“Hey, she’s the Princess,” Willa snapped at them. “Show a little respect.”
“We can barter with them,” Finn said, raising his voice to be heard over the rumblings.
“Pardon?” Aurora raised an eyebrow, and Elora all but rolled her eyes at him.
“We have the Markis Staad,” Finn went on. “He’s the highest Vittra royal after the King. If we kill him, we have nothing. They’ll come after the Princess with even more fervor because we took out their only hope of an heir.”
“You’re proposing that we work with the Vittra?” Elora asked.
“We don’t negotiate with terrorists!” a Markis shouted, and Elora held up her hand to silence him.
“We haven’t been negotiating, and look at where it’s gotten us,” Finn said and gestured toward the ballroom. “The Vittra have broken into the palace twice in the last month. We lost more Trylle in that last battle than we have in almost twenty years.”
I sat down again, watching Finn argue his point. He had a way of commanding the room, even if he wouldn’t look at me. Moreover, everything he said was right.
“This is the biggest bargaining chip we’ve ever had,” Finn said. “We can use Markis Staad to get them to back off. They don’t want to lose him.”
“He’s not the biggest bargaining chip,” Marksinna Laris interrupted. “The Princess is.” Everyone’s eyes turned to me. “The Vittra have never come after us like this before. All they want is the Princess, and in a way, they have a right to her. If we give the Vittra what they want, they’ll leave us alone.”
“We’re not giving them the Princess.” Garrett Strom stood up and held his hands out. “She is our Princess. Not only is she the most powerful heir we’ve ever had, but she’s one of us. We won’t give the Vittra one of our own people.”
“But this is all about her!” Marksinna Laris got up, her voice getting shriller. “This is all happening because of the bad treaty the Queen made twenty years ago, and we’re all paying the price!”
“Do you remember what it was like twenty years ago?” Garrett asked. “If she hadn’t made that treaty, the Vittra would’ve slaughtered us.”
“Enough!” Elora shouted, and her voice echoed through my head, through all our heads. “I called this meeting so we could discuss the options together, but if you are not capable of a proper discourse, then I will end it. I do not need your permission to conduct my business. I am your Queen, and my decisions are final.”
For the first time ever, I understood why Elora could be so hard. The people in this room were openly discussing sacrificing her only child, and thought nothing of it.
“For now, I will keep the Markis Staad at the palace until I decide what to do with him,” Elora said. “If I decide to execute him or barter for him, it will be my decision, and I will let you know.” She smoothed out nonexistent creases in her skirt. “That is all.”
“We need to reinstate Finn,” Tove said before the crowd had a chance to disperse.
“What?” I whispered. “No, Tove, I don’t think—”
“All trackers need to be on hand right now,” Tove said, ignoring me. “All the storks in the field should be called back to roost. Both Finn and Thomas need to be at the palace. I can stay here and help, but I don’t think that’s enough.”
“Tove can stay at the palace,” Aurora offered up too quickly. “If that would help.”
“We have additional trackers on staff,” Elora told him, but I saw her looking at Thomas from the corner of her eye. “A new alarm system is in place, and the Princess is never left unguarded.”
“They sent a Markis after her,” Tove reminded her. “Thomas and Finn are the best we have. They’ve both been your own personal guards for the better part of two decades.”
Elora seemed to consider this for a moment.
She nodded. “Both of you, report for duty tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, Your Grace,” Thomas said, bowing.
Finn said nothing, but he gave Tove a wary glance before departing. The rest of the crowd began to dissipate after that, but I remained sitting in the corner with Tove, Willa, and Duncan.
Garrett, Noah, the Chancellor, and two other Marksinna lingered to talk to Elora and Aurora. I could feel Elora seething, and I knew I should get out of the room before she had a chance to chew me out. But I needed a moment.
“Why did you do that?” I asked Tove.
Tove shrugged. “It’s the best way to keep you safe.”
“So?” I asked in a hushed whisper, since a few people still milling about could overhear. “Why is it so important to keep me safe? Maybe the Vittra should have me. Marksinna Laris is right. If all these people are getting hurt over me, then maybe I should go—”
“Laris is a stupid, uppity bitch,” Willa cut in before I could finish that thought. “And nobody’s gonna sacrifice you because things are tough. That’s insane, Wendy.”
“The royals are crazy and paranoid. What’s new?” Tove leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “You’re going to be good for the people. But you have to live long enough to do it.”
“That’s comforting.” I leaned back in the seat.
“I’ll head home and pack,” Tove said, standing up.
“You really think you need to stay here to watch out for me?” I asked.
“Probably not,” Tove admitted. “But it’s better than staying at home, and it’ll be easier for me to help you with your training.”
“Fair enough,” I said.
“So.” Willa turned to me after Tove walked away. “You need to have a girls’ night. Especially since the house is going to be crawling with boys from now on.”
I would’ve agreed to anything if it got me out of the War Room before Elora had a chance to lecture me, but a girls’ night actually didn’t sound that bad. Willa looped her arm through mine as we left the room.
We camped out in my room all night. I thought Willa would want to play dress-up or something silly, but we both wore comfy pajamas and lounged around.
