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“Luna,” he mumbled, but Coraline snapped at him to hand her a knife, ignoring my presence entirely.
Grisella also pretended I wasn’t there and moved toward the back stairs.
“Grisella!” I called out, stopping her in place.
She visibly drew in a breath, squaring her shoulders in annoyance. Behind me, Coraline chopped with far more noise than necessary—or at least it seemed that way to my highly sensitive ears—and I cast the head chef an irritated glance, which she fully avoided as Heddy paled, shuffling back and forth uselessly, as if trying to figure out what to do with himself.
“What is it?” Grisella asked impatiently, forsaking any formal title. Her milky white eyes no longer alarmed me as they first had, the appearance of blindness hiding only a cunning, cutthroat house manager who clearly couldn’t handle another in charge now.
Her insolence only angered me more, but it didn’t surprise me. I’d come to expect it, not only from her, but from other members of the household staff among others in Ironhelm City, whenever I went into the bustling downtown area.
At first, I thought I was imagining it, but as the weeks passed, it wasn’t covert anymore, their rudeness outright.
“Why is the dining hall set up the way it is?” I demanded.
“What?”
I blinked, my eyes popping as I waited for her to add, “Luna,” but the formality didn’t follow as she held my gaze defiantly.
“I specifically asked for the china with Ironhelm’s crest to be set for tonight’s affair,” I growled, my palms growing sweaty. “I asked for a completely different set of linens as well.”
“And I thought that china was more appropriate for the event,” Grisella countered. “I’ve been doing this much longer than you have. I have more experience in what’s required. You’ll get there.”
She may as well have patted me on the head like a puppy.
My breaths began to escape unevenly. “I don’t care how long you’ve been here,” I hissed. “You’ll do what I say. I am the queen now.”
Grisella smirked at me. “I’m only trying to help. I have more expertise in these matters than you do,Queen Zephyrine.”
The sarcasm made my blood boil, and I glanced at Maywin, who paled, trembling as if she wanted to interject, but I knew she wouldn’t. Nor would I want her to. I could handle Grisella and the rest of them.
“King Cade has always found my taste exquisite,” Grisella went on. “The palace has run seamlessly for years without your input,Luna.”
She was taking pleasure in my utter discomfort, and I stood, humiliated, as several of the kitchen staff watched, some nodding in agreement with small smirks on their faces while others looked away, like Heddy, embarrassed for me.
“I-I have ideas of my own,” I sputtered, not wanting Grisella to have the last word. “There’s no reason that we can’t both offer our ideas.”
“Why fix what isn’t broken?” Grisella replied. “If there’s nothing else?”
She didn’t wait for me to dismiss her and headed up the stairs, humming lightly, as if she had won the argument, leaving me with my cheeks on fire. I stood in place, wishing the floor would open up and swallow me whole.
Holding my head up, I also turned, but to my utter horror, when I pivoted to leave, my gaze fell on a familiar set of crystalline blue irises. Sympathy oozed from Stralia’s eyes as she locked in my stare, and my cheeks flamed with humiliation. This was the first time I’d run into Cade’s former lover since returning to the palace, a fate I’d handled by design. I didn’t want to see Stralia, but I hadn’t figured out what to do with her, either.
“Luna,” she murmured, curtseying deeply, bowing her head respectfully.
I darted my head in every direction, never wanting to escape more than in that moment, but before I could think of anything to say, Stralia straightened herself and ambled closer tentatively, extending her arm toward me. “Could I speak with you privately?”
“I’m busy,” I intoned, eying Maywin desperately for an out, but of course, my maid had no good answer for me.
My maid’s cheeks were as red as mine, as if she could feed on my embarrassment through osmosis.
“Please. It won’t take a moment,” Stralia begged, the need in her tone convincing me. “I promise I won’t take up more than a minute of your time.”
I hesitated, but she closed the space between us and guided me through the kitchen toward the back hallway before I could protest again, my heart in my throat as I tried to think of a way out of this meeting.
I had nothing to say to her. I should want to order her from the palace, away from the King, but if Cade hadn’t done that, it wasn’t my place, either. And he and Stralia had a history, a friendship, and a complicated relationship that I couldn’t begin to understand. I trusted my mate, but that didn’t mean I wanted to spend time with the fae who still loved him. The entire situation made me uneasy, but it wasn’t my place to fix it. This was for Cade to resolve.
But that didn’t mean I had to put up with Stralia demanding meetings with me, either. I opened my mouth to tell her exactly this, but before I could speak, she beat me to it.
