2. Chapter 2
Michaela
S adie made it sound like the banquet only waited on me, but even after the all-clear was sounded, the powers that be pushed it off another day. According to Dahlia, the chef had expected me to die and wasn’t prepared to cook. He assumed after my passing, Sadie would be excused and Esmerey, the only remaining true noble, would be chosen.
Just the sort of news a girl wanted to wake up to with her morning breakfast.
Disappointment that I hadn’t died.
Dahlia’s silver lining was that I was expected for an interview that evening instead. “On account of how everyone wants to know how you did survive falling in that hole.”
My heart quickened at the thought. Did Fitz know? Was he okay with it? We’d been careful to keep me out of the spotlight, for fear of having to answer questions about our past. But surely if he didn’t want the interview to happen, he wouldn’t allow it.
Or maybe he thought my years in pageants would give me superior spin skills that would make it possible to avoid every hard question. It was a specialty of mine, but I also hadn’t ever done a live interview that would be broadcast to an entire kingdom.
At least I didn’t have to do this interview in an evening gown. I spent the day prepping; in other words, I spent the day thinking about all the worst-case scenarios and how I would navigate them. I hated that I wasn’t at full strength yet. The slightest rise in adrenaline left me drained and shaky. Somehow, I had to stay calm in the middle of what felt like total unpredictable chaos.
Okay, so not that different than a few of my harder pageants.
I excused Dahlia the hour beforehand. Her constant presence wore on me and I couldn’t take her nervous energy when I already felt like a wreck. Was it too much to ask for Fitz to pop in and visit me? Even if it was just a friendly, hey, how are ya? Glad you weren’t swallowed up by that giant sinkhole, kind of check-in. Something to make me feel like I wasn’t alone on an iceberg in orca-infested waters. Because that’s how I felt in a place like Nolcovia. Everyone looked beautiful and sweet, but really, they were ready to turn on me, chew me up, and swallow me whole.
My wide-eyed reflection stared back at me as I smoothed my last wayward hair into place. Even with makeup, the bruises remained. I figured it was what they were looking for, so at least I was giving them something to talk about. Two knocks on my door reverberated through my still room. Was it too much to hope that my prince had come for me? I didn’t let myself believe it. I thought things were different when he was holding me after the rescue, but it was just as likely that he was happy I wasn’t dead. And I couldn’t blame him, I was too.
I smoothed my light-blue sweater as I walked to the door. At least, I felt like myself. No gown, no updo, no thick stage makeup, just curly auburn hair and a pretty natural face, wearing jeans and a sweater. If Nolcovia wanted to know my story, I wanted to be authentic about it.
Bracing myself for disappointment, I turned the knob and pulled the door open. Fitz didn’t wait for me, but I still squealed when I saw his face.
“Kabir!” Without thinking, I threw my arms around my bodyguard in a tight hug. Albeit, with our size and height difference, I felt like I was hugging a much larger marble statue. “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you since the festival.”
After a moment’s hesitation, after all, I don’t think many of the royal family passed out hugs to the security team, Kabir’s arm wrapped around my shoulders and returned my platonic affection.
“You know me, m’lady. I was lurking in the shadows the whole time.”
Releasing my hold on him, I pulled away and pointed my finger at him like an angry teacher. “Next time you lurk, just give me a heads-up or something. I’m getting a complex. I haven’t had anyone with me but looney Dahlia.” Was it me or did he twitch a little at the mention of her name? “I was starting to go nuts in here.”
“As you wish, m’lady.” He motioned for the hall to my right. “They’re waiting in the ballroom. I’ll show you the way.”
Taking my cue that we were expected shortly, I started down the hall with Kabir trailing only a step behind me. Strangely, it made me feel healthier. If he was willing to resume his duties and not hover, then maybe I didn’t look as bad as I thought I did.
“What’s with the brace?” I asked after a moment’s silence.
“I was searching for a certain American noblewoman and found a child in peril.” I glanced back in time to notice a teasing grin. At least he didn’t seem to be holding me responsible for his injury. “Unfortunately, a stone wall collapsed on both of us and my arm took the brunt of it.”
“Oh my gosh.” My steps stuttered before I found my rhythm again. “You were buried, too?”
With a shake of his head, Kabir waved off my connection between his experience and my own. “For a mere ten minutes, m’lady. The prince freed me from the rubble.”
Fitz, the hero again. From the stories Dahlia told me, it sounded like he saved more than anyone could count. Quite the precedent to set at the start of a shift in monarchy.
“He was busy that day, saving everyone from what I’ve been told.”
Kabir slowed his steps as we came to the end of the hall where the path emptied into the entryway. Sensing something important, I stopped and faced him. Tension pulled at his jawline, as if the words wanted to come, but discipline kept him from speaking.
“He did, m’lady, and we are all grateful and indebted to him, but,” once again, he fought the internal compass that wanted him to stay silent, “he found me in the rubble because he was searching for you.”
