Chapter 31

Flora

It’s not lost on me where I was almost a year ago today.

A year ago was the day I fell from the royal balcony box because I wasn’t paying attention to my quarreling brothers. I was too busy knitting Callum a sweater to pay much attention to what was going on. It was just another birthday for the Favored Prince.

And suddenly, I was hanging there, dangling like a puppet on a string, wondering how I had gotten there. Below me was the hard ground of the plaza and a thousand screaming citizens. Above me were the panicked faces of my three brothers.

And then I fell.

And Jakob caught me.

I didn’t realize who he was at the time—that the man who caught me was my own flesh and blood. Jakob—the brother none of us knew we had—was there, and he broke my fall.

I’m not tiny, and I’m grateful he wasn’t injured in the process. But he’s big like Sigurd.

I knew instantly that I’d dropped Callum’s ring. Stupid boy, why did he entrust me with a precious family heirloom!

So when I caught his eye across the plaza, I felt panic, sorrow, and guilt.

I wanted to explain, I wanted to tell everyone to back up so I could look for Callum’s ring, but Uther and all of the security officers swept me away to a waiting car. I was brought to the castle and locked behind doors until doctors could look me over.

“I’m perfectly fine,” I told them.

And I’m perfectly fine now, rescuing myself from this tower.

I breathe a sigh of relief when my feet touch the ground.

Poor Sable.

I’ve ruined the dress.

All that’s left is the bodice, a bit of the skirt, and the crinoline underneath.

The good news is the dress served a noble purpose: as a length of rope to rappel down the side of this building.

Now that that’s done, I have to get out of here.

I tug down the tied-together strips of fine silk, wrap the makeshift rope around my waist, and run.

I run through this unfamiliar section of woods, cursing myself for not paying attention on all my hikes with Callum.

But at least I’m back on solid ground and free of my imbecile captors, whoever they are.

Unlike a year ago, there’s no one around to tell me what to do. So I think. I listen to my heart and run to where I think Callum might be.