“It’s not my fault. Ever since I caught him and your mom that one time, I swear?—”
Stella covered her ears. “Stop, I beg you.”
“He looks at her like he worships her,” Kate said, gazing longingly out the window.
If Stella wasn’t so used to seeing it herself, she might have been disturbed, but mostly it just made her roll her eyes now. “He does.”
Kate waved a hand like it was obvious. “So it makes sense that you want a man who will worship you.”
“Because he’s like my dad?” Stella wrinkled her nose. “Gross.”
Kate threw her hands in the air. “No, because you know whoever you choose to love, your relationship will be held up againsttheirs.”
Stella squirmed, picking at her nails and avoiding Kate’s eyes. She didn’t like that it was so clear for her friend to see. That meant that everyone else would think it too. How could she compete with her parents’ history, what with the bond that allowed them to understand each other so fundamentally?
Arden was magnetic, creative, and thoughtful, but it was impossible to give their relationship the privacy to grow when he was such a public figure. She didn’t want Kate or anyone else’s scrutiny. Not when things were going so well with Arden—when they were so close to making things more serious.
“Shall we go?” Kate asked.
Stella turned away from the windows and threaded her arm through Kate’s. “Let’s.”
They hurried out of the house and down the trail to town. It was a quieter night for the Solstice Festival, meant for smaller household and bar parties.
“It’s more deserted out here than I expected,” Kate said as they walked into the main square in Olney City. Torches along the street kept the area well-lit, but there weren’t many people milling about.
Boisterous music spilled out of the doors of the surrounding bars, but the streets were far less crowded than they had been in years past, thanks to the escalating rebel attacks leading up to the Solstice Festival events.
The Sons of Endros had been wreaking havoc in the kingdom since Stella’s parents had helped end the war between Olney and Argaria more than two decades earlier. When Stella was young, the attacks had been few and far between—the careless tantrums of men too rooted in their ways to allow the fighting to end.
Recently, however, those attacks had become more organized and much more frequent. The Solstice Festival was normally a week long with events every night, but for the sake of security, King Marcos had reduced the larger events to every other night so that some of the kingdom’s hunters and guardians could stay sharp and rested, instead of constantly guarding the royal family and visiting dignitaries.
“At least tomorrow will be exciting again,” Stella said, taking one long glance down the mostly empty street. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled like she was being watched, but when she turned, there was no one.
“I know you’re right, but it seems a waste to use such a breathtaking dress at a party where there won’t be any real courting prospects,” Kate said. “Good thing I have the perfect one saved for tomorrow night. Maybe I’ll bring some excitement to the Gauntlet play.”
Stella laughed. She’d always liked watching the Gauntlet play as a child. She grew up on stories and loved that her parents were so intricately woven into the tale of their two kingdoms. In recent years, though, she hadn’t loved the scrutiny. People always came up to her teary-eyed afterward to reassure her that she would find the same kind of love her parents had, but their words felt more placating than sincere.
Rainer liked to say that she had inherited her mother’s face for truth-telling. Stella was not good at hiding her displeasure, and over the past few years, those comments had become difficult to smile through.
Kate tugged her toward the large castle walls. The guards at the gate nodded and Stella and Kate followed a trail of rose petals that led through the castle gates and into the party. They stepped through a large floral archway into a glowing, whimsical wonderland.
The courtyard outside of Olney Castle had been transformed. Tall, white candles surrounded by colorful floral bouquets ran down the center of the long dining tables.
The more intimate gathering of the royal families and a few select families of the court, like Kate’s, had become a tradition over the past few years and Stella always looked forward to it.
“I didn’t know Rosie and Leo went ahead of us,” Kate said.
Stella glanced at her siblings, who stood on the far side of the courtyard, looking at a large ice sculpture that held chilled bottles of bubble wine. Guilt uncoiled in Stella’s stomach. She needed to apologize to them both, but not in front of everyone. She’d have to find a quiet moment when no one was paying close attention.
Kate turned an assessing gaze on Stella and arched a brow. “Oh? Are the perfect McKays fighting?”
“Of course not,” Stella said.
Kate scoffed. “Must be nice. When you only have brothers, the fighting never stops. What is it this time?”
Stella wrung her hands. “You can’t say anything. It’s not public knowledge.”
Kate’s eyes lit up, and she grabbed two glasses of bubble wine from a passing servant’s tray, handing one to Stella before settling in for gossip.
