Chapter Fifteen

RAYA BANKS

Nikolai had still not come to see me by the time the sun blazed dully in the sky and I gave up waiting by the window side.

What time was it? I must have been sitting by the window sill for hours, looking down at the line of tin-armored guards that marched up and down the stone pavement of the lot when the knock came on the door.

“Miss Lady? Prince Nikolai urgently requests your presence at the royal dining hall. I’m here to help you dress,” Judith whispered, her eyes seeming to me to be wider than they usually were.

I hopped down from the high gold stool, following obediently behind the muscled woman and stepping out my clothes, into the tub where she threaded her fingers through my hair.

I could get used to this, the easy life at the stone city castle was nothing compared to life back in the village.

I felt the void in my mind that I had fought hard to keep closed bursting open as I thought back to the evening I had been shuffling home from school.

”Lady Artemis,” I groane