I whip my gaze back to the girl. “Princess?”
She shoots a daggered look at her companion. “Damn it, Podaxis. You just gave her the very information we were trying to hide.”
“Ah, so sorry, Your Highness.” The way he brings his pincers together reminds me of someone wringing their hands. “Shall I snip her tongue, then?”
“You shall not,” I say at the same time the girl—theprincess—says, “Not if she can keep quiet.”
I glance at the bag in her arms again, and urgency propels my feet toward her. “Take me with you.” Another sharp pain twists inside me, but I breathe through it. “I must get out of here. Please, if you’re running away, I need you to take me too.” I double over with another wave of agony, stronger than the last. Sweat beads at my brow as my words become increasingly difficult to bite out. “I need you toforceme to come with you. Even if I cry out in pain. Drag me if you must. Once we’re far enough away, you can leave me somewhere off the beaten path.”
Her eyes go wide. “Are you mad? I’m going on foot. Am I supposed to carry you?”
“We can get a coach,” I say, half spoken, half hissed. “We can…borrowa cab. There are many here for the ball. Surely, one can go missing in the fray. Plus, I can pay you for your trouble. In two weeks, I can return here and claim my inheritance. I’ll give you all of it. Just get me out of the palace until then.”
“I don’t want your money.”
Another twinge of agony has me sinking to my knees, a trail of hot tears streaming down my cheeks. “Please.”
The princess remains silent for a few moments, and I fear she’ll brush past me and leave me behind. Then, with a muttered string of curses, she kneels at my side. Her voice takes on a softer tone as she asks, “What kind of trouble are you in?”
My head spins and it takes all my strength of will to focus on the present moment.I’m obeying. I haven’t run away. I’mnotrunning away. It’s only words. That’s all.The pain lessens, and I’m able to find my voice again. “I’m trapped in a bargain with my stepmother. I’ve sworn to live under her roof and obey her orders until I turn nineteen. That will be Sunday two weeks from now. After that, I’ll be free. But I can’t stay in the meantime. She’s using our bargain to try and force me to marry a dangerous man. I…I can’t do it.” Another twinge of pain. A sharp gasp for air.
She reaches a tentative hand and pats my shoulder, an awkward attempt at being consoling. Her words, however, seem far more genuine. “I know a thing or two about unwanted pairings. Not that mine is with someone dangerous so much as unlikable.”
“Please help me. I’ll do anything. I’ll make a bargain.”
“What good is a bargain if you’ll be forced to break a previous one? I can’t take you with me if you’ll be suffering a magical punishment the entire way. You’ll slow me down.” I’m surprised to find regret in her tone. “My travels require expedience and secrecy.”
“We can make it work,” I say, my mind reeling to come up with something to convince her to help me. “In my bargain, I’ll promise to return the day after I turn nineteen. Our travels will be considered…a brief sojourn. I’ll still deem myself living under Mrs. Coleman’s roof since she’s taken rooms at the palace all month. I just won’t be…physically beneath it for the next two weeks.” The pain lessens further but doesn’t abate entirely.
The princess brings a finger to her chin and taps it. For a few moments, she watches me through slitted lids. Then, with a wide smile, she says, “No, I have a better idea. We will make a bargain, but you won’t be coming with me.”
“Princess Maisie,” Podaxis mutters, scuttling closer to us. “Are you certain it’s wise to get involved with whatever scandal this riffraff has gotten herself into?”
Maisie shushes him, and I shake my head. “I can’t stay here. If my stepmother finds me, she’ll haul me back to Brother Marus. They expect me to marry tomorrow, and the prince has agreed to oversee our nuptials. Even if I were to try and fight it, there’s little chance the prince would intervene on my behalf.”
She stands and paces before me. “I don’t know the prince well, but he has as much personality as dry kelp.”
“He’s selfish and arrogant,” I say through my teeth. “I doubt he’d even hear my petition.”
She stops her pacing and smiles down at me. “I’m glad to hear you feel that way about him.” Then, turning on her heel, she goes to a stack of chests and opens the top one. From within, she extracts a pair of elegant shoes, then returns to me. “Here, put these on.”
Furrowing my brow, I stand and take them from her. The shoes are made of a pale blue silk dotted with tiny pearls. It has a low heel of the same shade, but smooth and sheer and… “Are the heels made of glass?”
“Sea glass,” she says like it’s unsurprising. “They’re quite strong, so don’t be alarmed. However, they will break if you are careless with them, so do treat them well. They were designed for dancing.”
“Dancing?”
“I’m a selkie,” she says with an air of irritation. “My kind are known to take seelie form after sundown and dance on the shore. Despite never having done so myself, Father thought they’d make a nice gift for all the dancing I’m supposed to be doing to woo the prince.”
“You’re…wooing the prince?”
She shrugs. “Waswooing the prince. I’ve decided I cannot. There’s no way I can keep up the charade of liking him, and now that I’ve seen his psy vampire powers at work, it’s only a matter of time before he finds out we’re incompatible. It’s imperative I leave before he sends me back to my home court.”
I sort through everything she’s told me, everything I’ve learned. She’s a selkie. A princess. And Podaxis called her Princess Maisie. I’ve heard that name before. “You’re the youngest daughter of King Ronan, the Seelie King of the Sea Court.”
She nods.
“If you don’t want to court the prince, and you don’t want to be sent back home, where are you going?”
