How do I get out of this blasted keep? I can’t go through the main doors without crossing the ballroom, and I’ll never show my face there again. I’m sure Mother’s hunting me down right now, and my guest chamber will be the first place she’ll look.
A briny breeze drifts down the hallway, and I catch sight of a curtain blowing in the wind. An open window. I rush to it. There’s no plan, only the certainty that I can’t behereanymore. Maybe I can flee to the marketplace and lose myself in the crowds. Or perhaps make my way back to Autumn. Stars, I’ll swim if I have to.
I brace myself on the windowsill and take a deep breath of sea air.
I don’t want to be a High Prince. And Icertainlydon’t want to see the gladiator Prince of Summer.
Desperate to escape, I fling myself out of the window…and straight into the muscled chest of someone climbing in.
3
Dayton
Aforce hits me, and I fall to the ground with a hardsmack. There’s another fae on top of me.
“What in the bloody seven realms?” I croak, the breath knocked out of me.
The last thing I expected when trying to sneak into the gala—through the window, of course, because then Damocles couldn’t prove I arrived late—was to be pushed from the window by a clumsy fool.
I grip the other fae by the shoulders and easily flip him onto his back. A thatch of wavy auburn hair falls across his brow, and he blinks up at me with huge golden eyes.
“Who are you?” I say, meaning my words to come out as a growl, but they get caught in my throat.
“P-please let me go,” he cries. “I have nothing of value on me!”
I sit back on my heels and tilt my head. “What do you take me for? A thief?”
The young man takes a few shaking breaths, then sits up. “Who else would be climbing through the window of a keep?”
“And who would be climbingoutof a window?” I take in his orange toga. Beneath, his skin is near translucent. This is no fae of the Summer Realm. “I know exactly who you are.”
He staggers to his feet. “Y-you do?”
Standing, I flash him a grin. “A servant of Autumn escaping his duties. Do our festivities pale compared to your realm?”
His face blanches. “I don’t need to explain myself to you, a dirty thief. In fact, I should report you.”
I give myself a quick sniff. So, I’m not at my most presentable. Sand is still stuck to my skin, and my hair is salt crusted. I take a step toward him. “You’re not going to do that, Little Leaf.” I flick the golden leaf-shaped cuff over his pointed ear. “Because then you’ll have to admit you were running away?—”
“I wasn’t running away!” A flush stains his freckled cheeks. “I needed some air. If you’re not a thief, then who are you?”
“You could say I serve the realm in my own way.”
The boy looks me up and down. He must decide I’m not an immediate threat to the realm, as he turns and begins to walk through the gardens surrounding the palace.
I look back at the window, where vines crawl up toward the glowing yellow light. I follow a few steps after the servant. “So, where are you going?”
“I’m going to take a quick loop around the keep before returning to my duties.”
I huff out a breath. “That’s so incredibly boring. If you’re going to shirk your duties, you should at least have a bit of fun.”
“This is enough for me,” he says. “I’m not usually so impulsive.”
I whistle through my teeth. “Wow, a garden walk. Positively shocking, Little Leaf.”
He stops and shoots me a glare. Suddenly, I realize this Autumn servant has no idea who I am. Even though, asDamocles puts it, I dress like “a common goat herder”most of the time, I’d be hard-pressed to find a citizen of Summer who wouldn’t recognize me on sight, much less have the nerve to shoot me a look like that.
“You know,” I say, snatching his jaw with my hand, “that glare would be a lot more intimidating if it wasn’t so cute.”
