have been so terrible as to break off a century-old arrangement and true love?”
“They say that Prince Castian caught Lady Nuria with someone else in her bed. When it came to light, the ladies of court wanted to have her tried for treason. A royal priest wanted to excommunicate her. But the lady is faithful, loyal above anything else. Who would take the prince’s word over hers?”
Doubting the prince’s word, even in private, is dangerous. But it has been a dangerous night. Perhaps I’m wrong about Leo in many ways. He might not be the Magpie, but now I know his true master. Lady Nuria.
“Doesn’t that negate the treaty with their grandparents? Could Tresoros reclaim its independence?”
Leo makes a whistling sound, as if even he can’t believe what he’s going to say. “That’s the thing. She was allowed to keep her family lands and title. The prince fought his own father for her to have them. The compromise was that she was to marry one of the judges of the Arm of Justice.”
“But—”
“May I ask why your interest in old royal gossip?” He cuts me off, and I take this as a sign that I’ve pushed him to his limit. We turn down a dark corridor and for the first time I’m relieved to see the guard posted outside of my room.
I shrug and keep my voice light. Airy. The way I’ve heard the girls at court speak. “You can’t blame me if gossip is all I have for entertainment at the moment. I’ve been gone too long.”
Leo’s smile is full of mischief, but if he suspects I have other intentions, he betrays nothing. With a friendly wave, he calls out. “Hector! Where have you been all night? We had to go take a turn around the sky bridge while we waited for you.”
The way that Leo lies fascinates me. The name sounds familiar, but after the night’s excitement I can’t recall why.
The guard leans against the wall directly across my door. His face remains in shadow, but I catch the crop of a dark beard and brown skin.
“Sure you did,” Hector mutters. “How was the half-moon revel?”
“Don’t answer that,” Leo says, walking backward to the door. He draws out a slender skeleton key and unlocks the door. “Good night, Hector.”
That’s when it hits me. Hector. I think of Davida sitting in the kitchen peeling potatoes.
“Parties are for children,” he mutters.
Leo makes a face for my benefit, then walks into my room. I’m at his heels when I stop and turn to Hector. If there is a chance, I have to take it.
“Davida’s in the kitchens,” I say.
Even though his body is cast in shadow, I see it go rigid. “What business is that of yours?”
I shrug and hum the song that was playing when she was working. It’s been stuck in my head, familiar in a way I can’t explain. “No reason. I thought she was waiting for someone, that’s all.”
I close the door behind me. As I climb into bed after Leo leaves, the weight of today sinks into my skin. Constantino bleeding out at court and the world moving on without him like he didn’t affect it. But he did. Even if he was taken and warped into something unrecognizable, he once belonged to a family.
I get out of bed and rummage through my things until I find the coin Dez gave me. It feels wrong to keep it. I should try to give it back to Illan one day. But for now, it is the only thing I have of Dez to remember that he was real. I close my eyes and think of him haloed by the moon. So beautiful it aches. I press the coin to my lips.
“This would be easier if you were with me,” I whisper to a boy who cannot answer.
I tuck the coin under my mattress. All I can do now is hope that my hunch about Hector and Davida is right. It’s the only way I will be able to sneak into the prince’s quarters.
Hector’s heavy boots pacing in circles begin to lull me to sleep. I stare at the canopy over my bed. Her bed. It’s a strange feeling, living in a room that belonged to someone else, someone who was meant to marry a prince before she was born, before her parents even dreamed her up. A girl whose clothes I wear and bed I sleep in. A girl who was almost charged with treason and might