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The rain fell steadily outside the library windows, washing the outside of the glass while I washed the inside. Behind me, the princes were still laughing and talking around the coffee table cluttered with empty plates and full cups and glasses. They weren’t any quieter now than before Prince Chevalier arrived, but he hadn’t made an appearance from the back room to correct them. I smiled to myself at the thought of him doing so. The princes were like children right now, bored because it was raining and they couldn’t go outside, although I was sure there was plenty for them to do inside. But, as Prince Luke said, everybody needed a break.
Still, I shouldn’t be the most mature person in a room full of grown men who were all older than me and directly responsible for the government of the kingdom.
“Hey, Ivetta!”
I glanced back to see which prince was talking to me now. They were all peppering me with questions from time to time, some serious, most not, and nobody really minded if I didn’t answer fully. This time, it was Prince Luke.
“Yes, Prince Luke?”
“Come over here.”
“Why, your highness?”
“Jin doesn’t believe you’re as light as I say, so he wants to pick ya up himself.”
I turned back to the window and rolled my eyes at the gardens. Children. Actual children.
“Prince Jin is too drunk to pick anyone up, your highness.”
“You can’t just go picking people up without asking them, Luke!” Prince Yves scolded him.
“I disagree,” Prince Nokto said smoothly.
“I just don’t think she’s as delicate as she looks,” Prince Jin said. “She’s gotta have some muscle or something from all the work she does, right?”
“She’s stronger than she looks,” Prince Leon agreed. “Darn it. The bottle’s empty.”
“But still light as a feather,” Prince Clavis volunteered.
“Wait. You’ve picked her up?” Prince Luke asked incredulously.
“Well, I couldn’t let her collapse on the floor, could I? That wouldn’t have been very gentlemanly of me.”
“Drugging her wasn’t gentlemanly at all,” Prince Yves pointed out. “Why did you even do that?”
My ears perked up. Prince Chevalier’s explanation that Prince Clavis was trying to scare me seemed a little too simple for the way Prince Clavis’ mind worked.
“Probably to mess with Chevalier,” Prince Nokto replied, his smirk evident in his voice.
Prince Leon laughed. “Bet there was some fight after that. Did he draw blood this time, or did it stop before it got that far?”
A fight? Like a…sword fight?
“Really, you’re all so suspicious,” Prince Clavis said, his cheerful voice undaunted. “She looked tired, and I needed to test my newest concoction. Chev understood completely.”
Prince Jin laughed this time. “Yeah right.”
“Leave her out of your twisted contest with Chevalier,” Prince Yves said firmly.
“Hey, Ivetta,” Prince Luke called again. “If ya ever see Clavis throw a small glass vial, hold your breath.”
“You’re no fun,” Prince Clavis muttered.
They put me in mind of Mr. Stotts and his brothers, or, at least, how Mrs. Stotts described them. She always marveled at how her husband, a hard worker, a reliable father, somehow reverted to an immature boy when he was with his brothers, who were also mature, competent adults at any other time. Apparently, the phenomenon was more widespread than she realized.
The main library door opened, and I heard a groan as I turned to see who was joining us. It was Sariel. My heart dropped to my feet, and I turned quickly back to the window, not wanting to look at his thin, frightening smile any longer than necessary.
“Ah, Prince Luke,” he said smoothly. “Since you don’t appear to be busy, perhaps you’d care to join me for an etiquette lesson.” There was a beat of silence, and then he added, “Starting with posture.”
The groan came again, and I realized it was Prince Luke.
“What’s wrong with my posture?” he complained.
“Well, for starters, princes don’t sit on the floor,” Sariel intoned.
Prince Leon laughed. “He’s got you there, Luke. Better go with him before he pulls that whip out.”
Whip?
“Alright, alright,” Prince Luke grumbled.
I glanced back to see him reluctantly trailing Sariel out of the library. Prince Leon stood up and stretched.
“I’d better get back to work. Hey, Jin, got anymore of that brandy?”
“I’ve got a whole case of it,” Prince Jin replied.
“Then I’ll come by your room after dinner,” Prince Leon said. “I’ll need a drink after dealing with budget proposals all afternoon. Yves, come on. I need another set of eyes on these figures.”
