Page 41 of Solstice

Tough.Might as well get used to it now.

I narrowed my eyes as my recollection fought through the haze. Something about the prince, about Reginald, sent up red flags. No, not the prince specifically, but the royal palace and the room I’d stayed in. The thought of going back there made my skin crawl and my lungs heave, and I didn’t know why. It was more than the fact he was twenty years older than me. I’d known that my entire life. It was more than our imminent engagement and the next three decades as man and wife. I’d started to accept that years ago.

This was new and different. This made me want to claw my skin off and vomit until my insides were liquified.

Two weeks after Solstice, I’d gone to Monaco to visit the gardens as promised. Even in winter, they were blooming with glorious colors and splendor. Reginald had shown me around the grounds, and when I retired for the evening, things became hazy. I hadn’t drunk that much, but this didn’t seem like a blackout. There was a glimmer around this memory, almost like there used to be around the day my parents died.

When I’d woken up the next morning, I’d been sore between the legs and bleeding, but lacking any reason to think otherwise, I assumed it was my menses. But even now, I understood I was missing something, some giant piece of me had changed that night and would never be the same. It settled in my stomach like tar, poisoning me with each passing moment. It was there, just out of reach to understand it, but I couldn’t grasp it. Not yet. That was even more infuriating because it barely made sense.

Deep down inside, I feared the king truly had manipulated my memories again that night in Monaco. I just didn’t know what to do about it.

I pulled out my phone and texted my best friend and confidante, the only other person in the world who knew what it was to be loved by the powerful Washington-Fairfax duo.

Me:Are you awake?

Carter:Of course.

I smiled, touching my lips at the image of Carter somewhere in Eastern Europe, cold and covered in mud, filming some epic battle scene but taking time out of his day to text me back.

Carter:What’s going on?

Me:Have you felt anything weird recently?

Carter:Weird how?

Me:Like fairy weird?

Of the four of us, Carter had been blessed with luck. He could best anyone in a game of cards, not to mention his sudden rise to fame on the hit TV showFractured Crowns. He’d become the world’s favorite knight, the one with a smoldering grin and a heart of gold. If anyone were going to get a hint that the king had broken through to our realm, my bet was on him.

Carter:I’ve been feeling fairy weird since Solstice.

Me:Me too.

Carter:What aren’t you telling us, Juliet?

I sighed. Leave it to him to flat-out confront me about it. Lex and Ivy had been tiptoeing around it all night.

Carter:We love you. We want you to be safe.

Me:I am safe.

There in that dark room in the middle of the night, I admitted to myself that I couldn’t keep this from them for much longer. I had my reasons in the beginning, but this was real now, and if the king could manipulate memories, we needed all the cards on the table. I couldn’t keep pretending nothing was wrong anymore.

My phone buzzed in my hand, and I glanced down at Carter’s name flashing across my screen before answering it.

“Hello, Romeo.”

He sighed at the sound of my voice. “I love you, Juliet, and they know something’s up.”

Of course, they did.

“Though I admire your bravery, sneaking around the house with a telepath and a human lie detector.” The sound of Carter’s laugh warmed me, reminding me of our nights in California together. God, how long ago that seemed, ages and ages past. We were different people then. “You’re goonnnna get in troooubbble.” He sang it the way someone might taunt a sibling.

I laughed, shaking my head. “Who says I won’t enjoy it, yeah?”

He groaned. “Aww, c’mon. Don’t make me jealous.”

“Hmm, come home.”

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