“She is the Orlaith, the foretold savior of our kingdom! The sole power able to fix the Veil and hide our peoples from the darkest gaze.” He took a step forward, dragging me along with him, and Griff stepped forward as I did. Zachariah continued on in this vein for a while longer, the faces rapt with excitement and dreams of finally living without fear of death.
These people somehow expected me to single-handedly fix a magical barrier that had claimed the lives of my parents, defeat an ancient evil no one understood that was transforming their friends and family into demons, and somehow transform from someonewho had farmed in mud to a golden, powerful princess. All because a few lines on paper had been interpreted to say so.
The collective hope in those faces pressed down on me, like a physical weight on my shoulders. Everyone in that crowd was counting on me. To be their savior. To be the protection against the darkness. To be the prophesized Orlaith.
So no pressure. None whatsoever.
When the presentationpart of the night was officially over, Andrei was the first to greet me.
“Lexa!” He offered an elbow to help me off the dais. I leaned heavily on him to avoid tripping and he surreptitiously adjusted his weight. “Don’t you look beautiful.”
Zachariah had followed and was frowning at his praise. “This family does not show off, young lady,” he spit out of the corner of his mouth.
I opened my mouth to respond, but Andrei sighed heavily. “Do you never give it a rest? Your granddaughter is at her first High Day, and it’s Ignistar, and her presentation no less. She’s back after fifty years in exile, and looks beautiful. The least you can do is not be a jackass tonight.”
As my mouth gaped open, I wondered, not for the first time, what exactly Andrei saw in my grandfather. Andrei might have defended me from Zachariah a few times, but he’d never openly called him out on it before. Especially in front of anyone else. Zachariah seemed equally surprised.
I didn’t have time to savor it, though, as people clamored around me, separating me from my grandfather and his partner. So many people. I felt like a buoy, adrift in the sea, bounced around by whatever the waves dictated. Everyone wanted something. Some favor. Some influence. Some just for me to know their name so they could ask something later. To say I was overwhelmed was an understatement.But there was one person, one face, always standing directly behind me, guarding my back, who wanted nothing. I continually reached out with my mind, and every time I did, I met a warm, calming light, lessening the anxiety enough for me to speak to the next person.
“I have no idea what I’m doing,” I dared to admit to him, during one brief ebb in the flow of visitors.
“You’re doing just fine,” came his soothing reply. His hand briefly rested on my lower back, a comforting warmth radiating from it.
I let his strength become a bulwark as I kept a wary eye out for anyone who showed a sign of being a part of the mysterious faction that might or might not want to kill me. The one that my attacker presumably was a part of. Because if they wanted the crown themselves, surely something would come up during the presentation where Zachariah announced me as the heir apparent.
One of the courtiers approached, standing entirely too close to me, his hand holding mine to his slimy lips for entirely too long. I recoiled from his alcohol-fumed breath, trying to disengage my hand, and stepped back into a hard chest. Griff moved me to the side, stepping in front of me and blocking the drunk courtier from my sight.
“The princess has no need to smell your breath. Remove yourself.”
When he came back to my side, hand possessively on my back once again, I murmured, “I can defend myself. Even from handsy courtiers with noxious breath.”
“I know you can,” was his calm response. “But I will not be held accountable for what happens to people who have their hands on you without your permission.” There was the overprotective Champion. And damned if I didn’t find that rather sweet. There must have been something wrong with me.
I decided to not point out thatheconstantly touched me without permission, including right at this moment. I didn’t want to risk him stopping.
“If I have to maintain this smile for one more minute, I think my face will be frozen this way. I thought this was supposed to be a party,” I muttered as Finn broke his way through the crowd and added his bulk as a barrier between me and the masses.
“At least it’s a very nice smile,” Finn said cheerfully, handing both of us glasses of something bubbly and sweet.
While Finn wasn’t nearly as broad as Griff, when compared to the average courtier, he was plenty large. And he clearly knew how to use it to his advantage, just as Griff did. They expertly edged us away from the crowd.
I laughed ruefully. And then stiffened as Zachariah glared at me.
“Easy,” Griff whispered. “Enjoy yourself, as much as you can.”
“Yeah, Lexie. Enjoy yourself,” Finn echoed. “Here you are, nestled between two of the kingdom’s most eligible bachelors. How does it feel?”
I released a giggle, driven more by nervous energy than his joke. “You two are the kingdom’s most eligible bachelors? Slim pickings.”
“You wound me,” he said, but his eyes twinkled. “I’ll have you know,” he continued, “that while I can’t speak for my brother here, I am sought out by many a lady for my prowess—” He cut off when Griff’s elbow connected with his ribs.
“I assure you, she does not need to hear of your prowess, of any type. Even if that was an appropriate topic of conversation for right now.”
Undeterred, Finn continued, “We could talk aboutyourprowess, Griff. Where is Aine tonight? She?—”
“No.”
Griff only said the one syllable, but it was enough for Finn to drop that line of teasing.