“Coming. You three behave,” Prince Yves said sternly.
“Hey, I’m the oldest. I should tell you to behave,” Prince Jin teased.
I climbed down from the ladder and moved it over, watching Prince Leon and Prince Yves leave with a sinking feeling. That left me with three flirts. The top of the ladder suddenly seemed to be the safest place in the room.
“How’d your date go?” Prince Jin asked.
“Disappointing,” Prince Nokto replied nonchalantly. “I was home by midnight.”
“And you left me to deal with those dull diplomats by myself?” Prince Clavis asked irritably.
“I dealt with them last time so you could host one of your parties at your private retreat,” Prince Nokto replied. “I hope you didn’t mess up the trade agreement I started.”
Prince Clavis laughed. “They’re the worst negotiators I’ve ever seen. Silvio must not care much about this to let them handle it.”
“Don’t underestimate him,” Prince Jin warned. “He’s a brat, but he knows what he’s doing.”
“Oh, I know,” Prince Nokto replied. “He’s letting us have our way right now so he can hold that over our heads later, and in the meantime, he’s focusing his efforts on something more important.”
“Why are you looking at me?” Prince Clavis asked innocently. “I have no control over what my friends do.”
“You’re gonna push it too far one day, Clavis,” Prince Jin said. “And we either need to take this conversation elsewhere or change the subject.”
“Where are you going?” Prince Nokto asked.
“Changing the subject to this maid who’s been making eyes at me - and she has a sister who probably won’t disappoint you, Nokto,” Prince Jin replied, his voice moving across the library. “Unless you’d care to join me instead, Ivetta?”
“No thank you, your highness,” I said firmly, climbing down the ladder and moving it again without looking at him.
“Shame. What is it, Clavis?”
“Just tagging along,” Prince Clavis replied, his voice also in motion. “Unless you don’t want to hear about my new pit trap design.”
“I had an idea about that,” Prince Jin said.
Multiple sets of booted feet crossed the floor. The library doors opened and closed, and then there was silence. I sighed and kept scrubbing. This was the last window, and then I could use the final hour of my day to clean up after the princes. I wondered if Prince Chevalier would tell me his condition today or wait until tomorrow. A few days ago, I would have been worried, but I wasn’t now. We hadn’t even struck the deal. He could very well tell me his condition, and I could turn him down, and that would be that. The condition itself didn’t concern me. He was safe.
Should I take Midnight Cinderella home?
It seemed like such an obvious answer. It was my book, and I finished it, so there was no reason for me to leave it here at the palace. Except Mother. She knew Prince Chevalier had bought me a book, and she already teased me enough about that. If she knew it was a romance about a commoner turned princess, well…
But it would make her happy.
“What are you humming?”
I nearly fell off the ladder at the sound of Prince Nokto’s voice. He chuckled and put a hand on the rungs to stabilize it, his crimson eyes sparkling when I looked down at him.
“I thought you left, Prince Nokto!”
“Clearly. If you fall, I don’t mind catching you.”
I glared at his sly smirk and really wished I had more work to do from atop the ladder, out of his reach, but I’d just finished the window.
“Well, I’m not falling, your highness,” I said, reluctantly climbing down. “And I’m done with the ladder, so if you’ll please move your hand.”
He pulled his hand back from the ladder but otherwise didn’t move as I folded it up.
“What were you humming?” he repeated.
“It’s a song my mother used to sing to me, your highness,” I replied, carrying the ladder to the door.
“Do you know the words?” he asked, following at my heels.
“No, your highness. Well, some of them, but they’re in a different language, so I may have them wrong.”
“Do you know what language?”
I propped the ladder up against the door and turned to face him. His expression seemed genuinely curious, without the usual ulterior motive.
“No, your highness, I don’t. Why are you so interested in it?”
He shrugged, his sly grin returning to his lips. “I’ve heard it before. That’s all.”
Now it was my turn to be curious. I’d never met anybody who’d heard that song before.
“If you don’t mind me asking, your highness, where have you heard it?”
He tilted his head slightly to the side, his eyes narrowing alluringly. “Why don’t you come with me, and we’ll talk about it?” he asked, his voice dropping lower as he took a step toward me. My heart lurched in my chest, and I closed my eyes for a second to break the spell, exhaling my frustration.
