“The p-princess saved me.” It was difficult to hear his voice over Giselle’s sniffling, but the moment she realised what he’d just said, her tear-filled gaze flicked over to where I was still sitting on the grass.
“You? You saved my baby brother?” she squeaked through sobs.
Unsure of how to respond, I just nodded.
Something inside her seemed to break then as she leapt towards me, arms outstretched. Her body collided against mine, almost sending us both tumbling against the grass. For a moment, I thought she might be angry, but then her armswrapped tightly around my shoulders as she pulled me into the most grateful hug.
“Thank you. Thank you so so much, Princess Naria,” she cried into my neck.
Around us, a strange hush fell over our audience, broken only by the occasional whisper. Each of them observed our interaction as though they didn’t know what to make of it. Perhaps Giselle had more influence than I’d thought.
“I don’t care if she saved him. We all just witnessed forbidden magic,” a woman’s voice shot from behind me. “We all saw it! She kissed a dead boy and now he lives!”
Slowly, Giselle pulled away from me as I stood and turned to face the woman. Her thick black hair was piled high on top of her head, adorned with pearls and beads, while her umber arms sat folded in front of her chest.
“That was not magic,” I explained in a calm tone. “I just used a healing technique.”
“No amount of healing can bring someone back from the dead,” she spat. “And Lady Giselle is a fool to embrace you, who knows what manner of curses you could place on her.”
Shocked whispers echoed throughout the mob, and a few servants shot me looks of disgust.
“The duchess is right. We should take her to the prince to see what he makes of this,” a gruff voice said as I felt someone grasp my wrist.
“Stop that!” Giselle protested, but her pleas were ignored. Suddenly, bodies piled in on me, shoving Giselle aside and wrestling with my writhing arms. All I could see was furious faces as my chest tightened. This was all too much. Too many hands. I couldn’t breathe! Heavy air blocked my throat as I suffocated with fear.
Stop, please.I wanted to cry for help, but no words came out.
“Enough!” A commanding voice sent a wave through themob, forcing them to drop my arms.
Lukas…
The crowd slowly parted to reveal the tall, steel-eyed prince, standing just metres away. Concern flashed across his features when he saw me. In the chaos, someone had tugged at my hair, leaving a tangle of ringlets haloing my face. Paired with my tear-stained cheeks and heavy breathing, I must’ve looked a complete mess, but I didn’t care. Lukas was here now, and for once, I was glad to see him.
“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded as he surveyed the scene before us.
The lady with the pearl-decorated hair stepped forward first. Her voice was nasally and grating as she dipped her head in respect.
“Your Highness, we found a young boy who had drowned in the pond. Princess Naria here attemptedsome kindof rescue, although we all saw her use dark magic to revive him.” Murmurs of agreement trickled through the crowd. “She kissed him at least five times and then, he just woke up. Only a fool would believe that was not magic.”
Lukas stiffened as his brow lowered. “Kissed him?”
My eyes wanted to roll back into my skull. “That’s not true,” I stated, finding my voice. “Yes the boy was dead when I found him, but I was able to restart his heart using heartflow restoration. It is a lifesaving technique that was used in Corlixin hospitals to revive patients. You give compressions to the chest to mimic a beating heart and force air into the lungs to keep the patient breathing. It’s really—”
“You use these big words to try and hide the magic.” The woman’s venom-laced voice cut off my words. “We all saw you, demon! Don’t try and deny what you did.”
“I would rather you didn’t refer to my fiancée as a demon, Lady Vivian.” Lukas’s tone was light, but by the way his face haddarkened, I could tell he was deadly serious. “Are you forgetting that Princess Naria here is your future Queen?”
The people around me shuffled awkwardly, including Lady Vivian.
“I did not mean to offend, Your Highness.” Her grating voice remained directed at the prince. “I only wished to inform you of what weallwitnessed.”
“You witnessed science.” I whirled to confront her. “I can’t believe this is even up for debate! Your healers might know everything about herbs, but the Corlixins, my people, we understand the body. You have to believe me when I say there was nothing magical about any of that.”
Her gaze skimmed over me as though I was dirt under her boot. I’d never met her before, but her name seemed somewhat familiar. Just then, my memories flew back to the very first dinner I’d had with Lukas.
Lady Vivian wasn’t too happy either at breakfast, when I told her that you were on your way.
Surely she wasn’t another lover, unless Lukas liked ladies on the more mature side. Still, by the way she seethed before me, there had to be more to her anger than plain ignorance.
