I folded up the poem, put it in a little wooden box with the rest, and returned to my bedroom so Vara could do my hair for the party.
Today’s tea party was to benefit a charity that supported the healthcare system Ethan and I had reestablished. I was all in for the cause, and didn’t care that the noble women were donating just to show each other up. The more funding we had for our country, the better— even if the moneywasbeing donated for the wrong reasons.
My girlfriends were gathered around the queen’s table in the gardens, thank the gods. It didn’t leave much room for anyone else to sit, and for that, I was grateful. Socializing wasn’t one of my strong suits. I said hello to everyone and chatted for a few minutes, as was my duty, before I sat down with a sigh. Vara poured my tea and handed me a plate of cucumber sandwiches, which I was very appreciative of. I was starving.
Towman, my personal guard, didn’t wander more than twelve-feet away during the entire party. He took the job of defending me seriously.Too seriously, I thought. He’d already saved my life once. He needed to lighten up.
Odette was being Odette, and ignoring the rules of high society by reading people’s tea leaves. She wasn’t always— if ever— proper at these events. Luckily, the ladies loved her rambunctious attitude. They treated her like a cute doll they could play with.
A gaggle of women gathered around Odette as she peered at the tea leaves in Kiara’s cup with one eye closed, the tip of her tongue sticking out. Finally, Odette said, “What lies ahead is not a choice, but adestination. You’ve already chosen the path you will walk. The only thing left is to complete what you already swore to do.”
“What does that mean?” Kiara raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know.” Odette bounced. “That’s just what the tea leaves say, I think!”
The ladies around us whispered, trying to decipher what Kiara’s reading meant. Good thing reading tea leaves was more or less a party trick, and not a clue to anyone that would give away Odette’s true powers.
I thought this was being risky, but to the women around the gardens, this was only a fun game. Lady Redwine, a dragon fae who was around our age, gave Odette her empty cup. Odette tilted her head as she looked at the cup, and said, “You need to be careful. Things aren’t what they seem, and someone won’t repay the debt they owe to you. Choose wisely.”
Lady Redwine frowned, then gave her cup to a servant as she wandered away.
“What a silly game,” Delmare said, sipping at the last of her tea. “You’re making things up.”
“Nuh-uh! Let me seeyourtea leaves!” Odette said, extending her hand.
Delmare gave her the empty cup, and Odette wiggled as she said, “Oooh, you’re due for some unexpected news! It’ll prompt Stefan to do somethingbig. Make sure you keep an eye on your mate, because he’s already got a plot in mind!”
I shook my head. I wasn’t sure if Odette was so much using her powers to prophesy as she was trying to get a rise out of everyone. Delmare snatched the cup back from her and scowled as she peered into it, trying to decide if what Odette said was true or not.
I was enjoying the conversation of the party and the beautiful flute music in the gardens when an elderly lady hobbled her way to me, holding that morning’s edition ofThe Annual Arcaneain her hands. My lips pursed when I saw her approach.
Ugh. Lady Alva. She was an old wolven crone who made it her business to bother me at every occasion. Rumor was, she’d been close with Queen Antonia, and Ethan’s mother had made it clear she didn’t like me. We kept her around because she hadn’t done anything wrong as of yet, but I wasn’t so sure she wasn’t loyal to Gabby instead of us. Either way, she got a thrill out of goading me.
“My queen,” Alva said, giving a creaking curtsy. “I found this paper in the possession of one of my servants. I thought you might like to know of thedisrespectthat is being printed in Dolinska about you.”
I kept my face passive as the tabloid was placed on the table. On the front page was a photo of me, with the headline,A Daring Dress? Queen Emmaline forgets to slant her legs during royal party— and shames the crown.
“I thought this was justso wrong,” Lady Alva said. “I punished my servant the moment I caught them reading it, but it was so upsetting, I thought you might like to know about it.”
Yeah, right. She’d bought a tabloid herself, to rub it in my nose.
I held in a huff about how dumb all this was. Since I’d become queen,The Annual Arcaneaspent most of their time ripping into me. Gabby hadn’t been a favorite of theirs, but she’d been born in Malovia, and raised here, something I couldn’t say for myself. The controversy over having anAmericanqueen on the throne sent the fae for a loop. I wasn’t sure if the tabloids actually hated me, or if they just printed bullshit about me because they knew it sold more papers. I’d been a scandalous figure ever since I’d entered the King’s Contest, and as I was aware, my name in the headlines always gave the newspapers a big profit.
Unfortunately, I worried that the press was making it so the people hated me. That wasn’t something we could afford during a war. We needed the public towantto follow us. Otherwise, they’d support Gabby.
Ethan had suggested we make a royal decree, to stop the papers from writing anything bad about us— mostly me— but I refused to allow him to do it. If we wanted a free press in Malovia, and we did, we had to deal with the consequences. We wouldn’t control the media like Gabby and Elijah had done, because that was wrong.
Even if there were personal consequences. I sneered as I looked at the article. The press had been attending that particular party, and I’d done an experiment to see if I wasn't exaggerating about their distaste for my rule. I’d chosen an off-the shoulder dress, same make, designer and color, that Gabby had worn at an event seven months ago. As I mentally compared the two articles, I realizedThe Annual Arcaneahad praised Gabby’s look, while scathing mine, even though the dress we wore was the same. They’d called her a fashion icon— me, disregarding tradition. In the picture, my legs were crossed at the ankles, instead of slanted to the side— a huge mark of ill-breeding in high-society, I was sure.
The hypocrisy was so glaring it made my blood boil. I didn’t know what they’d print next week— probably that my red hair was the mark of evil, or something similarly stupid.
The noble women sitting across from me peered forward, but I pushed the tabloid aside with my pinky and said, “If I bothered myself with anything the papers wrote, I’d never stop reading them. The wolf doesn’t concern itself with the thoughts of its prey, don’t you know? And I am a true wolven through and through.”
Lady Alva appeared irked. She’d been expecting me to lose my temper, and hadn’t been able to goad me into doing so. Another victory for me. In the palace, tea parties could be just as brutal as the battlefield. Alva’s nostrils flared as she lifted her skirts and floated away, to talk to a griffin noble at the edge of the gardens.
Good. Screw her.
“We can use this for toilet paper,” Delmare said, grabbing the tabloid and crumpling it in her fist. “That’s all it’s good for.”
