“You didn’t have to read
The Odyssey
in school?” I shook my head. Juliana might have; Thomas had told me that she had gone to a private school in Columbia City called the Lofton Academy for Young Women, but that the king had pulled her out the year before and hired a tutor to finish out her education. Still, I felt confident Callum wouldn’t have any idea what she did or didn’t study there.
“Not that I’m an expert on what people have to read in school,” he continued.
“I guess that means you did,” I said, trying to draw the conversation back to him. I couldn’t imagine living my whole life locked up, not being able to have friends or go places without an escort or attend school. I felt ashamed for thinking my life on Earth had been boring and confined. There were far worse ways to grow up, as Callum, and even Thomas and Juliana, were teaching me.
“Well, I had a Greek tutor for nine years, so, yeah. I read it.”
“Your tutor was Greek, or he taught you Greek?” I smiled.
“He
taught
me Greek.” Callum laughed. A light brown curl fell over his eye. “He was Irish, actually, I think. Seamus Ryan.”
“That’s a very Irish name,” I teased.
“He was obsessed with
The Odyssey,
Ol’ Shay,” Callum said. “But I preferred
The Iliad.
More action, less time spent on boats.”
“What have you got against boats?”
“I just have this feeling I’d get seasick and end up with my head hanging over the side.” He patted his abdomen. “Delicate royal stomach, you know.”
“Have you ever even
been
on a boat?”
“Nope. This is my first time outside of Adastra, remember?” Callum said. “Not much ocean where I come from, sad to say.”
“You’ve never seen the ocean?” Even I’d seen the ocean, on a vacation to Florida with Granddad. I’d spent the entire time with my toes buried in the sand, the sun beating down on my pale legs, breathing in the salty air, and loving every minute of it.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said, pressing his lips together so that they nearly disappeared.
“Like what?”
“Poor little rich boy,” he said with a small sigh.
“If you’re a poor little rich boy, then what does that make me?” I asked. He smiled almost in spite of himself. It was nice to have a conversation with someone without having to second-guess everything that came out of my mouth.
“I don’t know,” Callum said, playing along. “What does that make you?”
Analog,
a small voice whispered inside my head. But of course I couldn’t say that to Callum, so I let the question slip by unanswered.
“Juli,” the king said suddenly. I closed
The Odyssey
and put my hand on his. “What’s wrong, Dad?”
“Touch and go!” the king shouted, startling both Callum and me. “Touch and go! Touch and go! One, one, two, three, five, eight …”
“Yes, yes, I know,” I said wearily. I picked up
The Odyssey
and set about locating the line I’d left off on before. The king always seemed calmer when I was reading to him.
“Why does he say that stuff?” Callum asked.
“Not sure,” I said. “They say it’s like his brain is stuck on repeat.”
“So they don’t mean anything, the things he says?” I shook my head. “Are you sure?”
I wasn’t, but if they did mean something, I couldn’t fathom what. “Who am I to argue with the doctors?”
“His daughter, for one. The princess, for another.” He shifted a little in my direction. “Did he call you ‘Juli’ just now?”
I nodded. “It’s what my friends and family call me.”
“Can I call you that?” His voice was low and deep. I was trying not to notice, but Callum had the good looks of someone who ought to be on television, with his tousled brown curls and bright blue eyes. No wonder his Earth-analog was an actor. Up close it was distracting how attractive Callum was.
“Are we friends?” I was flirting and I knew it, but it was hard to resist.
“I hope so.”
I smiled. “Then yes, you can call me Juli. Do your friends call you Cal?”
Callum laughed. “If you mean my family, then yes. But only Sonny.”
“Then that’s what I’ll call you,” I told him. He seemed pleased by this.
Callum appraised the king. “Do you even think he knows we’re here?”
“I just hope he knows he’s not alone.” I might not have been the king’s daughter, but his condition just about broke my heart.
“I’m sorry, Juli,” Callum said. He gazed at me with such tenderness that I had to avert my eyes, embarrassed by the intimacy of the look. “This must be so hard for you.”
