Page 34

Nadia

Cole’s mouth falls open in shock.

My voice cracks in rage at the fact that Cole is just pretending he doesn’t remember one of the most important days of my life.

“When we were eight – or, I was! You broke my damn arm and –“

“I never did that, Nadia,” Cole says, leaning closer to me and shaking his head slowly from side to side. “I didn’t even know you ever broke your arm!”

“I did! You did!” I almost shout, holding my right arm out to him like he can see the well-healed bone. “You were there!”

Cole just stares at me, his mouth open, his throat clicking as he racks his brain, trying to remember what I’m talking about. Then he suddenly snaps his jaw shut, sitting up straight. “We were eight?”

“Yes!”

“Playing by the fountain in the palace courtyard?”

I nod and swing my arm forward, smacking him on the shoulder. “You do remember!”

“I remember Jude pushing you over – by accident!”

“It was you!”

“Nadia,” Cole says, clenching a fist between us. “If you’ve been hating me for over a decade for something my damn brother did…I – I – “

“You what?”

He exhales slowly, glaring a little and settling back in his chair. “All right, Amir. We’re getting to the bottom of this even if I have to go steal your dad’s satellite phone and call Jude right now. Let’s compare facts.”

I set my shoulders and lean back in my chair, ready to do just that.

I pant, pumping my arms as I chase after Iris across the cobblestones – but she’s so fast –

“Come on, Nadia!” she calls.

“I’m coming!” I shout, the words strangled by my lack of breath. Still, I put my head down and push harder, wanting to be with my friend, wanting to show her that I can keep up.

The kids are being nice to me today – I’m playing in all of the games, and later there’s going to be ice cream.

The Queen promised – and Iris has been really fun.

We spent all morning playing in her closet where she has a huge trunk of dress-up clothes – and she let me be the princess while she was the maid, and she brought her pet goldfish over to be the Knight and I married him.

I mean, I didn’t want the goldfish to be the Knight. I wanted Cole to do it. But he was busy with stupid Jude. Iris says next time, when Jude’s not around, Cole will come play. I hope so.

I love Iris. She’s my best friend.

“Let’s play wolves!” Jude shouts, his voice so loud behind me that my feet falter in surprise. But then I find my balance and keep going, chasing Iris around the fountain. “Shift, Cole! I’ll chase first!”

“We can’t play wolves.” My feet slow as I hear Cole’s words – I didn’t know Cole was here. I grin. “Nadia’s here – she can’t shift.”

My smile falls from my mouth, and I slow to a walk, because why would they think that? We can still play – I can just pretend to be a wolf. I’m great at pretending.

“Nadia can be a sheep!” Jude calls out, laughing. “Baa! Baa! Wolves eat sheep!”

Cole laughs too, and I start to turn –

But something hits my shoulder, hard , and I shout as I pitch forward, awkwardly twisting in the air and heading right for the ground. I slam down against the cobbles with a thud and a horrible crack as footsteps run past me. I scream, the pain instant and livid – especially in my arm –

Tears run down my cheeks as I try to tug my arm out from beneath me – but it hurts –

I roll over, looking down at the big stone I landed on. Then I roll onto my back as the pain rockets through me, getting worse and worse. I wail, clutching my arm to my chest.

“It’s okay! It’s okay!”

I shake my head from side to side, frantic and afraid at how much it hurts. “It’s not!”

“It’s okay, Nadia!”

Still crying, I open my eyes and see Cole kneeling next to me. “You’re all right!” he says, his face pale, his eyes moving over me. “It’s okay – you have to stop crying!”

But somehow this just makes it worse.

A shadow falls over both of us. “Cole come on !”

“I’m helping , Jude!”

“She didn’t even fall hard! She’s fine! She just…tripped! I saw her!”

Cole snarls at his brother, and Jude runs away.

“Come on, Nadia,” Cole says softly, standing and holding out a hand to me. “I’ll help you up and we’ll go see mom. She’ll show you that you’re fine.”

I sniff, trying to hold back the tears. I take his hand with my good one, still cradling my injured arm to my chest, and let him pull me to my feet. “I’m not fine.”

