Chapter 26 Lily
TWENTY-SIX
LILY
After the door clicked softly closed behind Keane, I strained to hear his footsteps marching away down the corridor.
He’d send another guard shortly to replace him outside my door, regardless of what I’d said.
He was wrong in thinking he’d let me down—no man had a greater investment in my personal safety than Keane. Of that much, I was sure.
My heart both swelled with affection for him and his ridiculous attachment to his duty at the same time it crumbled with his loss.
After last night, I’d been certain that the only man I could spend my life with was Keane.
It seemed so obvious, and I thought he felt the same way too.
His rejection stung, even if I understood why he’d done it.
He’d removed himself as an option for my future husband, which left me with only the seven suitors. One of them would have to be my king, and I’d have to choose the least bad option. Which was unfair, because none of those men was inherently bad. I just couldn’t imagine loving any of them.
Maybe Keane was right. I had seven suitors, and it was my duty to marry one of the lords Dahlia had selected so we could rule Talador together.
I’d always been the dutiful daughter, the perfect heir to the throne.
That mattered more now than ever, if Queen Riala was going to try to usurp me and declare herself the true monarch.
Everything in me screamed out against being with anyone other than Keane, but no matter how much I hated it, it was the way things had to be.
Once I was ready, I glanced out of the window. The sun was still rising in a pale gray sky, but I had no doubt Iris would already be awake and puttering around her room or reading a book. Perhaps seeing my sister would make me feel better about the start to my morning.
I hurried down the corridor toward her room and nodded to Caspar, the guard posted outside her door, leaving my new guard with him.
“Come in,” Iris sang out, happy and—as expected—wide awake. “Lily! You’re up early today.”
“Keane just resigned,” I blurted.
Iris stopped what she was doing, her hand hovering above the plant she was watering. “Why would he do that?”
“What are you doing?”
“Practicing my magic.” She shrugged. “But what do you mean, Keane resigned? Keane can’t resign. He’s your Captain. Who’s going to keep you safe?”
My shoulders slumped and I walked toward her bed before flopping onto it, the very picture of melodrama. “Keane said he’d instate another guard, Simeon, in his place.”
“What? But why?” Iris’s mouth hung open and she came to perch on the bed beside me.
“Because I love Keane and he loves me, and he knows I have to marry one of the suitors to make my rule over Talador strong.” I rushed the words out and didn’t look at her until I finished.
When I finally turned to her, her nose was scrunched up as she cast a critical gaze over me. "Well, that’s stupid.”
I laughed at her quick assessment. “Perhaps so, but it’s the truth.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re going to be Queen. You can do what you want. Are there rules that say you can’t marry Keane?” But she didn’t wait for me to answer. “If there are, who cares? Make new rules. Better rules.”
“If only life were so simple, Iris. I’m not even sure Keane actually wants to be with me. Being King is a lot to ask of someone not born into that life.”
Iris opened her mouth to reply but her door opened wide, and we both turned toward it.
Grimelda hesitated at the threshold, her eyes wide. “Oh, Princess Lily. I didn’t expect to find you with Princess Iris so bright and early.”
“She’s only in here because K—” Iris started.
“Because I needed to check how Iris is today after witnessing the attack Lord Malren launched,” I interrupted.
Iris shot me a skeptical glance, but I gave her a slight shake of my head. Keane was my secret for now.
Grimelda nodded. “I’ve brought Princess Iris her breakfast. I know she likes to be up before anyone else, and she’s a growing girl, so I assumed she must be hungry.”
I glanced at Iris, a little side-eye from one sister to another. “But I thought you ate breakfast with me every morning.”
Her cheeks pinked. “This is a pre-breakfast snack.”
“I’ll just leave this on your desk.” Grimelda put down a tray of food, and I glanced at it.
Everything looked beautiful. Someone had cut fruit into tiny delicate pieces, a small sprig of fresh flowers decorated the tray, and toast had been shaped into hearts and stars.
“What a lovely…pre-breakfast snack. Thank you, Grimelda.” I smiled at her, and she gave me a tight smile in return as she shuffled backward from the room.
After she closed the door behind her, I turned to Iris, who already had a strawberry ready to pop into her mouth. “Do you seriously eat this much breakfast every day?”
She shrugged and swallowed the mouthful of strawberry. “Grimelda brings me the food. What else am I supposed to do with it?”
“True,” I conceded, but I didn’t tell Iris the other thing she could do with it was throw it out of the window to join my soup on the courtyard floor. Grimelda certainly did love feeding us.
Iris grabbed a piece of toast as she lounged about. “Grimelda’s kind of annoying though. She’s always around. Every time I turn around, she’s there. Sometimes I think she watches me.”
Suspicion snapped through me, and I fought to keep my face neutral, looking down as I smoothed my hand over Iris’s quilt.
“I’m sure she’s just lonely. She’s been at Gilbrook Castle for a long time and she hasn’t had many people to interact with, or cook for.
She’s probably just impressed at how you’ve grown since you last saw her. ”
“Probably.” Iris shrugged and grabbed more fruit. An apple, this time.
Like the one that almost poisoned me.
I knocked it from her hand without thinking, and she let out a shout of protest. “Sorry,” I said. “There was a bug on it. Perhaps you should avoid all the apples today.”
“Yuck,” Iris said, as she shoved them off her plate.
As I watched her, dread stole through my body, my mind making connections I never wanted to make.
I’d been attacked several times, each time by a fae skilled in illusion magic.
Queen Riala had vanished from Talador eleven years ago, and no one had seen her ever since.
She needed to be close by for her illusions to work, and she had access to my food, or she wouldn’t have been able to attempt to poison me.
My heart beat faster as I tried to calm my breathing.
Grimelda had been at Gilbrook Castle for years…
but what if she hadn’t? The level of disrepair certainly suggested no one had been here at all.
I gazed around, taking in the detail with fresh eyes.
The worn fabrics, the dust in the air, and the ever-present silver mirrors in every room.
The place looked run down, but I’d just put it down to Grimelda’s age.
I probably might have still believed that if not for Iris’s confession.
But now I realized Grimelda was taking care of Iris the way a mother might.
My breath lodged in my throat. Could she be Queen Riala?