Page 58 of Grave Flowers
Dazedly, Aeric set me down. He reached for my hand, thought better of it, and instead gestured grandly toward me. “Your future queen!” he said.
“Our queen, our queen, our queen!” the guests called in response. Their voices thundered as one. I curtsied in gratitude, and the chant grew. It dove and swept through the ballroom, growing louder and louder. I dared to glance at Aeric, thinking my sudden favor might threaten him and deeply relieved Queen Gertrude and Prince Lambert hadn’t witnessed the kiss and the crowd’s response. But there was only pride in his eyes. I wished I hadn’t seen it. The cheer fell apart and turned into the usual sound of a court party.
“Excuse me,” I murmured. “I wish to take the air.”
I hurried from the ballroom. The chanting played in my ears, over and over. Never had I been publicly proclaimed as a queen, and the Acusan court had cheered for me as though I was theirs, accepting me, wanting me. But I would be their queen consort for mere hours before killing their king.
Everything was upside down. I lifted my fingers to my lips. I’d been hailed as queen by a kingdom that wasn’t mine and kissed by the boy I’d murder. I lowered my hand. During our conversation, I’d spoken to Aeric about duty. I would do mine. It didn’t matter how I felt. It didn’t matter that, though I feared Aeric, I couldn’t seem to hate him.
“Your Highness? I was passing the ballroom and saw you leave.” Yorick joined me in the hall. “Where are you off to?”
“Nowhere. Bed.” A thought struck me, and I welcomed it. I would lose myself in plotting so any thoughts of Aeric would be strategic, nothing more. “Actually … there is somewhere I’d like to go. The queen’s quarters. I wish to visit them without anyone knowing.”
“I’d love to assist, but I believe they are secured and have been since Princess Inessa’s death,” Yorick said. “The only way in would be through the king’s chambers, and those are well guarded, as Prince Aeric lives in them now.”
“How might I get in?”
“You could seduce him,” Yorick offered.
I blushed, my face warm and my lips even warmer. “I’m not certain the prince trusts me enough for seducing to work,” I said. My tone was placid even as my body betrayed me.
“You could seduce a guard instead.”
“Perhaps we should avoid seducing as a tactic.” I considered my options. If I couldn’t get into Inessa’s chambers, I’d investigate elsewhere. “Could you take me to the palace roof?”
“Prince Aeric’s haunt?”
“Yes.” Aeric spent many nights prowling up above our heads. Maybe there was a reason that went beyond brooding. I should see it for myself while he was at the party. “Do you know the way?”
Yorick did indeed know the way. The palace roof was accessed by a winding set of stairs. As we progressed, the steps became narrower and steeper, and the ceiling dropped lower and lower. If we weren’t going up, I’d think we were going down. I thought about Aeric ascending the stairs alone, over and over, to get to the roof, haunting this strange slip of space. The image brought loneliness over me, but it wasn’t mine—it was his.
We reached the top. The world went from a narrow, stifling, and dark canal to a wide, breezy, and star-studded sky. Guardians faced away from us on the ledge, reduced to hulking shapes with forked tails, arched haunches, and pointed ears. From this vantage point, I saw that each guardian had two tails, one belonging solely to itself and another long one that bound it to the other guardians’ second tails, so they were linked.
“Here you are, Your Highness.” Yorick gestured grandly. “Prince Aeric’s place of skulking. Imagine if we took it over. We could set up a tiny table and drink tea from tiny cups.”
I stopped midstep. Yorick’s suggestion reminded me of a time Inessa and I had tried to make a place of our own. It was right after I’d stolenthe scarf from our parents’ chambers. Inessa grabbed my wrist as we left our slumbering father behind. We scampered off, winding up and through the hidden passage until we were spewed out onto the palace roof.
Panting, we collapsed together in a sweaty heap. Icy, salty wind thrashed about us and nipped at our bare legs. Looking at each other, we burst into laughter. We jumped to our feet and rushed to the side of the roof. It was nothing but a sloping edge. Sheet copper, patinaed green, formed jagged teeth along it. The wind was even stronger, as though the Primeval Family were trying to blow us over the edge. It only made us more euphoric, the peril becoming another thrill to add to the first. Inessa snatched the scarf from my neck and waved it above her head. The wind grabbed it as though it were an offering, yanking it upward. She released it. We howled in pleasure as it flew away.
Finally, we collapsed again, cheeks ruddy and eyes bright.
“Look, I also took this.” I showed her the plaque.
“Mother will miss it,” she said. Then she shrugged. “But it’s all right. She’ll think a servant stole it. Look, it has a name at the bottom: Alifair.”
“Who do you think it is?”
“It’s a Fely name. Maybe it’s the name of the Fely who painted it. Let’s keep it up here,” Inessa said. “This can be our own little chapel, and we can fill it with whatever we want.”
“All right!” Together, we set it up against a jut of copper. I let out a sigh. “How scary that Father was napping the whole time I was there.”
“You could’ve killed him,” Inessa said. Her eyes were still bright, and she smiled. “You could’ve just slit his throat right there.”
“And then what?”
“Ruled, silly.”
“Remember, I’m the scared one. I could never do something like that.”