Cole huffs a frustrated sigh, looking after Jude. My mouth starts to tremble as I realize that he wants to be over there, with Jude and Iris. Not here with cry-baby me. I try so hard to stop crying – but it hurts so much…

Cole turns his face back to mine and lifts his hand, using his fingertips to wipe away some tears from each cheek. “Come on,” he says with a sigh. “Let’s go see mom.”

I frown and step back, my feelings hurt nearly as much as my arm. “You don’t want to,” I say softly, still sniffing. I raise my good arm and wipe it across my face, not wanting to be a baby anymore. Not in front of him.

Cole stares at me, his face twisting in confusion because…duh. Of course he doesn’t want to help the crybaby – he wants to go with Jude so they can play wolves. “Nadia, we can –“

“I didn’t trip!”

He stands straighter, going still.

“Why did you push me?”

“I didn’t push you!” Cole says, frowning at me now, his hands balling to fists at his side. “Take that back! Apologize!”

“You did push me! I felt it! I felt your hand! You apologize!”

“I didn’t !” Cole takes a step towards me, and I gasp when I see the flash of his fangs as the points of them extend. I gasp, stumbling back a step. “I didn’t push you – I’m trying to help you!”

“I know you did it!” I say, finding my footing and shaking my head, crying harder now. “Why are you so mean to me? You wouldn’t come play this morning! And you won’t let me play wolves! I’m not a sheep! And you pushed me!”

Cole’s face wrinkles with disdain. “You’re just being a baby , Nadia,” he growls. “A big… sheep baby.”

Then he spins and runs away from me, chasing after Jude and Iris, leaving me all alone.

“Nadia?” I hear my mom’s voice call somewhere behind me, worried. “Sugar?”

But I just cry, heartbroken, and crumple down onto the stones, still cradling my arm and sobbing my heart out. Ruined – it’s all ruined – I don’t like them anymore –

“Nadia!” a soft voice says. A hand pets over my hair. I look up into Iris’s face. “Are you okay?”

My breath hitches alongside my sobs. “He – he pushed me!”

Iris’s face falls with sadness for me as she sinks to her knees at my side, wrapping her arms around me in a hug. But I cry out when she jostles my arm.

“What’s going on here?”

I cry and lean against Iris, who loosens her hug and looks up toward her mother’s voice. “I think Nadia got hurt.”

“Oh, baby,” the Queen says, sitting down at our side.

My mom sits next to her, reaching for me, whispering my name in the worried way she hardly ever uses but which lets me know it’s serious. I crawl into her lap and she wraps me loosely up.

“You go on, Iris,” the Queen says, petting her daughter’s hair and smiling at her. “We’ll get Nadia patched up.”

Some more adults come along – the helpers, bringing the baskets of food and supplies, and all the weird babysitters – Iris calls them nannies, but I don’t know what that means. They gather around as mom rocks me and the Queen orders a few to go away and get help – get a doctor.

The Queen sighs and kneels next to mom. “I’m sorry, Annalise.”

“Oh, kids are kids,” mom murmurs, kissing the crown of my head. “It happens.”

“You really shouldn’t let the two species play together,” one of the nannies says, her voice soft and thoughtful. “The boys are wolves, and they’re much stronger than this one is.”

My eyes fly open. “I’m strong!”

Mom coos to me and holds me closer, looking anxiously toward the entrance to the courtyard for whatever help is coming.

“The Prince really shouldn’t be blamed if he hurt her – the human girls are so frail, it’s just biology for them to see her as a target, as prey –“

“Enough,” the Queen snaps, taking her hand away from me and glaring at the nanny, whose face goes pale. “You can leave those supplies there,” she says, nodding to the basket in the woman’s hand.

Slowly the nanny lowers the basket to the ground. “Please, I didn’t mean –“

“You may go,” Miss Ella says, her face stern. “Tender your resignation inside. We’ll send your severance along in your next paycheck.”

The nanny bursts into tears and begins to walk away, one of her friends patting her on her back as she goes.

“Was that too much?” mom whispers, continuing to rock me. I look up into her confused face, worried.

“I won’t have it in my house, Annalise,” the Queen whispers, reaching out and touching my arm softly again. I whimper, turning my face into my mother’s shoulder. “I don’t want that kind of language and ideas around my kids. It’s not right.”

Mom hums softly, and I rest against her, the pounding footsteps of some medical personnel sounding out behind me.