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“Precisely,” seconded the Summer King, flinging out his arms and falling back into his chair.
Precisely, I thought with fury racing through my veins. Impartial Autumn, naughty Spring, and stoic Winter had their limits, their dark sides like wrathful Summer. And prejudice was a generations-old curse.
Howwouldthe public react?
They would riot. They would commit mass acts of violence. That was how.
Actually, that was the least of it. They’d do more than riot if they got their hands on born souls or anyone labeled as a sympathizer. Those farming pitchforks, blacksmith tools, and carpentry instruments weren’t just good for practicing a trade.
Helpless, I watched the queen’s rebuttal mobilize my princess to the Royals’ side of the throne room. “You’re not only proposing a monumental social change. You’re proposing to question people’s beliefs on a massive and sudden scale, thus risking upheaval. You’re asking them to make sacrifices and to doubt you. What you’re suggesting could take decades to achieve peacefully.”
“We don’t have decades!” Briar shouted.
She meant that I didn’t have decades. Nicu didn’t.
It got so quiet we could have heard a dust mote landing on the floor. The stunned expressions of Briar’s mother and everyone seated extracted a blush from the princess. “That is,” she stammered. “That is to say …”
After a moment, those eyes dulled, losing their defiant luster. Her gaze cast toward the windows. Then she took a deep, resigned breath. “Yes. It will take more time.”
My mouth snapped out of its paralysis. “By my estimation, there are two more hours for this meeting. Entertain us with ideas.”
Avalea narrowed her eyes at me. “This isn’t something to be decided in one sitting, Court Jester.”
That look sunk valleys-deep. It said,Stay away from my daughter.
Never mind that her daughter was a grown woman. Because she was also a future monarch.
And the queenknew. She knew I’d done everything graphic to the princess, short of burying my promiscuous cock inside her. She knew as Jinny had known, as mothers did.
As fathers did, too.
“Autumn is right. It could take years alone to reach a unified plan on this matter,” Fatima agreed with reluctance, along with her husband.
“Assuming we all have the same goal, which we do not,” Rhys nagged. “The topic is moot.”
“Of course. I understand,” the princess said. “It was untimely of me to suggest it.”
I felt her words in my fists. Her speech drifted through this room and fled through its doors, where it surged beyond the palace and led to Jinny’s cottage.
Briar glanced at me. An apology cracked her lips apart, trying to claw its way from her throat. But dear us, we were surrounded. We were on display and had made a display.
A vicious corner of me relished seeing the princess’s mouth clamp shut, seeing her inwardly gag on her own guilt. Her remorse insulted us both, for that meant she’d accepted her blunder rather than rising above it and pushing this feud to its limit. Hence, I didn’t want this woman’s sorrowful eyes. Nay, I wanted a fucking retraction.
Fury scorched my tongue. “I wouldn’t have anticipated you’d accept defeat easily, Your Highness,” I sneered. “It’s not a Royal’s way. Rather disappointing.”
Briar hardened into a bust of marble. “It is not defeat. It’s diplomacy. If you were one of us, you would understand that.”
“True. I’m not one of you.” From the end of the table, I flattened my palms on the surface and leaned in. “And yet I’m here.”
“You’re here as a cohort, a darling of the Crown.”
How she wished that were exclusively true. “Correction, Princess. My face might get me through plenty of doors, but it’s my tongue that allows me to stay.”
“Influential or not. You’re a subject, not a sovereign. And my queen is right. This is a colossal undertaking, not to be pursued rashly but diplomatically.”
“When you choose to shackle a topic—enslave, torture, and ridicule it—you’re not confronting it or beingdiplomatic,” I hissed. “You’re only telling the world you’re not equipped to solve it in any other creative or intelligent way. You’re admitting thatyou’rethe fucking fool.”
“Poet!” Basil railed.
