The Day of the Coronation

The sun was almost going down when Angelica and Dr Lorenzo stepped into Kai’s bedroom to check on him.

There was a girl asleep at his bedside, her head resting on the edge of the mattress, his hand held between both of hers.

For half a second Angelica assumed it was Kira and wondered if she dyed her hair or something. And why she was in Kai’s bedroom when she should be getting reading for her coronation.

Then the girl stirred, lifted her head, and Angelica found herself looking at a face she had never seen before in her life.

Her eyes went wide. Her mouth fell open.

"Who," she said, "in the name of the goddess, are you?" She spun around, scanning the room. "Tan? Tan!"

Jessica scrambled to her feet and bowed quickly.

"Lady Angelica, please." Dr Lorenzo stepped forward with both hands raised. "This is the Queen’s closest friend. There’s no cause for alarm."

"The Queen’s friend?" Angelica’s voice climbed. "And what, exactly, is the Queen’s friend doing asleep in my son’s bedroom? How did she even get into Dravengard? Does the King know there’s a strange girl wandering his palace?"

"Please, just calm yourself for a moment—"

The door to the adjacent room opened and Tan emerged, hair rumpled, eyes heavy with the last few minutes of stolen sleep.

Angelica rounded on him at once. "There you are. How could you be so careless? Leaving your baby brother alone with a complete stranger while you nap?"

"She’s harmless, Mother."

"And you know that how?"

"Calm down." Tan rubbed a hand over his face. "I kept watch the entire night and all day. I only stepped into my own room five minutes ago to close my eyes. Five minutes."

"That is not what I asked you."

"Oh, goddess."

Dr Lorenzo’s sudden exclamation cut clean through their argument.

Both of them froze, then rushed to the bedside.

"What is it?" Angelica demanded. "Doctor, what’s wrong with him?"

But Dr Lorenzo was straightening up, and he was smiling. He pulled the stethoscope from his ears, and the relief on his face was unmistakable.

"Nothing is wrong," he said. "Quite the opposite. The warmth has come back into his body. His heart has regained its strength. It’s beating strong, on its own, without assistance." He shook his head in wonder. "He’s turned the corner."

Angelica let out a small, broken yelp of pure joy, both hands flying to her mouth as tears welled in her eyes.

Tan’s shoulders dropped with a relief so deep it looked almost painful, and he turned his head and found Jessica, who was wiping her own eyes with the back of her hand.

"This is a miracle," Dr Lorenzo said. "Truly. I’ve rarely seen recovery this sudden."

His gaze drifted to Jessica, and something thoughtful crossed his face. "Perhaps you are, by any chance...?"

"I’m his friend," Jessica said quickly. "A very good friend."

She wasn’t about to drop the word soulbond into a room that already contained a hostile mother-in-law.

Dr Lorenzo beamed all the same. "Well. Whatever you are to him, if your presence is doing this, then there’s certainly no reason for you to leave his side."

Angelica looked at Jessica. Her lips pursed into something that was not quite a pout but was certainly in the family. She glanced at Tan, who only smiled at her, infuriatingly serene.

"Fine," she said at last, with the air of a woman making a huge personal sacrifice. "If she makes him better, then I suppose I can tolerate her."

She turned and swept toward the bathroom, muttering as she went.

"Why are these boys so hopelessly attached to werewolf girls all of a sudden? First Derek, lovesick as a pup over his werewolf queen, and now Kai, miraculously recovering with a werewolf glued to his hand. What is in the water in this palace?"

The bathroom door shut behind her.

Tan shook his head, then turned to Jessica with a warm, tired smile.

"The seat’s yours," he said. "She forgets she’s no longer the baby of the family when she’s here."

Jessica giggled, nodded gratefully and slid back into the chair, gathering Kai’s hand into hers once more.

Down the hall, Kira stood before the dressing table, watching her own reflection as the maids fussed with the final touches.

The gown was breathtaking. Teal, off the shoulder, the lace catching the morning light, the colour deep and rich as deep water.

And it was that, the colour, that kept catching at her heart every time she looked down at herself.

Teal. Her favourite. Out of every shade in the world, the stylist had chosen this one.

Maya stood beside her, being dressed in her own gown, quiet and watchful as ever.

Mara came in carrying the tiara and the jewellery box, and stopped dead the moment she saw Kira, drawing in a sharp breath.

"Oh, Your Highness." She pressed a hand to her chest. "You look... there are no words. You’re radiant."

Kira smiled. "Thank you, Mara."

"It’s true," the stylist agreed, adjusting a fold of the skirt. "This colour was made for you. It suits you better than anyone I know."

"It’s my favourite colour," Kira admitted, smoothing a hand over the lace with a smile.

The stylist smiled knowingly. "No wonder, then. The King was very specific about it. Wouldn’t accept anything else. He insisted on this exact shade. The colour of the sea, he said."

Kira’s heart stuttered.

The colour of the sea.

She remembered it instantly. That moment on the deck at the beach house, weeks ago, telling Derek offhandedly that her favourite colour was the teal of the sea.

She had not thought he was even listening. She had certainly not thought he would remember.

Something fluttered, warm and aching, behind her ribs.

And it made the memory of last night sit even heavier. They had hurt each other so carelessly, and here he was, having chosen the colour of the sea for her without a word about it.

The room slowly emptied, maids and stylists filing out one by one, until only Kira and Maya remained.

A knock came at the door.

Kira crossed and opened it to find a gamma standing in the corridor. He bowed.

"Your Highness. Forgive the intrusion. A courier delivered this for you a short while ago. The King is in a security meeting and can’t be disturbed, so I thought it best to bring it to you directly."

He held out a large envelope.

"Thank you." Kira took it.

Across the front, written in neat hand, was a single word.

Congratulations.

She closed the door and tore the envelope open.

A photograph slipped free and fluttered toward the floor. Kira bent and caught it, turned it over to see.

Her heart stopped.

For one full second it simply did not beat.

Then it slammed back to life, hard and fast, and the breath left her lungs, and her eyes went wide with a panic that drained every drop of colour from her face.