But hope, that constantly useless emotion, lasted mere seconds before I saw the sympathy cloud Dey’s eyes.
It shouldn’t have ached as badly as it did. I spent twenty-five years without a mother. I shouldn’t be mourning the loss of something I never had.
“Come,” Dey said, rising to his feet. “Let us go speak with your father. He will explain everything.”
“Okay,” I agreed, pulling myself back together. “This day literally cannot get any weirder so let’s throw in a long lostparent. Why not?” I took a step forward, indicating for him to lead the way.
He strode off through the rose bushes, navigating the maze of twists and turns with ease. I followed a few steps behind, trying to decide if the butterflies in my stomach were nerves, fear, or possibly excitement.
“So where exactly are we going to find my father?” I asked as we made one last turn, the garden exit looming up ahead.
We passed beyond the grassy walls of the maze, and Dey simply lifted a hand toward the intimidating structure of glittering stone that I had somehow forgotten about.
I don’t know why I didn’t put it together sooner. If I was somehow a princess, that meant my father had to be a king.
Which meant my dad lived in a freaking castle.
My head still swirled from the implications of my potential princesshood as Dey led me across the drawbridge toward the portcullis.
“This river is beautiful,” I remarked absently, pausing on the bridge to take in the crystal clear, slow-moving water running beneath. Leaning over, I could make out schools of pale blue and green fish swimming against the current. They were massive, twice the size of the largest koi fish I had ever seen. The bright sun glittered off their pearlescent scales, and the dancing light was so hypnotizing I wondered if I could dip my hand in the water and touch one…
“That is a very bad idea,” Dey interrupted, grabbing my hand inches before it broke the surface of the water.
“Why?” I glanced back at the beautiful creatures just as one opened its mouth wide and snapped at me, revealing two rows of razor sharp teeth.
“Because those are stiroi,” he explained. “This moat is fed by an underground river that flows into the castle, providing us with water for drinking and bathing. The stiroi act as a filter, eating anything that comes near them. I have been told their bite is quite painful.”
“Damn,” I whispered as one nipped at another that had gotten too close. Those were some seriously vicious fishy fangs.
“Shall we continue on?” Dey asked, tugging me away from the river. “Perhaps with a bit more focus? At this pace, I fear I will be old and gray before I present you to the king.”
Rolling my eyes, I followed after him, crossing under the portcullis to enter the courtyard. I stumbled a bit as the dazzling brilliance struck me, my eyes watering and my pupils shrinking to pinpricks. Glittering swirls of light ran through the stones beneath my feet and across the walls. The patterns intertwined among one another in bursts of greens, purples, yellows, pinks, and brilliant white, reminding me of oil drops swirling on water. In the center of the courtyard, a trio of fountains fractured the light a million times over into tiny rainbows that danced and skittered among the stone figures and splashing geysers.
I threw up a hand to block the intense display. Why was everything so damned sparkly? And where was everyone?
“Shouldn’t a castle have like, I don’t know, people running around? This place is dead.”
“I believe your father is currently holding council with the majority of his courtiers in the throne room,” Dey explained. “Also, most know to avoid the courtyard when the suns are still high in the sky.”
“Yeah, I can see why,” I muttered, still holding my hand up to ward off the dazzling assault. I walked over to the nearest wall to examine the stones, trying to figure out exactly why everything here was wreaking such havoc on my retinas.
“Is that…?” I leaned closer to the stone, inspecting the strange veins of glass-like minerals running through every brick in the courtyard. My mouth dropped open, and I spun to look at Dey.
He grinned.
“Welcome, Princess, to the Diamond Palace.”
Chapter six
I thought the news that other realms existed would break me. Then I thought hearing that I had a living father would break me. Nope. It was the damned diamonds that did it. I took in every single inch of that glittering courtyard and just… laughed.
It started small at first. Just a giggle that grew to a chuckle. Then I could feel it—this writhing creature crawling up from the pit of my stomach, like a dragon that had been awoken by the presence of shiny jewels. My laughter morphed and twisted into something terrifying, but I couldn’t hold it back.
Maybe I had been too quick to dismiss Dey's earlier notion that my people were prone to bouts of hysteria and mania because I was pretty sure this is what mania felt like.
I don’t know how long I stayed there like that—howling like a grazed goblin. It could have been a minute or an hour. Eventually, though, I resumed some tiny semblance of control and was able to look up at Dey, who appeared to be debating with himself over helping me or fleeing in terror.
Between lingering sobs and giggles, I asked, “Are you telling me that while I was in the real world making shitty fast food tacos and wondering if I was going to make enough money to keep a roof over my head, my father was living in a damn palace made of diamonds?”
