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I open my mouth to speak when a voice booms over the gardens.
“The one-on-ones for today have been canceled. Return to your quarters. You will be expected for dinner and dancing when Saturn’s ring flares its brightest.”
I look back to Zeke, raising a brow. “So.”
“So.” He lifts a joint between us and I grin.
“Lead the way…”
He cackles loudly, taking my hand with his and shoving the joint between his lips with his other.I don’t even bother stopping him to see where we’re going. Everything is too weird. The courtship being the least weird thing that has happened to me today.
“Here!” Zeke drops to his knees in front of me, gesturing to his shoulders. “Jump on them!” I hook my legs around him and yelp when he tucks my shins into his arms to steady me. Once I’m on top, he laughs. “Close your eyes and count to ten.”
“What!?” My hand finds his hair for a better hold.
“Come on! I know a place, but I need you to close your eyes.”
There’s a lot of things that I’ve questioned over the years. A lot. Even understanding our world, and trying to conceal it, those things haven’t even scratched the surface of the past twenty-four hours.
What could possibly be worse?
I close my eyes.
Wind whips around my neck as a rush of adrenaline puts me in a chokehold. I try to swallow past the excitement but it’s already time to open my eyes and when I do— “Oh my god!”
He chuckles, dipping into the water, and I watch as liquid gold swallows my legs from my knees down. I fall backwards, arms stretched wide as the liquid wraps around my arms like a warm hug and allmy emotions that I’d been feeling moments ago calm.
I breathe in and out, as whatever it is I’m floating in carriesmy weight. “This is so lovely.”
“Right?” Zeke is right beside me. He brings the end of the joint to my lips and I take it, inhaling the sweet taste of something that doesn’t quite taste of weed. When he moves his hand away from me, I’m almost dreading the choking fit I’m about to have, but instead, smooth smoke clouds leave my lips and the effects take charge. I feel my muscles completely relax, as I roll forward and to my feet.
Zeke is already taking another hit when I find the area around us. Purple trees flow over the small little swimming area we’re in, with fat shrubs, the brightest green scattered all around us. Turning over my shoulder, I expect to see more greenery but instead it’sthe emptiness of the solar system. Themauve and gentle coral colorsdisplay our solar system and meet the infinity edge-style pool. Saturn hovers calmly behind us in the perfect backdrop.
“Wow.” I bite my tongue, my cheeks flashing red. “It’s so beautiful here.”
“Isn’t it?”
I smile at nothing and everything, fully fucking blissed out. “So why are you here? Is the future King courting you, too?”
Zeke’s raspy chuckle fills my ears and I close my eyes, following the little speckles of light that dance behind them. “Sorry to disappoint, but no. There’re always a dozen extras here for the courtship, males and females. We’re witnesses of sorts, stand-ins to dance with the girls at the ball to keep them occupied when the Lord is busy.”
“So, basically, you drew the short stick and had to come?”
“With classes at Rathe U cancelled until this is over, I had nothing better to do anyway. Besides, I get to hang out with you,” he teases, swimming up beside me, just as a distant alarm signals.
“Shit.” His face falls. He grabs me by the hand, yanking me out of the solvent gold that feels like silk.
“What’s wrong?”
He tugs so hard his hand will likely leave a bruise, but it’s the panic in his eyes that has me tripping after him, allowing him to pull me rather than tear away.
“Yemon.”
Yemon?
My brows crash but I pump my feet, keeping up with him as we head for a giant wall behind us. Ivy weaving is braided upits massive length in never-ending parallel columns, thorns growing from nothing, getting larger with each step we take in its direction.
“We have to get back inside the walls. They know we’re missing, and the only reason they would have looked is if there’s—”
