Dey edged slightly away from me. “I… um… well, that is to say…”
I had to admit, flustered was a good look on him. “It’s okay, Dey. Seriously. Just breathe. I’m not gonna go feral on your ass or anything.”
I’m not sure my words helped as much as I intended because he took another small step backward, and his right hand shifted toward his rear as if he genuinely thought it might need protection.
I snorted. “Maybe we should just go inside.” I paused. “Unless… It doesn’t get worse inside, does it? Please don’t tell me my father has some tacky diamond throne.”
Dey chuckled softly. “I will not tell him you said that.”
“So that's a yes,” I groaned. “Well let’s get it over with. I doubt it’s getting less tacky as we stand here.”
Dey’s shoulders shot back as he straightened, clearly relieved to be back on task, and he gestured toward a wooden door at the back of the courtyard.
“This way, Princess.”
Dey led me down a long corridor with hallways on each side interspersed with doors featuring ornate diamond knobs. While the exterior of the castle was primarily diamond-rich gray stone, the interior walls were more beige in color, making the entire palace feel light and bright. The bricks that comprised these high-ceilinged walkways were infused with fewer diamonds, but there was no ignoring the occasional glittering vein that ran through the off-white stone.
The ceiling opened up above me as the corridor came to an end, and I found myself in a sweeping antechamber. Two massive ebony stone doors took up the majority of the back wall, flanked on either side by guards dressed in burgundy tunics boasting a Celtic-looking symbol on the chest. A flicker of light caught my eye, and I glanced up to the ceiling.
All forward momentum halted. My feet might as well have been in quicksand for how strongly I was immobilized by the beauty above me.
Swirling hues of black, purple and dark blue decorated the ceiling perhaps thirty feet above my head. Thousands of tiny diamond stars were embedded throughout that midnight mural, luminous and twinkling like celestial fireflies guiding the way to the heavens. Many were arranged purposefully to form constellations, and though I didn’t recognize any of them, they somehow felt familiar.
A hand grazed my shoulder, but I couldn’t tear my attention from the stars. Outside the diamonds were abrasive and intrusive, but here they were mesmerizing. They were the very definition of breathtaking. They were… magic.
I wanted nothing more than to let all my worries drift away so I could embrace the perfect serenity of this stardust sea.
“Rain?” Dey prompted, and I crashed painfully back into reality.
“Sorry. I, uh, got a little distracted,” I replied, giving him a rueful look.
“There is no need to apologize. It is quite magnificent. Your mother was actually the one to commission it during her brief time in the palace. Now, if you would wait here, I need to alert the king before I bring you in to see him. He will likely need time to compose himself before receiving you.”
Dey left me standing awkwardly in the middle of the room while he spoke with the guards. They gave him a curt nod andpushed the heavy doors open just wide enough for him to slip through.
I spent a few more minutes examining the enchanting ceiling before the crick in my neck brought me back to reality.
Reality, however, was an otherwise empty room with two males regarding me with a mixture of awe and confusion.
“Hey,” I greeted, strolling over to them. “I’m Rain. I was hoping to—”
Before I could finish my sentence, they both moved in unison, dropping to one knee and crossing an arm over their chest.
“Princepa,” they intoned, bowing their heads to me deferentially.
Well, that was a far cry from the greetings I got in Jersey which usually consisted of leers from guys and sneers from girls. I glanced down at my attire. Yeah, I was still me. Old and dirty Converse, tattered blue hoodie around my waist, torn jean shorts and a black Linkin Park tank top.
“You don’t have to do that,” I insisted, waving a hand near the face of the guard closest to me.
He remained kneeling, his brow furrowed, as he asked, “Nesto auxum?”
I shouldn’t have been surprised by their response. Just because Dey spoke to me in English didn’t mean that everyone here could.
I was contemplating whether or not charades would be even remotely effective when there was a loud rap on the stone door.
The guards leapt to their feet. Bracing their palms against the huge slabs of stone, they began to push.
Inch by inch, the room beyond gradually opened up to me, each creak of hinges plucking my tightly wound heartstrings.
