Page 19

Chapter Seventeen

I was the last of the princesses to make it to the courtyard, but at least I wasn’t the only one dragging behind. A few of the other girls were stuck in the back of the crowd, trying to get closer to where Adir was preparing his announcement.

“Do you think he’s finally chosen his bride?” one of the girls whispered a little less than subtly to her handmaiden.

“That has to be it!” the maid chittered back. “Why else would he call everyone so suddenly?”

I slipped into the crowd of servants and noble ladies, my head feeling clearer now that I was getting some fresh air. More rumors about the prince choosing his bride fluttered through the air, and I found myself wondering if there was any validity to their whispers.

Adir mentioned that he would wish to marry whomever he chose...

A fluttery sensation rose up the back of my throat, but it was swatted down by the memory of Jet’s warnings and accusations.

“He was only using you to get the ring!”

That couldn’t have been true. Jet didn’t know about the moments Adir and I first shared on the rooftop, or how Adir had selflessly saved me from the guards when he could have just let me get dragged back to prison.

Logically, I knew that everything Jet said was a trick, yet somewhere in the back of my broken heart, I could feel myself longing for the friend who had stood silently by my side all those years. ..

“Good evening, friends and honored guests.” Adir stepped up onto a small wooden podium, rising just high enough above the crowd that I could see him from the back.

The second I laid eyes on him, I couldn’t help but smile.

He had never looked so happy before. The stress and tension that had been trapped behind those kind eyes had been replaced by a sparkle that was nearly as dazzling as the glittering ring on his finger.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve gathered you all here today. ”

A soft caw echoed through the air, subtle enough that no one really paid attention to it when there were so many random animals living around the courtyard, but I could have recognized that sound anywhere.

I turned my head toward the sky, catching a glimpse of Kipu as he glided through the air to perch on an awaiting shoulder.

Jet.

He hurried into the back of the crowd, looking more like Jeteran than Jean.

He’d removed his armor and switched back into his royal attire, making it easier for my heart to distrust him.

Seeing Kipu on his shoulder was still conflicting my emotions.

In Kipu’s mind, he was still just Jean. Except he had never been just Jean, not even once.

Jet appeared to be scanning the crowd, and a second later he found my gaze. I nearly jumped when he spotted me, but the relieved look on his face was enough to keep me from turning away. He looked too much like my old friend; maybe that was why I couldn’t look away.

“As many of you know, our kingdom has always been one gifted with riches and wealth,” Adir said to the crowd, his broad smile engaging everyone.

“Some believe this is because of our mines, while others believe it’s because of gifted tradesman, but my favorite theory has always been one of legend.

” He held up his hand, the diamond facing outward so the jewel would catch the sun. “The legend of the wishing diamond.”

He's showing it to everyone?

The crowd applauded, but I wasn’t sure if they knew what they were clapping for. An uneasy feeling hung over me as I noticed some of the elder nobles whispering amongst themselves, including one behind me.

“Go get the sultan,” I heard the older man whisper to his attendant.

My fingers twitched, reminding me that I didn’t carry an ounce of power in this situation. I simply had to trust that Adir knew what he was doing.

I can trust him.

Against my better judgement, I looked back at Jet. His expression had hardened, and even Kipu looked a little ruffled as they glared at the prince’s ring.

“Ever since I was a child, I heard stories of a majestic wishing diamond that could grant you anything your heart desired,” Adir continued, lowering his hand to twist the ring on his finger with a pleased smile.

“As I grew older, I began to find records that hinted at it being real: stories of past sultans who came across impossible riches, histories of wars fought over a single prize, and an ancient book that described a jewel containing the power of the cosmos.” He looked across the crowd, gobbling up every morsel of their rapt attention.

“It was in this book that I learned the true history of the diamond, and why a power that great was so rarely heard of. This miraculous diamond only appears once every ten thousand years, to an unlikely wielder. ”

He snapped his fingers, and a servant ran over to hand him a clothbound book.

