“No, he was right. I wasn’t much fun tonight. Or the past couple of times we went out. The truth is, I don’t think I’m ready to date yet. I might not be for a very long time.” There was a pause that Jaya didn’t rush to fill. She could sense Caterina had more to say. “I loved Alaric, you know,” she said finally, her voice barely a breath on the air. “It wasn’t perfect, but in my own way? I really fucking loved him.”

“I know,” Jaya said, tightening her arm around Caterina’s shoulders. “I know you did.”

And they sat together in the dark, wearing their pretty dresses like armor.

Grey

“A mutual friend?” Grey frowned. “Who?”

“Alaric Konig.”

“Alaric?” Grey said. “He’s not my—how does he—”

“Why don’t you check your email and then we can speak some more.”

An owl hooted somewhere in the night. Grey took the phone from his ear and, with hands that were slightly shaking, pulled up his email app. There was a new one, unread, right at the top. He tapped it to open.

It was a PDF of a newspaper announcement. Grey read the first line, his heart sinking. Maharaja Adip Rao and Maharani Parvati Rao announce with pleasure the engagement of their eldest daughter, Rajkumari Jaya Rao, to the heir of the Hegde house, Kiran Hegde, son of Maharaja Dilip Hegde and Maharani Aruna Hegde.

Feeling suddenly numb, like he’d plunged into an icy lake, Grey raised the phone back to his ear. “I—I don’t believe this.”

“Oh, but I think you do, deep down where it matters.”

Grey didn’t know what to say. Not a single word came to mind.

“The engagement’s been in the cards for a while. Years,” Kiran said. “I’m not sure if she told you that—”

“No.” His voice was a strangled whisper. “No, she didn’t.”

“Mm. Can’t say that surprises me. You an Emerson and she a Rao? Your families have been feuding for generations. She was probably having a little laugh at you since you met,” Kiran said. “Come on, Grey. Didn’t you think about it? Why is she in every single one of your classes? Didn’t you even consider what immense coincidence conspired to make that happen?”

“Well, I…” He felt colossally stupid. He’d thought it was coincidence or fate or the stars that had aligned just right to bring her to him. He straightened. “Why would she do that? And how could she have—”

“I don’t know the precise whys of it all beyond that your families abhor each other,” Kiran said dismissively, as if he couldn’t bother with the mundane details. “But I’m sure you could find out the how easily enough if you wanted to.”