“He was probably looking for Wendy,” Tove said offhandedly, and the chair in front of me slid so far back, it almost hit my shins. “Sorry.”
“Careful,” I said, pulling my legs up to be safe.
I wrapped my arms around my knees, and Elora glared at me. I didn’t move, and I heard Elora’s voice in my head: That is not how a Princess sits. I was wearing pants, so I decided to ignore her, and I looked over at Tove.
“Why do you think he was looking for me?” I asked. Loki had let me go once. I didn’t know why he’d tried to get me now.
“He wants you,” Tove said simply.
“You are the Princess,” Willa pointed out, as if I’d forgotten. “On the subject of which, do you want to have a girls’ night tonight?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I feel like I haven’t seen you much lately, and I thought it’d be fun if we did our nails and watched movies,” Willa said. “You’ve been under so much stress lately, you need to kick back.”
“It would help your training if you shut off your mind sometimes,” Tove said.
“That sounds really great, Willa, but I was thinking of seeing if Matt wanted to do something,” I said. “This all has to be so confusing, and I haven’t been able to spend much time with him.”
“Oh, Matt’s busy.” Willa readjusted the clasp on her bracelet. “He’s doing something with Rhys tonight. Some brother bonding thing, I guess.”
I watched Tove move the chair back and forth, and I tried not to feel anything about what Willa said. Matt and Rhys needed to spend time together, and I had been busy a lot. It was good for them. It was good for me.
Somebody sat down in the chair in front of me, and Tove let out a dramatic sigh. Elora glared at him, but his own mother didn’t. That had never made sense to me either.
Aurora was always looking down on Elora and me, but Tove acted out way more than I did. Tove did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. I at least tried to have some decorum.
“It is really packed,” Willa said again as more Trylle filed in.
It was down to standing room only, so even some of the Markis and Marksinna didn’t get chairs. Elora cleared her throat, preparing to start the meeting, when two more trackers snuck into the room.
I could barely see them as they came in, but I recognized them instantly. Finn and his father, Thomas. They found a spot at the edge of the room. Finn crossed his arms over his chest and Thomas leaned on the bookcase behind him.
“Good. They’re calling out the big guns,” Tove whispered.
“What?” I pulled my gaze away from Finn.
“Finn and Thomas.” Tove nodded at them. “They’re the best. No offense, Duncan.”
“None taken,” Duncan said, and I think he meant it.
“We need to get this meeting under way,” Elora said loudly, to be heard over the buzz of the crowd.
It took a minute, but the room fell silent. Elora’s eyes traveled over the audience, purposely keeping them off Thomas, the same way Finn kept his eyes off me.
“Thank you,” Aurora said with a saccharine smile and stepped closer to my mother.
“As you all know, we’ve had an intruder in the palace,” Elora said calmly. “Thanks to our alarm system and the quick thinking of our trackers, he was caught before he could do any damage.”
“Is it true that it’s the Markis Staad?” Marksinna Laris asked. She was a nervous Trylle who once made a comment about how she loved that I let my hair go untamed, and how she’d never be brave enough to do something that unrefined.
“Yes, it does appear to be the Markis Staad,” Elora said.
“Markis?” I whispered. Willa gave me a questioning look, and I shook my head.
Loki Staad was a Markis? I’d assumed that Loki was a tracker, like Duncan and Finn. The Markis and Marksinna were the royals of the community, and they were protected. Or at the very least, they didn’t do their own dirty work. Willa was a Marksinna, and she was one of the more levelheaded, unspoiled ones I’d met.
“What does he want?” somebody else asked.
“It doesn’t matter what he wants.” The Chancellor got up, his face drenched with sweat from the exertion of standing. “We need to send the Vittra a message. We will not be bullied. We must execute him!”
“You can’t kill him!” I shouted, and Elora shot me a look that made my ears ring. Everyone in the room turned to look at me, including Finn, and my own conviction even surprised me. “It’s not humane.”
“We’re not barbarians.” The Chancellor dabbed at his brow and gave me a condescending smile. “We’ll make his death as painless and benevolent as possible.”
“The Markis didn’t do anything.” I stood up, unwilling to sit and let them propose murder. “You can’t kill someone without just cause.”
“Princess, it’s for your own protection,” the Chancellor said, sounding baffled by my response. “He’s repeatedly tried to kidnap and harm you. That’s a crime against our people. Execution is the only course of action that makes sense.”