Page 66 of Reign

“She’s not coming,” she said simply.

Ethan read the email, brow furrowed. “I don’t get it. If she wasn’t ever going to meet us, then why did she pretend to agree, and drag us here?”

“She’s hazing us. She probably loved the thought of us traipsing around this theme park trying to find her.”

Ethan gestured to the turnstiles. “Should we get going, then?”

Daphne hesitated. Her eyes cut back toward the park: the colored ribbons of the roller coasters looping above thehorizon, the music emanating from a nearby show. Something smelled tantalizingly like sugar and cinnamon, and it made her stomach growl.

“We could stay,” she heard herself suggest. “We did come all the way here.”

Ethan seemed startled. “You want to stay?”

“I might as well take advantage of this rare chance to be out in public in sneakers.”

Daphne had to wear heels at all her official appearances. Last year, when she and Jeff showed up at a youth softball game, she’d ended up running a lap in her heeled boots, because what other choice did she have? There was something breathtakingly liberating about being in public, surrounded by people, in sneakers.

Ethan smiled, his cheek dimpling in a way she rarely saw. “Okay. What do you want to do first?”

“The Dragonfire coaster,” Daphne said automatically. She had a secret love of roller coasters, the ones so fast that they made your stomach drop.

Ethan coughed self-consciously. “I forgot you’re such a thrill seeker. Can we start on something smaller?”

“Like what?”

Daphne followed his gaze and laughed as comprehension struck. “Thecarousel? Ethan,” she asked, “are you afraid of heights, and I never knew?”

“First of all, it’s rude to make fun of people’s phobias,” he said stiffly. “And if you must know, I’m afraid of roller coasters. They’re really high and fast, okay?”

“Says the guy who blasts around town on his motorcycle,” she noted, amused.

“I always follow the speed limit!”

“The last time you drove me, we crossed an intersection so fast I nearly flew out of my seat!”

“I did that foryou!”

She fell silent, chastened. “Sorry. Let’s go do the carousel. It looks fun.”

“Okay, you don’t have to lie to me,” Ethan mumbled, but a smile curled at the edges of his lips. “I know you don’t think it’sfun.”

They passed a line of children clutching their parents’ hands. Daphne glanced over, wondering what had caused so long a queue; the sandwich-board sign readPhotos with the Snow Queen!Beyond a makeshift blue curtain, Daphne saw the character: a girl around her age dressed in a white dress reminiscent of ice crystals. A smile was pasted to her face, her blond hair spilling down her back. No, she realized, that probably wasn’t the girl’s real hair.

Daphne felt a sudden moment of kinship with the Snow Queen. The people in this line didn’t care about her as a person; to them she was a living doll, a shop-window mannequin they could dress in a wig and glittery gown and pose for photos with.

It was exactly what people did to Daphne at her various meet-and-greets or walkabouts. Except, unlike Daphne, this girl got to take off the wig, walk through the front gates and back out into real life. While Daphne was trapped in the princess realm forever.

Trapped?She shook her head, confused by her own thoughts. She hadchosenthis life, and would choose it again.

There was no line for the carousel; most of the park’s small children were already being loaded into strollers or fed an early dinner. Daphne and Ethan had their pick of animals to perch on. She selected a bright pink elephant. Ethan shrugged and took the unicorn next to her.

As the music started up and the carousel began its slow revolution, she glanced over at him. “You’re not going back to Malaysia, are you? You’ll be at King’s College in the new year?”

“Yeah. I need to get on track with my premed requirements.”

“I didn’t realize you still wanted to do premed. I mean, I remember you used to say that in high school….”

The unicorn and elephant were bobbing up and down in apposition, so that Daphne was low while Ethan was high. It made their conversation feel slightly ridiculous. But his tone was serious as he replied, “My mom was in college, finishing her premed requirements, when she got pregnant with me. It’s why she never went to medical school.”