Still in lecture mode, Elias brought me through the garden, which was full of hibiscus and orchids. He rambled on and on about security and safety, but I had already tuned him out. I’d heard the lecture a million times. In the garden, the air smelled fresh and instantly settled my nerves, even though I was still annoyed fromtoday’s failures. This was one of the few places where I could find sanctuary. The palace staff rarely came out here. It was where I could be myself without having to be fussed over or advised. I felt like me, the same old MJ again.
“Princess—” Elias caught himself, just like I still did. “Er, apologies, my queen, you are bleeding.” Elias’s eyes fell to my knee, where I saw a smear of bright red blood through my ripped pants.
I hadn’t even noticed. “It must have happened when I fell.”
“You fell?”
“On the rocks. I took a shortcut on the beach to catch Lucas by surprise.” I had been trying to use the rocks so he would have a harder time tracking me through the sand. Yet another failure.
Elias pursed his lips much like a father would and turned around, calling, “Nix!” There was no answer. The garden was quiet. Elias tried again, louder. “Nix!”
After a beat with still no sign of her, he sighed. “Where is that healer? I just saw her a minute ago.”
Elias was about to call for her again when a pale face popped up from behind a garden wall. My best friend, Phoenix “Nix” Xing, looked startled, like we’d interrupted something. Knowing her, she had probably had her face buried in a book.
“Y-yes?” she asked, black hair sticking out of the braided bun on the top of her head.
“Your attention, please,” Elias said, tipping his head toward me.
Nix disappeared behind the hedges once more, and I could hear her hurrying over. I tried to reassure the both of them. “It’s no big deal, really.”
But Nix appeared, straightening her robes, and asked, “What’dyou do this time?” Instead of the shabby robes I was used to seeing her in, the crisp blue healer’s uniform suited her nicely. Ever since she had learned she was a resurrector and started her formal training, she had skyrocketed to the head of her group at the Biringan Academy of Noble Arts.
“It’s not that bad!” I said. “It’s just a scrape. You’re both acting like it’s the end of the world.”
“Scrapes I can handle,” Nix said. “And a queen is not allowed to have scrapes.”
Elias had me sit down on one of the garden benches beneath a mango tree. I hiked up my pants and stayed still while Nix looked me over.
She leaned in close and clicked her tongue. “This will be quick,” she said, then hovered her hands over my knee, and a tingling chill seeped into my skin. It felt like the VapoRub my mom used to put on my chest when I had a cold. Nix’s magic stitched the skin on my knee back together in seconds, leaving nothing but a fresh red splotch that would fully heal in a day.
“You’re the best, Nix,” I said, admiring her work.
Nix shrugged and smiled at me, dark eyes sparkling.
Ever since she’d come to live with me in the palace, we’d grown closer. She’d been my best friend since I was first brought to the island after my father’s death, and she helped me figure out how to live as an encanto. Like me, she’d come from the human world, where she’d been hiding from her family—theimperialfamily of Jade Mountain—and sought refuge in Biringan, living in a shack on the outskirts of town while attending school with other encantos our age. But when I took over the official duties of being queen,the palace still felt too big, and I hated the thought of her living all alone in an abandoned building, so she moved into her own tower on the eastern wing. We’d spent every day together since.
We stayed up late reading romance novels and playing board games, spent days off shopping and eating, swimming in the ocean, sitting in the astronomy tower to watch the stars. Being with Nix was like one long sleepover. Growing up in the human world, I had never had a friend like her, and our friendship was something that I wanted to protect.
Being a queen can be lonely, but Nix never treated me any differently for it, and for that, I owed her everything.
“You should be more careful next time,” Elias said. “Lucas is there to train you, not to injure you.”
Oh, Lucas has injured me enough,I thought.
“Sir.” A squeak of a voice made Elias turn. A dwende—beings akin to dwarves or gnomes, no taller than my hip—with a flaming red beard and a stovepipe hat stood at attention. “The accounts are ready for you.”
“Ah, thank you, Toli. I’ll be there right away.” As chief councilor to the crown, Elias oversaw most of the administrative work and other official business. Sometimes I almost thought he preferred spending time in his office surrounded by towers of papers, like it was some kind of sanctuary from having to worry about me.
The dwende Toli left, expecting Elias to follow, but before he did, Elias turned to me and said, “You must try harder, anak.” It was an affectionate term of endearment, yet I couldn’t help but feel like it was a reminder that I was still inexperienced.
“I will,” I said. And I meant it.
When Elias left, Nix stood up. “Training didn’t go great?” she asked me.
I heaved myself to my feet, and we started walking toward the palace. The gleaming gemstone towers jutted into the satin-blue sky like a crown befitting a queen, but seeing it these days always made me feel like I wasn’t good enough to set foot inside my own home. “What gave it away?” I groaned. I stared at the gravel path so I wouldn’t have to see the palace. The gardens, though, were on the western side of the grounds, meaning the palace cast them in shadow at this time of day. I was appreciative of the breeze, despite my sour mood.
“You just have to practice,” said Nix.