“You’re impossible, Prince Nokto,” I said, glaring up at him before I turned back to snatch the ladder and leave the library. He didn’t follow me to the supply closet. I stashed the ladder, took a deep breath, and returned to the library. He was lounging on the sofa next to the coffee table where I would be working. I didn’t speak to him, and I didn’t look at him as I stacked dirty dishes on the tray.
“My mother used to sing it,” he finally said.
I looked up at that. He was leaning back against the sofa, his elbows resting casually on the backrest on either side of him, but his crimson eyes were closed off, and his smile was absent.
“Oh.”
I went to my supply bucket for a dust rag to wipe down the coffee table and the chairs, unsure what else to say. All the princes thus far had painful memories attached to their mothers, and Prince Nokto seemed to be the same.
“It was a lullaby from her home country,” he said when I returned. “Licht knows all the words.”
“What country, your highness?” I asked, keeping my eyes on my work.
“It doesn’t exist anymore. Obsidian conquered it almost twenty years ago.” He sighed. “Not that she spent any time there. She was a songstress in a traveling theater troupe, and after the king married her, he wouldn’t let her leave the palace.”
Which explained why everybody was so upset about me giving Prince Licht tickets to see a traveling theater troupe. Whatever lay in the twins’ past ran deep and dark. I thought of Prince Licht and the bloody dagger, and I wondered if Prince Nokto knew about that, and then Prince Leon’s words about Bloodstained Rose Day rang in my ears. Prince Licht fought like he was trying to get himself killed…
Maybe he was.
“Is she dead, your highness?” I asked hesitantly, not daring to look at him.
There was a beat of silence that felt entirely too long before he replied.
“Yes.”
Were all the princes’ mothers dead? The only ones I didn’t know about were Prince Leon and Prince Luke’s mothers. I knew why I didn’t see or hear anything about the king. He had been ill for some time, and the last I heard, he was away receiving medical treatment. And I’d known about the queen, who died before I was born, although I hadn’t known the circumstances of that. But any of the princes’ mothers would have been important, and the silence surrounding them seemed strange.
“I’m sorry, your highness.”
I picked up the full tray, including Prince Jin’s empty bottle, and headed for the door. The last bit I needed to do was sweep the rug. Aside from some crumbs, the princes had been remarkably neat, which I hadn’t expected, and I very much appreciated.
“Stay away from Licht.”
I turned back to Prince Nokto in surprise. He was on his feet, crossing the library toward me, and his crimson eyes were suddenly as hard as his voice.
“What?”
“He likes you, and he’s been hurt enough. Stay away from him.”
Liked me? He avoided me like the plague, and the only reason he was in the library today was because of the cake. Yes, he poured my tea, but he was already pouring for himself and for Prince Yves.
He told me he hated me.
“I haven’t-”
“You went to his room, didn’t you?”
I stared in confusion at Prince Nokto as he came to a stop in front of me.
“Well, yes, to thank him for his help with Jack, and to tell him about the guards in the red-light district, but that was all, your highness, and I hadn’t seen him since until today.”
Prince Nokto closed his eyes and sighed, his breath close enough to fan my face, and when he opened his eyes, the hardness was gone.
“Of course. You wouldn’t knowingly hurt anybody, would you?” he asked, amusement lilting in his voice as he tilted his head slightly to the side and gave me that charming smile.
I shook my head, trying to get a handle on him. He reached out to tuck some stray hair behind my ear, but his finger continued down my jaw to my chin, his feather-light touch making my skin tingle. I stepped back, my cheeks burning.
“Please don’t do that, Prince Nokto.”
He chuckled and walked past me to the door. “You’re learning quickly. But surely you won’t deny me the pleasure of holding the door open for you?”
I glared at him, frustrated by the realization that this was all his mask. This was how he distracted women from the truth when he was in danger of getting too close. But I didn’t want to get too close, and, although I was curious, I wasn’t about to pry into his life.
“No, I suppose not, your highness,” I said coolly, walking purposefully past him and ignoring his smug grin. “Since this will be the only pleasure you’ll get from me."
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