He glanced around the room at all the blinking monitors and intravenous tubes. “Almost losing your father, and then seeing him like this, day in and day out. It’s so unfair.” He paused. “They told me it was Libertas that shot him. Is that true?” His eyes returned to me, but this time there was a slyness in his expression that took me off guard. He was fishing for information, something I hadn’t expected out of the sweet, unassuming prince. It was actually a relief, to see that he had hidden undercurrents; the chances of him getting along with the real Juliana were greatly increased by this development. Still, Thomas and Gloria had both warned me not to speak to Callum about Libertas.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it,” Callum said, when several moments had passed wherein I said nothing. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry. My father died when I was a kid, from a long illness, and I’ve never really gotten over it.”
“I can imagine,” I said quietly. I couldn’t help but think of my own parents, and how deeply I still felt their loss. Someday, Juliana’s father would also die, sooner rather than later. At least I hadn’t had to watch my parents suffer and fade away. Were Thomas and I the lucky ones, too young to remember the bad as well as the good?
“You think they’re always going to be there,” he continued, rubbing the edge of his jaw thoughtfully. His voice sounded lost and far away. “To protect you. To give you advice. And then they’re not and they never will be again.”
I dug my nails into my palm, determined not to cry. I tried to think of something else, anything else, to get my mind off my parents, but the images of their faces refused to fade.
The door to the room slid open, and I was grateful to see Thomas on the other side of it. Callum turned, and I quickly dabbed at the corners of my eyes with my fingertips.
“Is everything all right?” I asked Thomas.
“Everything’s fine,” he said. “The queen would like to see you in her study; she wants to go over the seating arrangements for the wedding and the ball.”
“You can tell her I’ll be there in a few minutes,” I said. He nodded and left the room, but not without first glancing warily over at Callum.
“The ball?” Callum shot me a questioning look. “I thought that was tonight?”
I shook my head. “That’s the concert.
Your
concert.” Callum rolled his eyes good-naturedly. It had been the queen’s idea to bring in the Columbia City Orchestra to perform on the Rambles, the enormous park that served as something of a backyard for the Castle. Earlier, Callum and I saw the bandshell being constructed from the king’s bedroom window. The orchestra was in honor of Callum’s arrival in the UCC; his love and appreciation of classical music had preceded him.
“The queen is throwing us a pre-wedding gala.” I’d been briefed on all this, but I was careless about wedding details and it had slipped my mind. “It’s in three days. I hope you brought your tux.”
Callum grinned. “Of course.”
“Great. Well, I’d better go. The queen hates it when I don’t come running.” I put aside
The Odyssey
. “Sorry to abandon you, although I’m sure you have better things to do than sit here all day listening to me stumble over the word
Charybdis.
”
He laughed. “As it happens, I don’t.” As I passed him, he caught my hand in his.
“In a few days this will all be over,” he reassured me. I stared at his hands. His fingers were long and thin, the better to play the piano with, but his nails were short and uneven—he had a nail-biting habit. “Then we can do whatever we want. We’ll be free.”
“You’re quite an optimist,” I said with a smile. It was refreshing to be around someone so hopeful, even when I knew he was wrong.
“Can’t help it.” He spread his hands in a helpless gesture. “That’s how I was born.”
I wanted to share his faith in the future, but mine was waiting for me elsewhere, in a different world far from this one. Assuming, of course, that I was lucky enough to find my way back to it.
I emerged from the queen’s study two and a half hours later, my brain liquefied by the experience of listening to the queen, Gloria, and half a dozen other wedding planners argue over outstanding details of a wedding I wouldn’t even be there to experience. Not so long from now, I would be back in Hyde Park, far away from all this madness.
Except … I couldn’t keep from imagining what it would be like when I returned. It had been several days since anyone had last seen me; there would certainly be questions, questions I couldn’t answer. They would think I was insane if I’d told them where I’d gone; the only person who might believe me was Granddad, but even that wasn’t guaranteed. There was also the question of Grant: could I really go home before they managed to send him back as well? The thought of leaving him to fend for himself in Aurora twisted me up into guilty knots. Much as I wanted to go back, there was no possibility of returning to my old life; Earth wouldn’t be the sanctuary I desperately yearned for. And I wouldn’t be the same person I was when I left.
Did I even want to leave?
