up her intentions by pretending that she hired me to entertain the peerage. I couldn't think of a quicker way for him to come to detest me, or rather Princess Aramar, and I couldn't let that happen. I had to find a way to tell the prince who I was as soon as I could and without losing everything I had worked for.

A few staid greetings and then a suggestion to talk somewhere in private, where Gene could work his magic to shut off all the listening devices that the place was full of. There was even one in here recording us right now.

"I will do what I can," I said.

"Thank you." She looked relieved that I agreed. "I appreciate it."

She wouldn't be as appreciative when she heard the rest of my demands. "To succeed, though, I need freedom to do things my way and without an audience. I know that complete privacy is impossible, but I need to be able to speak with the prince without a chaperone."

The queen raised her eyebrows. "That's highly inappropriate for an unrelated man and woman to meet in private and unsupervised."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "Your Majesty, Prince James is twenty-six years old. Everyone in his peer group is allowed time to be themselves, to visit the Riverside Promenade, to go to restaurants and see shows, and to do the things that all young people do. Whereas your son, quite famously, has never even been allowed beyond these walls. A chaperone would defeat the purpose of what you're trying to do."

She looked paler than she had a minute ago. "I suppose it seems very strange to you," she murmured. "But you must understand, my son is all his father and I have. There is no other candidate for the throne, and we must protect him at all costs."

"The prince has a very capable bodyguard. Ravana is the most advanced model available. He would suffice to protect the prince from danger, while I wouldn't need to worry about his discretion. This will never work if James thinks I'm only doing it because you asked me to, and I can't stage impromptu meetings with him while accompanied by a chaperone."

She tilted her head and looked at me with a slight furrow in her brow. "How are you going to stage those impromptu meetings? And how are you going to explain wanting to be alone with him? Prurient curiosity?"

I laughed. "Isn't that enough?" I let my expression turn somber. "I know how it feels to be trapped, so the prince and I have a lot in common." I wasn't lying because I literally had been trapped in the Vault, so if the queen was utilizing a truth-detecting device, it wouldn't go off. "I went to a lot of effort to escape my own situation."

"Was it so bad in Edinbai?" the queen asked gently.

"I wouldn't want to go back," I extemporized. "That is why I feel a certain kinship to James. He deserves to live as a young man should. He shouldn't be crushed beneath the weight of expectation before he needs to step up and take his father's place on the throne."

"I see." The queen was still for a moment, then finally inclined her head. "I will see that you get your privacy and are not disturbed when you are alone with my son. Will you come back tomorrow early in the day? I can schedule a noon show so you can still keep up your nightly engagements. I wouldn't want to disrupt the schedule of your shows."

Spoken like a true entertainer. "I would be delighted to come back."

"Thank you." She reached out and took my hands in hers. Her skin was warm, soft, and smooth—the opposite of mine. "I think this will work out splendidly, Princess Aramar."

"I hope so." I gave her my brightest reassuring smile.

Thankfully, the queen didn't seem to notice the roughness of my skin as compared to hers. It was a dead giveaway of my modest origins. No princess had hands like mine.

I could think of half a dozen other ways the queen's plan could become a nightmare, but it was my best shot at getting some alone time with James.