“Fine,” he said curtly. There was the bitter taste of panic in the back of his throat, and he swallowed compulsively, trying to get rid of it. “Let’s go find the driver. He should be parked around the building.”

He took off down the sidewalk, hearing her footsteps as she hurried to keep up.

Jaya

Jaya was worried about Grey. She couldn’t help but look at him every so often as they walked along the sidewalk, toward the car. She could tell he needed air, and time to think. Yes, it was a little strange, what Silas had shown them. But… Jaya shook her head. There had to be an explanation of some kind. She glanced down at the pendant. It looked completely innocuous, like all her other jewelry. It was inanimate, powerless.

But she knew Grey was convinced, perhaps because of the messages he’d received since he was a little boy, that the curse was real. She remembered their conversation on the ski slope and her mind automatically went to the messages she and Isha had always received: Princesses are always polite. Princesses do what their families need them to do, not what they want to do. Women in royal families cannot be anything they want. Women in royal families must be quiet, virtuous, well behaved, and congenial.

She’d tried not to question them. If she ever felt doubt about any of it, she pushed those doubts away as quickly as possible, as if even thinking them was treason. So how was it fair for her to expect Grey to eschew what he’d always been told? And if she expected him to do it, then should she be doing the same?

Feeling discomfited, Jaya pulled her coat around her. It’s not your problem anymore, she told herself sternly. The errand is done. It’s time to let this go. Grey Emerson is simply an acquaintance from this point on, remember?

Jaya swallowed as they got to the car and the driver hopped out to open their doors for them. Yes, she remembered right then why getting close to Grey Emerson was a bad idea. The trouble was, she so often forgot when she was gazing into his blue eyes.

Jaya was dreaming. She was attempting to climb a very tall tree, some manner of pine, but she was a quarter of the way up and couldn’t find any more limbs to grasp. Appa was on the ground below her, yelling instructions. “On your right! It’s right there! Take it!”

“I don’t see it!” she yelled back down, but he didn’t seem to hear her. He looked livid, she realized, and suddenly she was so nervous, she was trembling. Her knees were knocking together, and the sound echoed through the forest.

Knock, knock, knock! Knock, knock, knock!

Slowly, she drifted into semiconsciousness.