“That’s thoughtful, Royo,” I say. Because it is.
He grunts and goes into the washroom. I change out of the dress and into his clothes. It’s ridiculous how much more comfortable they are, even though the pants are way too big. I’m trying to figure out how to keep them up when he comes out of the washroom. He looks at me and laughs and then pretends like it was a very strange cough. But I heard it—the greatest sound in the world. My heart flutters, and I smile. He frowns harder.
“You can laugh, you know,” I say. “I won’t tell anyone.”
I give up on the pants and let them fall as I peel down the quilt and get into my side of the bed. I hope he’s not going to be weird about sleeping next to me.
He stands at the end of the bed, folding his arms.
Weird it is.
“What?” I really am too exhausted for this. I feel it in my bones. This cheap bed feels like a cloud. After being awake and panicked for two days, this room is Elysia.
“I’m angry,” he says.
Never mind. It just became the Tenth Hell.
“What else is new?” I murmur, snuggling the side of my cheek into the soft pillow.
He scoffs, but there’s a bit of a laugh in there, too. Enough to make me feel lighter, for my toes to curl under the quilt.
“Why are you angry?” I ask, sincere this time.
“You lied to me.”
There’s so much pain in those four words that my heart twists at having caused it. I had my reasons, but in the end, he’s right—I did lie. I purposefully made him think I wasn’t the king’s daughter. Because I’m really not. Or, at the very least, he’s never been like a father to me.
But I wasn’t honest with Royo.
“I know I did,” I say. “I wish I hadn’t. I wish I could’ve told you the truth from the beginning. But I didn’t know you had anything to do with the plan. I really thought you were just a guard. And you weren’t honest, either.”
Well…that wasn’t what I meant to say. I meant to apologize, but sometimessorryis the hardest word to pronounce. It rolled off my tongue with Sora, but it’s so much more difficult with Royo. And not because I mean it any less. I suppose it’s difficult because my heart is at stake.
He blinks. “What wasn’t I honest about?”
“Killing your girlfriend,” I say with a yawn. I donotmean to yawn. It just escaped because I shouldn’t have gotten in bed before we finished talking.
His amber-colored eyes take on the appearance of an incoming storm. And then I know for certain: he didn’t do it.
The realization hits and rakes down my guts. I dig my nails into the pillow. It had been my excuse—I was a liar but so was he. We’d both made mistakes. And that made us even. But he wasn’t lying. Just me. Well, me and my father and the northern count. Really, only Royo was telling the truth this whole time.
“They lied…” I whisper, sitting up in bed. “Why did they lie? What was there to gain?”
He’s breathing hard, but he shakes his head and speaks quietly. “I didn’t hurt her. I never would’ve. I don’t know why Bay Chin and your father said I did. Maybe so you wouldn’t trust me. I dunno.”
He stares down at the ground, wounded. It hurts so bad that my heart physically aches for him. I didn’t know that was a real thing.
“I’m sorry, Royo,” I say. “For all of it.”
My words have never felt punier than they do now, measured against the damage they’ve caused.
He nods. “You swear you didn’t know I was being set up? You thought I was just a guard?”
“On my soul,” I say. “On my mother’s.”
He stares at me, and I hold his gaze because I am being honest. I had no idea.
Eventually, Royo nods again. “You’re exhausted.”