Of course I do,
I thought. Why would I ever want to stay in Aurora? But I knew there would be things that I missed. After all the time we’d spent together, I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that I might never see Thomas again. He’d woven his way into the fabric of my life, of who I was, and the thought of separating from him struck me hard.
That’s just because you can’t live here without him,
I told myself.
Once you’re home, you won’t need him anymore.
But no matter how logical it sounded, that didn’t seem quite like the truth.
Where was Thomas? Normally he stationed himself right outside the door of any room I was in, but as I emerged from the queen’s study I didn’t see him anywhere. I waited for a few moments, thinking he may just have gone off briefly and would soon return, but when that didn’t happen I decided to make my way back to Juliana’s bedroom myself. My visions of Juliana had taught me the layout of the Castle well, and I felt confident that I could navigate it just fine.
I’d just rounded the corner when I saw Thomas at the other end of the corridor, deep in conversation with a young man I’d never met before. He was tall, but not as tall as Thomas, lean but slight compared to Thomas’s broad shoulders and muscular physique, with brown hair that had outgrown its short, cropped cut and needed to be trimmed. He was dressed in a black suit, like Thomas, which told me that he was KES, but that was all I could gather from so far away.
“What are you doing here, Lucas?” Thomas was struggling to keep his voice low, but the acoustics in the hallway were such that I could still hear them from where I was standing. So this was Thomas’s brother, Lucas, the actual biological spawn of the General and Alice Mayhew. Naturally, I was very interested in this conversation.
“I’m here to see Juliana,” Lucas said. The casualness of Lucas calling Juliana by her first name made me wonder just how well he knew her; I’d learned at dinner my first night that the General and the king had been friends most of their lives, so it was possible—even probable—that their children might be acquainted. Thomas had told me in passing that he’d met her a few times in the two years between his adoption and being shipped off to Blackbriar, but Lucas, being the General’s biological son, would’ve had much more time in which to get to know her.
“Princess Juliana,” Thomas reminded him sharply. Lucas rolled his eyes. “We’re not kids anymore. And she’s busy. Since when do you have clearance to just wander around the Castle like this? Aren’t you supposed to keep to the Tower like a good little support agent?”
I wasn’t really sure what all that meant, but I could tell from Thomas’s tone that he was wound up and possibly baiting his brother. Lucas didn’t rise to it, and I remembered that he was four years older. Maybe this was their relationship dynamic—Thomas, the younger, always acting defensive, and Lucas, the elder, looking for ways to defuse him. It didn’t match up with what I already knew about Thomas’s personality and character, but I was well aware of how certain people could bring out a different side of you.
“Then the General didn’t tell you,” Lucas said. I found it telling that even the General’s natural born son didn’t call him “Dad,” or even “Father.” “I’ve been promoted.”
“To active?” Thomas’s eyes widened in surprise, fiddling with his KES ring.
“Not yet. But maybe soon. The General said he might be able to arrange for me to take my trials in October.” Thomas’s jaw tightened; this information wasn’t sitting well with him.
“Don’t be jealous,” Lucas teased. “There’s plenty of action out there for the two of us. If you ever find a way to get yourself reassigned, that is.”
“You assume I want to be reassigned. Maybe I like where I am.”
“Oh, come off it, T, you’re a glorified babysitter. You didn’t blow through the Academy just to end up holding the princess’s train while she traipses around the Castle, did you?”
Thomas shook his head, not in denial but in irritation. “What do you need her for?”
“I just wanted to say a quick hello,” Lucas told him. “And congratulate her on her upcoming wedding. Is that so horrible? You’re acting like you think I’ve got ulterior motives.”
“I’ll give her your message, okay? Just go back to the Tower and do your job, whatever that is.”
“Are you angry with me, little brother?” Lucas asked. “If this is about Mom, I’m sorry I interfered, but I really think—”
“Don’t start with that again,” Thomas warned him.
I’d heard enough of this. I wasn’t just going to hide around the corner and wait for them to come to blows over their personal issues. I stood at the head of the corridor and cleared my throat. They both looked up; Thomas tensed, but Lucas smiled as he turned to look at me and I got my first glimpse of his face.