Pushing away from the door, he turns and walks away from me, heading down the hall and toward the stairs. “I never said I liked it.”
“You never said you didn’t.” I gnaw on my bottom lip to fight my smile. “Good chat, boss.”
If he’s going to keep me here, give me this bullshit ultimatum, the least I can do is have some fun with him. Worst case, he fires me. But I don’t think he will unless I seriously fuck up. I scurry back into my room, take the fastest shower in the history of the world, brush out my long hair, forgo the makeup since I’m running late, and get my ass downstairs.
Everyone is already in the breakfast room eating, so I help myself to a plate and fill it with meat, cheese, baguette, strawberry jam, and a hard-boiled egg. I take my seat beside Althea, who is very gracious when I ask her if I can crash her yoga sessions. I talk with the children, asking them a million questions about what their normal days are like.
After breakfast, I feel like I’m getting into a groove.
Phaedra got out the door with minimal whining. Javier drove her along with royal attendants for her safety to the small building they set up as a school. Per Emily, the king wanted her homeschooled in the main palace, but she begged and pleaded, and this is how it turned out. Attending a makeshift school as the only child along with three guards. I help Zayer get dressed, and Sabrina puts on one of her “princess dresses,” as she calls it, and demands we start playing immediately.
Armed with a thermos of coffee, I feel ready. So far, hanging out with kids all day feels easier and way more fun than teaching them in school.
Or so I thought.
Because I had no clue that by agreeing to a simple game of hide-and-seek, everything was about to get fucked up.
I counted to twenty and then went looking for Sabrina and Zayer. Believing that first of all, they couldn’t have gone all that far in twenty seconds, and that second of all, they’d be easy to find. They’re children, and children make noise. They giggle and call out for you.
Not these children.
Because now I’ve officially been looking for them for an hour. A freaking hour! And if I didn’t already know after nearly getting lost twice this morning, this palace is huge. The children are supposed to sit down for lunch in about ten minutes, and I can’t find them. I coyly—likely not coyly at all—asked Emily if the children have a favorite hiding spot, and she said the palace. As in the entire palace. Then she gave me a good-luck pat on the shoulder before going back to her job.
Althea’s answer was something similar.
At this rate, it will take me years to explore every possible place they could be.
But them being lost isn’t the only issue.
The prime minister is here, along with some parliamentmembers, and they’re situated in the smaller ballroom that just so happens to be smack-dab in the center of the palace on the second floor by the grand staircase. So I can’t call out to the children as I normally would on the second floor or even the first, since sound carries in this place. Even behind closed doors, I have no doubt they’d hear me.
I’ve never played hide-and-seek myself, only seen versions of it on television or at school while other children played it. You have to have siblings or friends for that. It was me and my parents, and my parents were…well, I don’t want to use the termstiflingsince my mother is dead and my father is unwell, but that’s exactly what they were. So, while I was excited at first to play a game everyone in the world has played but me, now I’m regretting my exuberance to count first.
I’ve officially searched the entire third and first floors except for the king’s forbidden suite. Room after room, and no children.
Now I’m on the second floor, creeping by the king’s study, where I spent my jail time on Saturday, and past his office, a sitting room, and another sitting room, and how many fucking rooms does a palace need? In any other situation, I’d find this funny. But there is nothing funny about this, and panic is starting to sink in.
Because if I don’t find them soon, I’m going to have to fess up that I lost the children and that’s why they’re late for lunch. Which is not how you want to start off on your first day.
Slinking past the ballroom, I hear the king speaking heatedly with someone about some sort of bill he won’t sign when I catch a sound. Zayer, thank God. Only instead of giggling, he’s crying as Sabrina shushes him.
“Papa,” he wails. I get on all fours and crawl toward the sound. Peeling back a massive—probably priceless, knowing this place—tapestry, I discover Zayer bleeding from a small cuton his knee. His big, watery blue eyes meet mine, and the tears come out in full force.
“Oh, hey, little man.Shhh.It’s okay,” I soothe, running my hand along his hair while assessing the cut.
“No. Papa!” he screams. “I want Papa!”
Behind me, the door to the ballroom opens, followed by footsteps, and then, “Well, what do we have here?” The prime minister takes me in on all fours in my skirt, a glint to his eyes and a smarmy smirk on his lips.
Beside him is the king, his face hiding none of the rage he’s feeling toward me. No way this ends well for me.
8
SEBASTIAN
There are few people I hate in this world more than Samil Batorini. Unfortunately, I still have to deal with his ass more than I care to. He only ran for prime minister to fuck with me. I’m certain of it.
He had done his best to dissuade Nora from marrying me, but she wanted the crown, and her family wanted her to have it too. I was indifferent at the time. I had known she’d make a good queen, as she was beautiful and smart and kind. She had never annoyed me the way the other women who were vying for her spot did. She had been my friend, and that gave her top marks over everyone else.