After the meeting, I’d asked about the history between the Vittra and Trylle, and Willa had found a book in her father’s things. She let me read through it, and answered my questions as often as she could. In exchange, I had to do karaoke with her and let her give me a pedicure.
I didn’t make it through as much of the book as I would have liked, and I didn’t find out all that much. Vittra attacked, Trylle retaliated. Sometimes the body count was quite substantial, other times it was only minor property damage.
I ended up staying up way too late with Willa, and by the end of the night, the book had been forgotten. We resorted to singing along with Cyndi Lauper and dancing.
Willa spent the night, and she was a massive bed hog, so I slept terribly. I stumbled out of the bedroom in the morning, feeling like a train wreck. I wanted to go downstairs, eat something, drink some water, and then not move again for another three or four hours.
Duncan wasn’t loitering outside my door when I left my room, and I thought it was good for him that he finally got a chance to sleep in.
I made it a few steps down the hall when I realized why he’d slept in.
Finn walked toward me, his hands clasped behind his back, and I groaned inwardly. He was already dressed, his pants freshly pressed and his hair slicked back. My hair was insane, and I had to look awful.
“Good morning, Princess,” Finn said when he reached me.
“Yeah, or something like that,” I said.
Finn nodded once, and he walked past me. I looked around, expecting to see another person summoning him, but there wasn’t anyone else.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“My job, Princess.” He glanced back over his shoulder. “I’m walking the halls to watch for intruders.”
“So you’re not even gonna talk to me?”
“That’s not part of my job,” Finn said and kept walking.
“Excellent,” I said with a sigh.
Stup
idly, some part of me had been excited about the prospect of Finn being reinstated. But I should’ve known better. Just because he’d be around all the time didn’t mean anything would change between us. It would only make the whole situation more awkward and painful.
FIFTEEN
capulets & montagues
Why are you here?” I demanded, and Loki only raised an eyebrow in response.
His room was in the old servants’ quarters, and it wasn’t quite the cell I’d expected. Duncan had explained that the palace had once been over owing with live-in help, but the last few decades had seen a drastic reduction in both the mänsklig and the Trylle who stayed around. Meaning there were fewer people to staff the palace.
Even though we didn’t have a dungeon, I’d thought Loki would be kept someplace similar to where the Vittra had put me. But this was just a room, similar to the one Finn stayed in when he lived here, except this one had no windows. It was small, with an adjoining bathroom and a twin bed.
To top it off, Loki’s bedroom door was wide open. A tracker stood guard a little ways down the hall, but he wasn’t even at the door. I had convinced Duncan to distract him because I wanted to talk to Loki alone for a minute, and it hadn’t been that hard for Duncan to steer the guard away.
Loki lay on top of the blankets on the bed, his hands folded behind his head and his legs crossed at the ankles. A plate of food sat on the end table, untouched.
“Princess, I didn’t know you’d be visiting, or I’d have straightened up the place.” Loki smirked and gestured vaguely around his room. There was hardly anything in it, so it wasn’t messy at all.
“Why are you here, Loki?” I repeated. I stood just outside the door, my arms crossed over my chest.
“I don’t think the Queen would like it much if I left.” He sat up, swinging his long legs over the edge of the bed.
“Why don’t you leave?” I asked, and he laughed.
“I can’t very well do that, now, can I?” Loki stood up and sauntered toward me.
Some rational part of me thought I should step back, but I refused to. I didn’t want him to see any weakness, so I raised my chin high, and he stopped at the doorway.
“I don’t see anything stopping you.”
“Yes, but your mother works best in ways you cannot see,” he said. “If I were to leave the room, I’d become so violently ill, I’d be unable to walk.”
“How do you know for sure?”
“Because I tried to leave.” Loki smiled. “I wasn’t going to let a thing like bodily harm stop me from escaping, but I underestimated the Queen. She’s very, very good with persuasion.”
“How does that work? She used persuasion and told you what would happen if you left the room?” I asked. “And now you can’t leave?”
“I don’t know exactly how persuasion works.” Loki turned away from me, growing bored with the conversation. “It’s never been my thing.”
“What is your thing?” I asked.
“This and that.” Loki shrugged and sat back down on the bed.
“Why did you come here?” I asked. “What were you hoping to gain?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” He grinned, that same mischievous way he always did. “I came here for you, Princess.”
“By yourself?” I arched an eyebrow. “The last time Vittra came for me here, they sent a fleet, and we still defeated them. What were you thinking, coming here on your own?”
“I thought I wouldn’t get caught.” He shrugged again, totally nonplussed by the whole thing, as if being held captive were no big deal.
“That’s completely idiotic!” I yelled at him, exasperated by his lack of concern over the situation. “You know they want to execute you?”
“So I’ve heard.” Loki sighed, staring down at the floor for a moment. Something occurred to him, though, because he quickly brightened and stood up. “I heard you’re campaigning on my behalf.” He walked over to me. “That wouldn’t be because you’d miss me too much if I were gone, would it?”
“Don’t be absurd,” I scoffed. “I don’t condone murder, even for people like you.”
