Duty,I told myself.Iron does not shatter,my father would have preferred.
I wanted to puke at whatever either meant.
Years of mindless words thrown at me like a book of twisted poems, and what did I have to show for it? A maimed heart? A romanticism with no place in the world?
I knew better,I wanted to scream. Sameer wasn’t Willem, and he never would be, even if things had gone perfectly. Willem was my soulmate, so why had I let myself like him?
“Svana?”he said.
“Princess, I think.”
“What?”
“You’ll call me Princess,” I said.
My head shook so frantically, and before I knew the plan, mylegshad sent me well into the opposite direction, down the hall, and toward my suite.
Sam followed.
“Leave me alone!” I cried.
I tried to ignore his repeated call of my name, a blatant disregard for my request to address me as his equal. His shoes clattered; mine ticked. The closer we came to the end of the hall, the faster they carried us.
“Leave me alone,” I told him again. “I don’t want to look at you!”
“Then don’t look, but let us talk of this!” he pleaded.
“That isn’t necessary.” I slammed the bedroom door behind me, to exile him. My palms were hot.
“Svana,”he begged.
“Go. Away.”
Chapter 13
After a few minutes, Sameer gave up, and I tried to stay in my chamber, lay down, and throw myself into the sheets to brood dramatically, but I was running. No, I wassprintingthrough the Palace.
Somewhere, somewhereelse.A place unknown to the party guests and ladies and gentlemen I had left behind, and unknown to myself.
I had no goal for where I headed, or even the knowledge necessary to construct such a thing, but I was the puppet of a raging agony that didn’t care where any particular corridor led. It wasn’t until sludge and hay worked together to stain my ankles and I sank into the mud, that I even realized I was outside, or near the stables.
My face was streaked with tears, and I was panting; I was out of breath, and all I wanted to do was ride a horse and flee from everyone in the same way I had found peace when I was home.
“Ice,”I recalled.
I stepped into the barn. At the far end, I caught the gleam of her familiar white coat, my mare, and, like a beacon, a sailor’s saving light, I went to her.
“Ice,”I whispered sweetly. “Beautiful, reverent Ice,” I said. I brushed her mane with my nails. “Hi. Hi, there, girl.”
She rustled in her pin. She looked at me with her strong, magical black eyes, and I stood a little taller at the connection. I checked around, finding the saddle I thought was hers, and I reached to pull it off the wall, but?—
“Are you stealing my horse?”someone asked.
“Mr. Evergreen?”I said.
He leaned against a beam, watching me fail to unhook the seat from its place.
“Yourhorse?” I delivered. “This one’smine.”