“What?” My mouth stayed open, parted lips ready to speak and yet words didn’t follow. Of course, Fitz was searching for me, but the way Kabir phrased it made it sound like I was all that mattered to him. “But what are you—”
“Oh, good!” A chipper voice behind me broke into my thoughts. A moment later, two hands gripped my shoulders and turned me to face the direction of the ballroom. “You’re a pinch behind, love. Let’s get this loco in motion, okay?”
“Wait. What?” I glanced over my shoulder at the person who propelled me like an outboard motor through the open ballroom doors. “What’s going on?”
“Ugh. No one reads the memos, I swear.” She dropped her hold on my shoulders and I nearly toppled backward. “Penny Peyroux. Personal assistant to Roxie Burns. Let’s get you in the chair, yeah?” Energy level through the roof, like a speed addict who drank six cups of coffee, Penny looked ready to shed her own skin. I half expected a lecture on how time was money and money was power and some other frantic monologue about how I was costing her all of it. But she didn’t have a spare second for any of it.
Like a cattle dog pushing a cow, she corralled me into the wingback before I had much choice in the matter. I gripped the arms, trying to ground myself in reality. They’d created a stage area, much like a talk show from the nineties. If Maury showed up on set, I wouldn’t be shocked. To my right, more empty chairs waited. To my left, one identical to my own. At least I wasn’t the only expected guest.
Like all the choosing ceremonies, I recognized most of the staff from Royally Yours behind the cameras and producers on the sidelines. But new faces had joined the plethora of lights and chaos I’d come to expect from reality TV. Pageants prepared me for all kinds of audiences and situations, but this felt new and disconcerting. At least with the choosing ceremonies, there was a pattern and a plan. This was… unscripted.
“M'lady!” I recognized her tiny voice immediately and caught little Leila before she slammed into me. “I’m so happy to see you!”
Forgetting every other care in the world, I hugged little Leila tight. Our trauma bonded us in a way few others would ever understand. We’d been through something awful and somehow we had lived to tell the story. It made sense that she would be in the interview as well. And at least for a moment, I felt like someone else stood on that proverbial iceberg with me.
“Leila,” her mother caught up with her, lightly scolding the child who perched on my lap, “don’t overwhelm Lady Michaela. She’s still healing.”
“But, Mom,” Leila whined, “she’s not even blue anymore. She’s fine!”
Low bar, kiddo. But the last time she saw me, I was near death, so I didn’t have a great argument in place.
“Okay, people,” Penny Peyroux clapped her hands to get our attention, “to your places. Roxie is ready to shoot.”
As if they couldn’t exist in the same space, Penny faded behind the wall of blinding lights and another women took her place. Where Penny exuded nervous energy and a ponytail that whipped around so fast I feared it might put an eye out, this woman moved with practiced grace and poise. No time is money speech from her. She controlled her universe and, therefore, could never be late to a party. After all, she was the party.
“Hello,” the low register of her voice surprised me, “you must be Michaela. I’m Roxanne Burns from Nolcovia News Nightly .”
“Lovely to meet you.” I took her outstretched hand and matched the pressure of her grip.
“It’s an honor, Lady Caldwell. Truly.” She released her grip and turned her attention to Leila. “And this little princess needs no introduction. The whole country has been rooting for you, Miss Leila.”
Was it foolish to hope I could let Leila have the spotlight? Probably, but I was going to try to manifest it anyway. While Roxie got wrapped up in a conversation with Leila and her mother, I scanned the perimeter, looking for a familiar face.
Especially a certain one.
Where was Fitz?
Why hadn’t I seen him since the rescue?
“Rox. We’re on in,” the cameraman held up ten fingers and began the countdown. In an instant, Roxie snapped into character and took her seat in the middle chair between Leila and myself. Lighting dropped over our heads, shrouding us all in darkness. After all the attacks I’d endured in the ballroom, safe to say a sudden blackout left me on edge.
Theme music cued over the speakers and eased some of my nerves. Thus far, no revolt had started with a soundtrack. All part of the show. Or at least I hoped it was.
A single beam flashed on, illuminating Roxie in the center. Her dark hair caught the light with the supple sheen of a shampoo commercial, but she didn’t smile. Apparently, this was a serious broadcast. I flashed back to watching Nightly News with my grandparents. Roxie, or perhaps Roxanne, looked like she was ready to give Ann Curry a run for her money. A camera eased closer, tightening the shot as they waited for her to speak.
“Good evening, Nolcovia. Thank you for joining me on this special broadcast. Many of you are still reeling from the earthquake that struck our capital city less than a week ago. Many of you lost loved ones in the devastation and our hearts and thoughts go out to you tonight.”
My pageant coaches used to talk about using our voices to convey truth when we spoke. ‘Not so much what you say, but how you say it’ were repeated words of advice. I had to give it to her, Roxie knew how to speak truth in a way that made you believe it.
“But out of such great tragedy, many miracles rose. Where so many hearts are broken, others have a second chance at life…” she paused dramatically before she spoke again, “… and love.”
Uh-oh. While she wasn’t wrong, my stomach churned at the direction she was headed.
