“Ah. I told you the study was a good idea.” Myrddin looked approving. “The melee, too. You worry over him so—but I knew she’d appreciate it,” the adviser added, nodding at Bear.

I pressed a hand to my forehead, feeling faint. “So many lies.”

“It was one lie.” Bear drew near, voice low and reassuring. We were at the center of a crowd, but he put his hands on my face, forcing me to meet his eyes, blue and bright and utterly sincere.

“One enormous lie,” I said. “One you told again and again.”

“Yes, but just the one,” he insisted. “All the rest was true. I wanted to tell you so much, but—but Selah, we got to know one another without any formality, with nothing to come between us. If you knew then what you know now, how difficult it can be to get to know someone on an official basis, would you choose any differently?” He glanced at his father, who nodded encouragingly.

I took one, two steps away from him. The distance grew between us as it had the day he’d chased me home from the library in the rain.

Except this time, I didn’t know if I wanted him to catch me.

I gripped Skop’s fingers again, faint with horror and humiliation. Lang simply stared at them all, his dark gaze raw and astonished. “What an elaborate invention.”

The weight of the chaos was going to flatten me.

“I think we all ought to calm down,” Myrddin suddenly said. His keen eyes were abruptly concerned.

“Calm down?” I bleated.

“Yes.” The adviser shook his head, forehead creased. “Discretion was necessary, but all has worked out for the best. No lasting harm has been inflicted.” He gestured at Bear, then at me.

No mortal wounds, perhaps, but the scars these boys had left me would remain.

I studied the king and the prince and the royal family, feeling my pulse high and wild at my throat and wrists and the arches of my feet, telling me to run, run, run.

And I’d thought Sir Perrault was the only fox I should fear.

My trembling left hand clasped Cobie’s palm, Skop’s in my right. “Prince Bertilak, thank you for what hospitality you extended. But we’re leaving.”

Not a sound could be heard in the hall. The royal family stared, speechless.

Shaking from head to foot, I turned to my crew. “The Beholder. Let’s go.”

We pushed out of the ballroom, leaving pandemonium in our wake.

Back in our quarters, Cobie packed my things with joyless efficiency. “Selah, is this your blanket? Or did you find it here?”

“It’s not mine,” I managed.

She flung open the wardrobe. “Are these all your clothes? Are there more anywhere else?” I shook my head mutely.