“People like me, eh?” He cocked an eyebrow. “You mean devilishly handsome, debonair young men who come to sweep rebellious princesses off their feet?”
“You came to kidnap me, not sweep me off my feet,” I said, but he waved his hand at the idea.
“Semantics.”
“But I don’t understand why you’re a kidnapper,” I said. “You’re a Markis.”
“I am the closest the Vittra have to a Prince,” he admitted with a wry smile.
“Then why the hell are you here?” I asked. “The Queen would never let me go on a rescue mission.”
“She let that other Markis go after you,” Loki pointed out, referring to Tove. “The one that threw me against the wall.”
“That’s different.” I shook my head. “He’s strong, and he didn’t come alone.” I narrowed my eyes at Loki. “Did you come alone?”
“Yes, of course I did. Nobody else would be stupid enough to join me after what happened the last time we paid you a visit.”
“That really doesn’t explain why you’re here,” I said. “Why would you volunteer for this, knowing how dangerous it is? Do you know how dangerous it is? When I said they wanted to execute you, you laughed it off, but they really mean to do it, Loki.”
“I missed you too much, Princess, and I couldn’t stop myself from coming.” He tried to say it with his usual gusto, but honesty tinged his smile.
“Don’t make jokes.” I rolled my eyes.
“That was the answer you were looking for, wasn’t it? That I chose to come back for you?” Loki leaned against the doorframe, just inside the room, and sighed. “My dear Princess, you think too highly of yourself. I didn’t volunteer.”
“I didn’t think that.” I bristled and my cheeks reddened slightly. “If you didn’t volunteer, then why did they send you?”
“I let you get away.” He stared off down the hallway, where Duncan had distracted the tracker. “The King sent me to correct my error.”
“Why were you in charge of guarding me in Ondarike? Why you? Why not a tracker or something?”
“We don’t have many trackers because we don’t have changelings.” Loki looked at me. “The hobgoblins do a lot of our dirty work, but you could overpower them without even trying. The Vittra that came after you last time are only slightly more powerful than mänsklig, which is how you managed to defeat them. I’m the strongest, so the King sent me after you.”
“Who are you?” I asked, and he opened his mouth, probably to say something witty and sarcastic, so I held up my hand to stop him. “My mother said she knew your father. You’re close to the Vittra King and Queen.”
“I’m not close to the King.” Loki shook his head. “Nobody is close to the King. But I do have history with the Queen. His wife, Sara, was once my betrothed.”
“What?” My jaw dropped. “She’s . . . she’s much older than you.”
“Ten years older.” Loki nodded. “But that’s how arranged marriages work a lot of the time, especially when there are so few of the marrying kind in our community. Unfortunately, before I came of age, the King decided he wanted to wed her.”
“Were you in love with her?” I asked, surprised to find myself caring at all.
“It was an arranged marriage!” Loki laughed. “I was nine when Sara married the King. I got over it. Sara thought of me like a little brother, and she still does.”
“And what about your father? Elora said she knew him.”
“I’m sure she did.” He ran a hand through his hair and shifted his weight. “She lived with the Vittra for a while. First, right after they were married, they lived here in Förening, but once Elora became pregnant, Oren insisted she move to his house.”
“And she did?” I asked, surprised that Elora had been coerced into anything.
“She didn’t have a choice, I suppose. When the King wants something, he can
be very . . .” Loki trailed off. “I was in their wedding. Did you know that?”
When he looked at me, he smiled at the memory, and his cocky demeanor slipped. There was something disarmingly honest about his smile, missing his usual snark, and when he looked like that, he was almost impossibly handsome. He was truly one of the best-looking guys I’d ever laid eyes on, and fora moment I felt too flustered to say anything.
“You mean my mother and my father’s?” I asked when I found my words.
“Yes.” He nodded. “I was very young, maybe two or three, and I don’t remember it much, except that my mother took me, and she let me stay up all night dancing. I walked down the aisle and threw petals, which is a very unmasculine thing to do, but there were no other children of royal blood to be in the wedding.”
“Where were the children?”
“The Vittra didn’t have any, and the Trylle were all gone as changelings,” Loki explained.
“You remember Elora and Oren’s wedding? And you were only a toddler?” I asked.
He smirked. “Well, it was the wedding of the century. Everyone was there. It was quite the spectacle.”
I realized that he was constantly using sarcasm and humor to keep me at a distance, much the same way that Finn protected himself with a hard exterior. A moment ago, as he remembered his mother, I’d seen a glimmer of something real, the same glimmer I’d seen in Ondarike when he’d empathized with me about being a prisoner.
“Do you know why they got married?”
“Oren and Elora?” His eyebrows furrowed. “Don’t you know?”
“I know that Oren wanted an heir to the throne and Vittra can’t have kids, and Elora wanted to unite the tribes,” I said. “But why? Why was it so important that the Vittra and Trylle unite?”
“Well, because we’ve been warring for centuries.” Loki shrugged. “Since the beginning of time, maybe.”
“Why?” I repeated. “I’ve been reading the history books, and I can’t find a clear reason why. Why do we hate each other so much?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head helplessly. “Why did the Capulets hate the Montagues?”
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