“One such story took place on the hills above Nolcovia. Two souls were swallowed up by the earth, no hope, no light, nothing to save them, and yet,” the lights above Leila and me sprang to life, “here they sit tonight. Ready to tell their story.”
It was too late to run for the nearest exit, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to try. Since I’d arrived, I felt like my relationship with Fitz was the best kept, and most important, royal secret in the whole country. If it came out on a live national broadcast, I feared the retaliation I faced. Visions of the Queen of Hearts bounced through my thoughts. My hand wrapped around my neck, just to be sure no one had issued a fatal order yet.
“Michaela, we all know you’re here from America, part of the competition to win Prince Leonidas’s heart, but what we don’t know,” I held my breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop, “is what you were doing on that hillside the day of the earthquake. We have it on good authority that the prince was nowhere near that hill at the time of the quake.”
I exhaled slowly so no one would see my sigh of relief. A question I could answer, I could work with that. “Well, I met Leila and her sister that day. They wanted to learn an American game, so we decided to play hide-and-seek on the hill behind the festival.”
Leila took over from there, explaining excitedly the rules and regulations of a proper hide-and-seek match. I was sure it would be the moment that future generations could trace back the origin of the game in the country. But other than some cultural influence, it was benign and I was still safe.
“What about when you felt the earthquake?” Roxie directed the question at me. “What was your reaction?”
“Fear, I guess.” Wasn’t that everyone’s reaction? “I knew I needed to get Leila to safety. As she explained, she got stuck under some wood during the quake. I freed her and had every intention of getting back to the rest of our group.”
“But that’s when the aftershock hit, right?”
My mind flashed back there. The breathless moment where I knew we weren’t going to escape. The look in Fitz’s eyes as he watched in horror. Did I scream? Did Leila? My breathing quickened as I tried to keep myself away from those dark memories.
“Yes,” I whispered, still overcome by emotion. “The ground shifted, and we fell together.”
Thankfully, attention turned back to Leila who was more than willing to explain the conditions where we landed. I ducked my head and tried to focus on my breathing. The dirt still clung to my skin, no matter how many times I washed or scrubbed; even when I logically and rationally knew I was clean, I still felt it. In my hair, under my nails, between my teeth, gritty and earthy. I laced my fingers and set my forehead against them. This was a mistake. I was so concerned with not spilling any secrets, I hadn’t considered the psychological and emotional impact of talking about the accident.
“Michaela?” Roxie’s concerned tone beckoned me back. “What about you? Did you think you’d be rescued?”
“I wasn’t sure.” It wasn’t my real answer, that wasn’t safe to say. I couldn’t explain that my only hope rested in Fitz. I knew if anyone was coming for me, it was him. If there was even a chance I could be alive, I knew he wouldn’t give up. Against all rational thought, he would come for me.
Leila went on, explaining how she’d finally heard the rescuers and had stood in our small shelter to cry for help. She described the way the dirt showered down on us as they got closer. Every moment we came closer to being rescued, we were also inching toward being crushed by the same force.
Her mother took over, detailing the efforts on the other side and what it felt like to hear her little girl’s voice. I forced back my tears because in my memory, it was different. Leila had to stand on me to get closer to them. My every thought went toward her rescue. If I wasn’t going to make it, I planned to be sure she would. Not once in my life had I faced my mortality like that. My body shifted like it had every intention of fleeing, but I forced myself to stay, even though I felt like I was bursting out of my own skin.
“And you, Michaela? They didn’t hear from you at first. Were you worse off than little Leila?”
As if living the moment again, my mouth went dry. I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t pull myself from the memories that threatened to collapse on me like the cavern of dirt.
Leila answered for me. “She was so cold. I was scared. She talked with me in the beginning. Told me stories and helped me sleep. But at the end, she stopped talking and got so cold.”
I had to leave. I couldn’t endure another second. The weight of the combined stare of the entire country would not relent. Like a caged animal, my heart pounded in my chest. There was no escape. My vision blurred and swayed. No way out. Palms sweaty, I wiped them on my pants, but it didn’t help. I was trapped again. Suffocating under the scrutiny of thousands. I wouldn’t survive this, not again, not—
A short whistle split the silence as they waited on my answer. My head popped up as I searched the immediate area. I knew that whistle. It was the same one that called me across gym class, across the campus quad, and every time he climbed the tree outside my window. Within seconds, I found him, just outside the halo of light that surrounded me. For the millionth time, I found strength and solace in his eyes.
I thought I was alone, but once again, Fitz came for me.
“It was bad, Roxie.” My confidence returned knowing I wasn’t alone. “The doctors say I had a few hours more before there was serious or even irreparable damage done. I’m incredibly grateful to the team who rescued me. I owe them my life.”
“Yes,” Roxie’s smile broadened like a cat who’d just unlocked the canary’s cage. “Speaking of that team. Prince Leonidas led the charge, didn’t he?” It wasn’t a question, not really. She sat up straighter and searched the immediate crowd. “In fact, he’s here tonight. Prince Leonidas, why don’t you come join us on stage?”