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“Please, Salas. Leave.”

Moonlight flooded the patio outside, spilling into the bedroom through the open doors. I stepped away from him and could no longer see his expression with my glasses off, but it was better that way. I just prayed he wouldn’t talk again. I needed his silence to hide behind.

He got off the couch and collected his cloak. Sorrow gripped my heart. How did he get a hold of me like that in such a short time?

Worry surged next. In my frazzled state, I couldn’t focus enough to analyze all the ways my past could be used against me, but if Salas wished to inflict harm, he surely could. This man now knew more about me than anyone else in Rorrim.

Panic pushed me to stop him.

“Wait!”

He glanced at me over his shoulder from the door, ready to leave with his hood on already.

“I... I need you not to speak to anyone about what you heard tonight.”

He scoffed softly. “Is that what you think I’ll do? Run my mouth about what you told me when we were alone?”

I didn’tthink. I panicked. I no longer had control over my own past. It was now in his possession to do with as he pleased.

“I don’t want anyone else to know... Please.”

I anxiously swept the room with my gaze. The sparkling mound of diamonds on the side stand caught my attention. The moonlight shimmered in their perfect facets, breaking into a million tiny stars.

“Here.” I scooped them all, both earrings and the necklace. “Take these.” I shoved them into his hands that were large enough to hide the gems completely.

“Your diamonds for my silence?” he muttered, and I couldn’t tell whether he sounded stunned or disappointed. Maybe both?

Before I could figure out what else to offer him, he shoved the bedroom door open with his shoulder. With my clothes in disarray, I leaped away from the light that burst into the room, keeping out of sight of the guards who camped in my sitting room.

“The princess needs her rest,” Salas announced, loudly. “Let’s go, girls.” He kicked the bedroom door closed behind him.

But there was no resting for me that night.

Chapter 12

Ari

Dressed in a cream-colored suit, freshly shaven, with his hair styled, Father met me in a drawing room downstairs a few days later.

“Market days are the best, aren’t they?” He placed a peck on my forehead in greeting.

His smile was like a breath of fresh air in the days since I’d kicked Salas out of my bedroom.

I’d spent that night curled in my bed, wrapped in a blanket, but I didn’t remember sleeping. Every time I’d closed my eyes, another memory would spring on me, leaving me feeling filthy and ashamed.

Things had been done to me by people who felt no shame, leaving me burning with shame for the rest of my life instead. It made no sense. But that was the cruelty of it. It hadn’t been enough to survive, I was condemned to reliving it over and over again in my mind, in a maddening, never-ending cycle.

In the morning, I’d put myself together the best I could, had a coffee, and went on with my day. Only something had been off ever since.

I used to find solace in the palace library filled with thick scrolls and books on ancient laws that had withstood the test of time. Coming to the council meeting room never failed to reassure me in the wisdom of our foremothers. The many queens, who had come before my mother, passed on the legacy of fairness in justice and intelligence in governance. From the moment I’d arrived here, Rorrim had seemed like the idealsociety that others should strive to replicate. It had its problems, of course, but it also had functioning ways to solve them.

Now, the echo of Salas’s words never quieted.

“Take a look outside the palace walls, Princess.”

What did I miss?

Or maybe it wasn’t me? Maybe Salas was mistaken? An isolated case of injustice didn’t mean that the whole establishment was flawed.