The Heir Apparent (2 page)

“I can’t believe you did that,” she squeaked.

At eleven years old, she was nearly his height, with all the same features, and her giddy grin was a symmetrical contrast to his worried frown.

“You’re the one who told me to hit him.”

“Since when do you take orders from me?”

“I don’t. But someone had to do it. He just walks about this city begging for someone to punch him.” He looked at the cobblestones where the boy had fallen, and then at her. “Besides, I don’t want you to be the one to hurt him. How would that look? Maybe you should try to be nice to him, even if you have to pretend, and even if we’ll make fun of him when he’s gone.”

“He’s repulsive,” she said. “He tells me to kiss his cheek and then he tries to look down my dress.”

It turned Azure’s stomach that the boy with the stitches had done nothing of the sort, and yet the boy who tried to accost the princess was commended for his social standing and his high betrothal. Worse was that going along with it was the only way his sister would be safe.

“Just listen, for once,” Azure said. “Do as Papa and Mother ask. Just be nice to the boy. There are worse things.” He was imagining stitches on her forehead, and bruised eyes, and her glossy blond hair shaven from her head. He believed their father would do it; the king loved his children, but he loved his city more.

“What do you know anyway,” she said, not really asking. “Do you want to see if we can find a deer? One of these days we’ll tame one and it’ll let us ride it. I read that that’s possible.”

Azure snorted. “Where, in a fairy tale?”

She breezed past him. “Well, if you don’t want to . . .”

“I do,” he said. “You’re quieter and you can climb, but I’m faster. Maybe we can.”

She ran ahead and he followed her, but when they entered the woods, he led them along the path. He took her in the opposite direction from the metal gate. If he had his way, she would never see it. He would try to forget it himself, and perhaps it would haunt him less with time, but it would always be there, just like the fox with the rabbit.

His father would call his empathy a weakness, but maybe it wasn’t, Azure decided. A king was not meant to rule over only the foxes and leave the rabbits to be killed. A king should be haunted by the frailty of small things.

“Do you suppose I’ll make a good king?” he said, as they snuck behind trees looking for deer.

“Not as good as I would be,” Celeste said. “But you’ll be decent, I suppose.”

He thought of the boy he had seen at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. He imagined the both of them being left to rot in that awful building if they had exchanged anything more than a fleeting glance. He imagined what would happen if he told his father the truth, which was that he’d rather be betrothed to that boy than to the girl he was fated to marry.

“I’ll do away with betrothals first,” he said.

“Don’t be dumb. How will everyone find a match, then?”

He looked at her. “You hate your match.”

“Yes, but that just means I want a better one, that’s all. When you’re king, your first order of business can be to have me marry someone better, and you can pair my current betrothed up with something more fitting. Like an angry bramble fly looking for something to sting.”

“I’ll take it under advisement,” he said, raising his chin.

“I’ll be your top adviser,” she said. “Goodness knows you’ll need me.”

It was true, though he wasn’t about to agree with her out loud. But if her first request as his adviser was that her betrothed be married off to an angry bramble fly, that would be just fine.

“What did Papa want to speak with you about?” she asked. He knew that she was jealous, but she wouldn’t let it show.

“Official business,” he said. “Nothing you need to know about.”

She stepped on his foot.

“Ow! Leste!” He glared at her. “It was all very boring. He walked me through the woods with the patrolmen and he went on about the kingdom. That’s all.” He was impressed with the ease of his lie. Celeste sulked but she didn’t press the issue. Not for now, at least.

“And he did agree that you’d make a good member of my council, I’ll have you know,” Azure said.

She perked at that. “Really?”

“Really.”

They never saw a deer that afternoon, much less caught one. They hadn’t really expected to. It was a game they played, trying to convince themselves and each other that they could do something impossible if only they approached it with logic.

The sun began to sink in its sky and their mother’s voice called out for them to come home. Arm in arm, they made their way back to the clock tower.

They didn’t talk about what had happened with Celeste’s betrothed. They knew that for all their fantasies about how the kingdom might be under Azure’s reign, there were many things that were best left unsaid.

also

by

Lauren

DeStefano

The Internment Chronicles

perfect ruin

burning kingdoms

no intention of dying

The Chemical Garden Trilogy

wither

fever

sever

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