“What’s the rush?” A familiar voice laughed.
Oh, gods save me. When I said I wanted to see him again, I didn’t mean by embarrassing myself.
“Leo, hi!” she said as casually as she could. “Sorry, I’m late for breakfast. I slept through it yesterday. Did I miss it again?”
“Nearly, but no.” Leo realized he was still holding Evelyn’s arms and released her.
She tried not to frown at the loss of contact. “Is the prince in there? I haven’t met him yet, and I’m amess. Maybe I should go?—”
“No, Prince Alexander is already gone. And he wouldn’t care about… whatever you are worried about. You look beautiful this morning.”
Evelyn’s heart skipped a beat at the unexpected compliment. “Thank you.”
The kings’ roaring laughter sounded from the dining room.
“I should go,” Evelyn remembered. “Sorry again for running into you!”
He’s going to remember me as the clumsy girl who sets flowers on fire.
Evelyn hurried down the hall before Leo could say anything else.
“Look who’s awake!” Her father chuckled.
Evelyn took her seat. “I sleep too peacefully in this palace.”
“Did you see the prince on your way here?” Queen Camille asked her. “He left the table not long ago.”
“No, I must have just missed him.” Evelyn noticed a tray of pancakes and snatched them up.
I would much rather see carbs than the mysterious prince, anyway.
“That keeps happening!” Hannah said. “You have to meet Prince Alexander eventually.”
“Is he coming back later? Is there another garden for him to show you?” Evelyn teased.
“We haven’t made any plans for today,” Hannah said with a hint of disappointment.
Hannah has been glowing since we arrived. It’s like she was destined to be in the sunshine of this kingdom. Whatever’s keeping the prince away from the palace, it surely isn’t her.
“Any word on your missing soldiers, Gerard?” King Tristan asked.
“Nothing yet,” King Gerard said curtly.
“I’m sure they’re fine. I bet they got drunk and passed out somewhere. The one with Vision magic probably hid them all so they wouldn’t get caught.”
“Theyareyoung. Only recently enlisted. It wouldn’t be the first time new soldiers made that mistake.”
That sounds like when my brother joined the Fire Court’s army. Instead of following the rules, Rowan only got more creative at breaking them.
Evelyn was pleasantly surprised to find a bouquet of freshly cut lavender in her room. The new flowers looked out of place, adash of purple in the sea of red, but seeing them made her heart happy.
Leo really got me flowers. At the very least, he directed someone to bring me flowers. He didn’t have to do that, but he thought about me. I wonder if that was before or after I nearly knocked him over.
Around midday, Evelyn left her room and used the staff staircase again, passing a confused maid. She wandered over the east lawn and spotted the river in front of the palace.
The Celilo River flowed down the center of the continent. It began in the north by Carrowmore’s castle and stopped directly in front of Gryon’s palace before running underground and out to the ocean. The fae who built the palace created tunnels for the river, instead of building their home literally anywhere other than a delta.
The river was wide and deceptively calm from the surface. Bridges spanned the river at several points in both kingdoms. Fae with Air or Water magic were stationed at each one to simply lift ships over or submerge ships under the bridges in order to let them pass. From the palace, cobblestone roads on both sides of the river led to locations in the eastern and western halves of the kingdom.
