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Publiclyapologize and resign.
My father was older and wiser than me. I’d almost always followed his instructions to the letter, trusting that his intuition was correct.
And it had gotten me this far.
But Father hadn’t been to court inyears. He’d only met King Allerick when the king was a child, and he’d never met Ophelia. I couldn’t imagine either of them wouldwantme to do that—the queen would probably find it mortifying, and neither of them wanted to reflect on the time she’d spent in the human realm.
So, was Fatherwrong? Just asking the question in my head felt like a betrayal. Adangerousbetrayal.
Because if he was wrong about this, then he might be wrong about other things. And that made the ground beneath my feet lose some of the steadiness it had always held.
Everything about my life had been predicated on the fact that Father knew best.
I couldn’t accept otherwise.
Chapter 7
Themoodinthekitchen was painfully jubilant upon hearing that the queen had not only returned, but that she’d brought others like her back to the shadow realm too. Everyone was happy except me.
I couldn’t relax—wouldn’trelax—until I’d seen Levana with my own eyes. She’d been charged with ferrying the newcomers to a crumbling, abandoned mansion on the edge of the grounds, but I knew for a fact that at least one of those Hunters was the queen’s deranged sister. Astrid Bishop wasn’t justaHunter, she wastheHunter. Her presence here had given the celebrations for Ophelia’s return a distinctly cautious edge.
I hung around in the kitchen long after everyone else had gone, scrubbing every inch of the place to keep myself busy while I waited for… what? It wasn’t like Levana and I were friends. If anything, she actively disliked me. I usually only saw her when Ophelia needed something from the kitchens, and those trips wouldn’t be happening anytime soon. Palace gossip was clear—the king wasn’t letting the queen out of his sight. Or more specifically, out of his bedchamber.
Levana wasn’t about to come down here and reassure me of her safety.
Shaking my head at my own idiocy, I finished cleaning up and let myself out of the kitchen, heading through the empty corridors back to my apartment.
Perhaps I could find an excuse to head up to the dining hall during tomorrow’s dinner service—
I came to an abrupt stop a few feet from my apartment, meeting Levana’s intriguing, dark blue eyes. My stomach swooped so suddenly, I could have sworn I heard it.
“Hi,” she said lamely, standing in front of my door as though she’d been contemplating whether or not to knock.
“Hello.” I was already scanning her body for signs of injury, wondering if she was disguising any beneath her shadows. I couldn’tsmellany blood on her.
She didn’t look like her usual confident, unaffected self though.
“You look so worried.” Levana laughed tiredly. “I’m fine. A little hungry—”
“Come, I’ll make you dinner.”
“That’s not why I came here—”
“I’d still like to feed you, Levana.” It was the one area of my life in which I had absolute confidence in my abilities. Whatever else was going on, I could always make delicious food.
I unlocked the door with my shadows, entering first when Levana hung back, looking torn.
“It’s just food,” I called over my shoulder.
It wasn’t and we both knew it, buttalkingabout it would only cause us both to panic. There was nothing meaningless about Levana coming to my apartment of her own volition.
Eventually, she chose to believe my lie and followed me inside, closing the door quietly behind her. I’d already gotten myself set up in the kitchen, pulling out everything I needed to make a meat soup that didn’t taketoolong to cook but was long enough for me to spend some time with her.
More importantly, it was meant to be a cure for every type of physical and emotional ill, and it looked like Levana needed it.
“So, the queen came back?” I asked as she took a seat on the other side of the counter, watching me light the fire beneath the stove.
“She did. And she brought others back with her.”
