Page 105

At the ballroom doors, I stood before a gold-clad knight and bowed before him.

“I have... surprising news that must be relayed to the king,” I said, doing my best to lace my voice with the utmost gravity. “Lady Ofelia has returned to the palace.”

The knight lowered his head, his helm shielding me from any sign of emotion on his face. But his voice betrayed him, stunned and urgent. “What? How? Where is she?”

“She’s closed herself into the library. She says she won’t come out until the king comes to visit her.”

The knight huffed a loud sigh. “Take me to her, then.”

My heart skipped. That wasn’t our plan. “Well—can you not fetch the king? She won’t leave the library until she gets what she wants. I’ve tried—”

“I’ll not go disrupting the king on the merits of rumors alone.”

Very well. I’d let them follow me, but no matter what, I could not open the door for the knight.

With all the other courtiers gone into the fête, the corridors were empty. I stopped in front of the double doors of the library, gesturing to them. The knight leaned forward and jiggled the golden door handle but found the doors would not budge.

“Father?” called Ofelia from within. The sound of her voice rekindled the flame in me that fueled my every step. “Father, is that you?”

The knight’s eyes widened behind the visor. “No, Your Highness. I’m Edouard, a knight serving His Majesty—”

“I shall not open this door until my father comes to see me,” she snapped. The authority with which she spoke was truly remarkable.

“I’ll try to calm her down,” I told the knight. “Will you please send for the king?”

The knight nodded, defeated, and raced toward the ballroom.

I sighed, leaning against the door. “They’re gone.”

“Good.” From within the library, I could hear Ofelia sigh.“I confess I’ll be glad when all this adventuring is over. I once longed to be the hero of a story, but I never imagined it would be so exhausting,” she admitted. Then her voice turned more somber. “I’m sorry for all of this. If I hadn’t dragged you to Le Château to begin with—”

“You gave me the greatest adventure of my life,” I told her. “I never thought I’d seeanyof the world beyond the manor.”

“You deserve the world, Lope.”

I believed her.

After all we’d endured, after proving how capable and clever and fierce we were, we deserved to call the world ours.

“We can go see it together,” I said. “Somewhere peaceful. A valley, perhaps. A cottage tucked in a meadow.”

Her light, pretty laugh rang out. “Well, then, maybe I have enough energy left in me for another adventure or two. If you’re there with me.”

“It’s where I’ll always be.” I smiled now, thinking of how she tried to send me away, how we thought we could ever be parted. No. We were bound together, and not just by the countess or our shared birthday or our love of literature. We would never be separated again. I vowed it.

Footsteps sounded at the end of the corridor. One set, by the sound of it.

The king had come alone.

My pulse quickened, and my stomach seemed to somersault into my throat. This was it. I was now to trap the king.Thoughts whirred in my head. When I succeeded, when Ofelia and I were together again and back in the world above, what excuse would we give as to the disappearance of the king?

It did not matter. I did not care who would ask for his whereabouts. I’d take Ofelia far from this wretched palace.

His Majesty strode down the corridor, stopping in front of me. He was dressed all in gold, with his startlingly white hair draped artfully over his shoulders. Up close, the new lines around his eyes and his mouth were all the more pronounced. There were little age spots on his forehead, poorly covered up by powder.

“A soldier said he heard my daughter calling for me in the library,” said the king.

“Yes, Father,” Ofelia cried from behind the door.