wasn’t like that now.
Seeing him with the massive crowd around him activated every protective urge I had inside me. He wasn’t safe there. These people were protesting the royal family. How long before they turned on him? It was irrational, but I was acting on pure instinct.
I pushed my way through the crowd, trying to make my way over to where he stood. People were chanting, and as I made my way through, I finally realized that Sebastian wasn’t going to be in any danger.
They were chanting “for the prince,” over and over and over again.
Of course.
They weren’t protesting against the whole royal family. They were doing this for Sebastian.
And against the queen.
“Sebastian,” I called out. My voice was completely drowned out by the crowd. I wasn’t too far away from him now, but I was lost in a sea of picket signs and shouting. Some sort of plastic object was being passed through the crowd, from person to person, making its way up to Sebastian. They shoved the object into his hands and I realized that it was a big white megaphone.
They were trying to get him to make a speech, for God’s sake.
I remembered so many moments, back in our school days, when Sebastian came to me, utterly freaking out about having to make any sort of public speech in class.
It was one of his most hated things. Any time he had to make a presentation, he would dread it for weeks prior. When the time came, though, he always delivered them flawlessly. He would stammer at the beginning, and sure, he’d seem completely anxious, but on the inside, I’d always been convinced he was a natural at public speaking.
But even now, so many years later, I could see the flash of fear in his eyes just from the crowd asking him to make a speech.
He shook his head. “I appreciate you all, more than you know,” he said. “But I can’t make a speech here. It isn’t right.”
He tried passing the megaphone back to people in the crowd, but everyone refused. I realized that Genoveve was just behind him, standing on the grass hill behind the wall, her eyes scanning the crowd. He passed her the megaphone and she held it awkwardly.
Just then, a fleet of at least ten black cars emerged from around the bend, up toward the castle.
They were finally responding. I knew that Queen Charlotte had to be in one of those black cars, ready and waiting to come down and gain control of the crowd.
I didn’t know what the queen would do in a situation like this. I knew she was evil, but how far would she go? How far would she make her team go? I knew that if anyone in the crowd so much as got a scratch on their eye, Sebastian would blame himself for eternity.
“Excuse me,” I said as I pushed further up in the crowd, finally making my way closer to Sebastian. But right as I got close, gasps erupted throughout the gathering.
“There she is!” a woman shouted, as everyone turned to watch the queen emerge from one of the cars. She was wearing a long, crystalline-blue gown.
I clenched my teeth. She knew. She totally knew that all of the attention would be on her, the second she came out here. Hell, she was probably treating this like a press event, for God’s sake.
I had always thought that Queen Charlotte was evil, but if she was going to use this opportunity to denigrate her own son, I couldn’t stand by and watch it happen. I had no idea how the hell I was going to get Sebastian out of this situation, but I knew I needed to.
The queen started waving to the crowd, as if she were participating in a pageant. The day had been chilly and sunny, but like clockwork, the second the queen appeared, clouds started to obscure the sun.
People in the crowd started erupting into shouting at the queen.
“What do you have to say for yourself?”
“You don’t want your son to be in love?”
“Change the rules! Change the rules!”
It was like watching pebbles being thrown at a snowy mountain, though. Nothing seemed to phase the queen. She just scanned the crowd, assessing it coldly.
She didn’t care. She just wanted to make an appearance.
I finally pushed my way to the front of the circle surrounding Sebastian. He was staring at the queen intently, with fire in his eyes.
I’d never seen him look like that. He looked