"Pack essentials.Five minutes.We're bringing you back to the palace."
"I can’t go back."
"Your Highness."Her voice cut through my protest."This situation is deteriorating rapidly.Staying here puts you at risk and puts my people at risk.We're moving you."
She hung up before I could argue.
I stood there for a moment, looking at the chaos below, then at my phone showing Viktor's smiling face next to Princess Anastasia.At the carefully crafted narrative about alternative arrangements and better choices.
This was exactly what someone wanted.Me fleeing the palace, looking unstable and unsuitable, making the alliance appear weak enough to justify exploring other options.
Russian options.
I was grabbing my overnight bag when someone knocked, actual knock, not Captain Steiner's security override.
"Your Highness?"A male voice I didn't recognize."Hotel security.We need to evacuate this floor."
I opened the door to find not hotel security, but Archie, flanked by Roberto and four guards I recognized from the palace.
"What are you doing here?"
"Getting you out of here before someone gets hurt."He looked past me into the room."Captain Steiner called me thirty minutes ago when the crowd first started getting aggressive."He met my eyes."I know you don't want to see me.I know you're angry.But this situation is dangerous, and I'm not leaving you here."
"You don't get to make that decision."
"You're right.I don't.But your security team does, and they want you moved now."He gestured to the window, where the crowd below had grown even larger."So you can hate me in the car, or you can hate me here while this gets worse.Your choice."
The word "choice" coming from his mouth after everything made me want to throw something.But he wasn't wrong about the danger.Even from here I could hear the crowd, could see the flash of cameras like lightning.
"Fine."I grabbed my bag."But we're not discussing anything personal.This is purely about security."
"Understood."
Roberto led us through back corridors I hadn't known existed, service elevators that bypassed the lobby entirely.We emerged in an underground parking garage where a black car waited with its engine running and windows tinted dark enough to be illegal in most countries.
"Your Highness."Roberto held the door open.
I climbed in, expecting Archie to take one of the other cars.Instead, he slid in beside me, and Roberto shut the door, sealing us into the leather-scented quiet.
"I said I didn't want to talk to you."
"And I'm respecting that."He pulled a tablet from the seat pocket."But you need to see this."
"I already saw the story about Princess Anastasia."
"That’s not important."He pulled up a document, a timeline covered in dates, incidents, and connecting lines."I've been tracking your every incident, every convenient disaster that’s been happening to you."
I took the tablet.The timeline started with my arrival at the palace and tracked through every public mishap.The luggage damage.The speech substitution.The music room equipment.The Italian lesson materials.
"The incidents required access to security systems, diplomatic communications, household schedules.There’s a very short list of people who have that," Archie said.
I studied the timeline."You think someone we know is doing this?"
"The timing is too perfect.The leaks too well-coordinated."He pulled up another document."And tonight, someone made sure every major news outlet knew your exact location within thirty minutes of your arrival."
"Viktor told me about Anastasia," I said slowly."When I asked why they chose me instead of someone qualified.He said she was considered but had family connections to Moscow that were problematic."
Archie went very still."When did he tell you this?"
