Jaya turned on her side, eyes gazing into the near darkness. On the heels of that thought, another, quieter one: But it could work, couldn’t it? This didn’t have to mean she was choosing Grey over loyalty to her family or over her responsibility to her kingdom. She could show her family what she saw, that he had nothing to do with the scandal. That he was innocent. Besides, Isha liked Grey.… Perhaps she could be Jaya’s “in” with their parents. And Jaya could show the people of Mysuru that she could date an Emerson and still be the heiress they needed. It would be difficult and challenging, but she wasn’t afraid of hard work. Jaya could pull it off; she was sure of it. Most of all, Grey needed her. And she needed him.

Jaya laughed quietly in the dark, one hand going to her mouth, as if she were afraid someone might hear her joy and try to steal it. It was ludicrous and made her giddy and slightly dizzy, as if she were on the world’s fastest, highest, swoopiest roller coaster. She had no idea how this could work, only that she desperately, desperately wanted it to.

On her nightstand, her phone buzzed to remind her she had an unheard voice mail. Oh, right. Appa had called her, hadn’t he? She felt a brief flare of guilt at the memory of having rejected his call to get back to kissing Grey. Calling her so early in the morning, too… that was unusual for him. He didn’t usually get the time zone so wrong. Picking up the phone, she hit the “listen” button.

And grew still as her father’s rapidly spoken words filled her ear.

When she was finished listening, she let the hand holding the phone drop slowly to her lap and sat staring in the lifting darkness of early morning. As the minutes drifted down on her, collecting by her feet, forming sandcastles of time, Jaya’s mind kept fighting what she’d heard. What her father had said. And what she was slowly coming to realize she had to do.

There has to be a different way, her inner critic insisted, sallow and worried, pacing the length of Jaya’s mind. Something else you haven’t thought of, some workaround—

But there wasn’t. Jaya turned her head to look out the window at the lightening sky wearing streaks of gold in its hair. There was only one right answer, and she had to be brave enough to choose it.

Grey

Grey stood on Mount Sama, watching Jaya make her way up the incline. He had a smile on his face that wouldn’t go away, just imagining taking her into his arms and kissing her again, like they had last night.