Page 19 of The Princes of Stone and Steel

It had to mean something, right? That I could remember Mármaro and not Steele? But I felt Steele in a way I probably shouldn’t have. His people had captured me, keeping me locked inside this cell. Hehadallowed Stipator to bust my lip. If he really loved me, would he have allowed these things to happen?

I just wanted my life back. Was that too much to ask for? To go back to a high school full of kids whom I’d ignored and thus they ignored me in return, to spend my evenings playing with my daycare kids? Though, even as I thought those thoughts, I knew I couldn’t ever go back to that life because I’d seen my aunt struck down before my eyes. Although eighteen now, thus a legal adult and not requiring a guardian, the idea of spending even one night alone in that farmhouse without my anemic aunt giving me crap, made my stomach pitch. Uncomfortably so.

This time someone knocked on my door before opening it. Korrigan, or at least someone who looked similar to Korrigan, stepped inside. But my Korrigan, she had short, dark hair and soulful, dark eyes. This woman, she had that same rose gold hair as Steele, only long and pulled back from her face by a gold clip, and silver-gray eyes.

“You must be famished,” she said to me, sounding more regal than my Korrigan ever did. Her gown with wide belled sleeves flowing so long it almost completely covered her feet, complimented her hair in a green shiny silk. The bodice, which showed off quite a bit of cleavage, matched the hair clip in gold satin. My Korrigan always wore black. I found myself having a hard time reconciling the two women as one.

I nodded, afraid to speak for fear of what might just slip out. Today had been too much. Another major freak-out just might have been in order. “Come along, then,” she finished, gesturing with her hand for me to follow, which I did, happy to be away from the cell.

“Princess Congruis.” People would speak as we passed, bowing their heads in her direction. She would nod in response but did not speak at all, not to them or to me, until we reached a kitchen.

For as medieval as their style of dress and manner of speaking suggested, the kitchen, which in my mind should’ve been woodfires in stone hearths, shone bright and almost modern with all the shiny metals—from bright copper kettles to cast-iron cooking pots. The walls and prep tables—all stainless steel. And the fires appeared to be fueled strictly by coal as the smell and black billowy smoke rising up through the stovepipes suggested.

“You’ll take your meals here. My brother, Aereus, he wishes you to join him for walks around the kingdom for the next few days in hopes of reviving your memories. My father agrees and so it shall be. My hope is that you will remember because my father, although fair, is far from patient. If you cannot produce results, he will dispose of you in hopes that the new flesh will show.” She looked pointedly at me, so much I could swear I saw warmth and worry in those cool eyes. “Do you understand me, Millicent Merchant? He will dispose of you if you don’t give him results.”

“Yes. Thank you, I understand.”

“I will inform my brother, then. Please sit. Servants will be in shortly to feed you.” The princess turned then, striding out of the kitchen as regally as she had stridden in next to me. This really was too much to process.

But just as promised, once she left, at least twelve servants that I could count scurried about the kitchen mixing, chopping, and scouring. They never kept still enough for me to even get a look at their faces. And not a one spoke to me. Not a one. The few times I stood up to try to sneak out, someone passed behind me, pushing down on my shoulders.

Finally, someone set a plate down in front of me. A meat, a starch—gruel, possibly—and a biscuit to sop up the gruel. I had no idea what to name any of it, as everything appeared brownish-gray on my plate. No seasoning, save salt and pepper, but still they’d set it down hot in front of me and I hadn’t eaten in quite some time. Obviously, this food never left the servants’ quarters. I couldn’t imagine the king eating unrecognizable slop.

Once I’d cleared my plate and drunk down every last drop of juice they’d graciously filled my cup with, I waited to be escorted back to my cell. I waited, and waited, and waited. Still, no one showed. Yet if I dared to stand, a servant would come up behind me, pushing me back down into the chair.

After waiting so long at that table, I guess I’d dozed off because I woke to someone shaking me, not gently. “Get up. You hear me, girl? Get up.”

A woman stood off to my side, a grim expression on her face, dressed in the same style of clothing as Congruis, just less regal. She must have been a lady-in-waiting. The long dress she offered to me, blue to match my eyes in a soft satin fabric, fit more her standing in the court than say, a princess or the love of a prince.

“The prince is ready to receive you. Put this on. He does not wish you to walk the grounds with him in your nightclothes.”

“Where should I change?”

“Here, of course. Now get a move on.”

“But anyone could come through here.”

“No one cares. They’re far too busy to be concerned with your state of dress. His Royal Highness doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

No matter what she said, though, I felt eyes on me as I disrobed from the shapeless gown. I hadn’t even a bra to wear because I’d been in that corseted vest when they’d captured me. As she busied herself clasping all the clasps at my back, another woman approached this time to braid my hair in a fishtail braid, which she draped over my shoulder. I finished by slipping into a pair of spun gold sandals. Somehow these didn’t feel less than what a princess would wear, but as all the women’s dresses draped to the floor, I couldn’t see what they wore.

“Follow me,” she said once they’d completely finished with my primping.

Aereus stood just outside the kitchen waiting for us. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t catch the slight hitch to his breath or the way his eyes sparked when I entered the room. I’d be lying even more if I said I didn’t return the sentiment tenfold.

“Thank you, Catena,” he said. “That will be all.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” She backed out of his presence before turning around to scurry away.

The prince offered me his arm and I took it, feeling that warmth and flutter in my chest from the contact. “Ms. Merchant. I thought we’d start at the western edge of the property.”

“As you wish, your grace.”

We kept it all very formal as we made our way out of the, well, it had to be a castle of some sort, as the royal family lived here. But it certainly didn’t look like any of the castles I’d seen in books back home. One story; made entirely out of silver blocks. The sun glinted off the side of the building, blinding me until my eyes could adjust.

We passed out of the courtyard through an archway into the most spectacular garden I’d ever seen. The tree leaves shone green like tarnished copper, whereas the trunks appeared to be textured brass. Flowers bloomed all around us, but all metallic. Soft and willowy, swaying in the light summer breeze, yet shiny metallic at the same time.

He led us deep into the garden, away from prying eyes. “It’s beautiful,” I told him.

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