It looked like it could have easily been ten thousand years old.

It was falling apart at the seams, with pages hanging on for dear life and a cover so worn that you couldn’t read the title.

Adir flipped through the pages, stopping somewhere near the end.

“ A power so strong

A beauty so bright

She glitters in the rough

She burns through the night

An endless cave of riches

Mined from a diamond’s wishes .”

He quoted the passage, then handed the book back to the servant, who rushed it away once more. The nobles around me started whispering more frantically, and an unspoken tension buzzed around me as everyone seemed to press closer together.

“Could it be?” a tall scribe with a thinning beard gasped behind me.

“I thought it was merely a myth,” another awed.

“Does the sultan know?”

The more people wondered, the more Adir beamed.

He looked prouder than the peacocks roaming the courtyard.

I was glad to see him happy, but something about his victory felt a little too flamboyant.

I tried not to think too hard about it. Jet’s words were getting into my head, where they had no place being.

“Today marks the start of a new era,” Adir continued, raising his hand once more. “The diamond era!”

The crowd broke into routine applause, the girls all cheering for him and his flashy jewel. I clapped along with the crowd, but my palms seemed to sting more than usual.

“Now...” Adir brushed the ring’s stone, his tone deepening. “I wish for you to all bow to its power.”

A wish.

Without hesitation, everyone obeyed their prince’s commands. One by one, the princesses, servants, and nobles lowered their heads, but the pull never overtook me. If it did, I was too stunned by his first wish for my spine to bend.

That’s not what he told me he would wish for.

He watched with pleasure as everyone bowed, and the kind boy I’d met from the marketplace disappeared behind the diamond’s shine. I could feel Jet’s eyes on me, and the guilt that crushed me was nearly enough to send me toppling into the dirt.

My knees locked as I prepared for the diamond to take control over me, but when the rows of people in front of me lowered, I still didn’t feel compelled to do the same.

It’s not making me bow.. .

Jet didn’t bow either, and neither did a few of the older nobles scattered in the back of the crowd.

Their defiance was more than noticeable as everyone else lowered their head to submit to their prince.

My heart pattered as the other princesses obeyed, causing me to stick out like a spring daisy in a patch of dead grass.

Did he not say the wish correctly?

“How odd,” Adir said in an almost growly tone that felt completely out of place coming from his lips. He rubbed the ring again, raising it to his lips to whisper his command. “I said, I wish for everyone to bow.”

A few of the nobles who hadn’t bowed before seemed to give in to the request and bent down on their knees. Some likely stayed upward because they didn’t feel compelled to obey, but they ultimately decided not to offend their prince. However, a few still remained upright.

Once again, I waited for the magic to take over me and press me into the ground, but the urge never came. I remained on my feet, without even a quiver in my legs.

What’s happening?

“I wish Kya would bow.” Adir’s harsh tone snapped at me like the end of a barbed whip as he pierced me with a glare. I froze, still unwilling to bow, and now paralyzed by his sudden personality shift .

He was dead serious. His face twisted in anger the longer I remained on my feet.

“Adir...” I said in a wobbly voice, my hand clutching at my heart as I searched for the sweet prince I had entrusted my ring to. “What are you doing?”

“Why is it not working?” He tapped the ring, shaking his hand while his face grew increasingly red. “I wish for Kya to bow to me! I wish for everyone to bow!”

He only ever wanted the ring...

I didn’t want it to be true. I didn’t want Jet to be right. But when I looked back at one of the only other people defying the princes wishes, I realized who was really my friend.

What have I done?

Jet’s face was ashen, his entire body tensed like he was ready to take off running at any moment. He whispered something to Kipu, then pointed two fingers to the sky to signal for him to fly. Kipu took to the sky, squawking one word that no one paid attention to but me.

“ Run! Run! ”

Jeanie was right, he’d never steered me wrong before. I took off as fast as I could.

“Guards!” Adir called behind me, his voice no longer recognizable to me. “I wish for you to bring me that princess!”