Chapter 192: Puella

BONNIE

The bed was too wide, and that was the first thing I noticed.

I woke on my back with one arm stretched across the mattress, my fingers closing on cool sheets where warmth should have been. The pillow beside mine still held the shape of a head. The blanket had been tucked around my shoulder with a care I had not asked for and would have noticed in my sleep if I had been anyone else.

I sat up too fast.

"Lysander?"

The room answered with silence and a slant of pale morning light across the floor. His jacket was gone from the chair. The fire had been banked down to a few orange coals. My heart did something stupid and quick, and for one lurching second I was nine years old again, waking in a hayloft to find that the person who had promised to stay had not.

"Good morning, my lady."

I turned my head. An Omega stood by the window with her hands folded in front of her apron, young, with freckles and a braid pinned neatly around her crown. She bowed so low that her braid nearly slipped from its pins.

"Where is he?" The question left my mouth before anything polite could get in front of it.

"His Majesty rose very early, my lady." She straightened but kept her gaze lowered. "He went to speak with the High Beta. I believe it concerns how the estate will be run while he is away. He asked that you not be woken."

"Did he say when he would be back?"

"Before the departure, my lady. He was most particular about that."

I let out a breath and sank back against the headboard, annoyed at how much the answer loosened my chest. He had a kingdom to arrange before breakfast. Of course he did. He had not vanished. He had gone to work, and somewhere in his head he had decided that letting me sleep was the kinder act.

It was. I resented how right he was.

"Thank you," I said.

The girl looked startled, as if no one had said it to her this week. Then the door opened behind her, and three more Omegas filed in, all in the same gray dresses, carrying folded linens, a tray, and what looked like an entire wardrobe’s worth of garment bags draped over one arm.

"Oh," I said. "That is a lot of people."

"We have been told to see to your comfort, my lady," the freckled one murmured.

"I can see to my own comfort."

"Of course, my lady."

She did not stop moving. Neither did anyone else. One of them swept past me to pull the curtains wide. Another set the tray across my knees, a pot of tea, a plate of buttered toast, and a small bowl of berries, and arranged the napkin in my lap before I could reach for it myself. A third had already disappeared into the dressing room, and I heard the soft thud of a trunk being opened.

I watched it all with the creeping horror of someone who had spent years being the invisible hands in rooms, in a way, like this one. I knew exactly how it felt from the other side. I knew which corners of myself to fold and which glances to avoid. I had never once imagined it pointed at me.

"Please," I tried again. "I really can pack my own..."

"Oh, you will not win that one."

I looked up.

Delta leaned in the doorway with her arms crossed and one eyebrow hitched high enough to disappear beneath her hair. She wore the same gray dress as the rest, but like a general in a borrowed coat, she wore it differently. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

"Delta."

"Your Majesty." She winced. "Bonnie. I keep doing that."

"Honestly, I would answer to either at this point."

"You will answer to my queen by the end of the month." She pushed off the frame and crossed the room with her usual loose stride, plucking a berry off my tray and practically popping it into my mouth. "I hope you start to get used to it. They are going to fuss. It is what they do."

Even though I knew what she was getting at, I played dumb as usual.

"Get used to what?"

"Being seen to." She handed me another berry, which I accepted in my hands. "You are not just the girl who still exists in suspicion of murdering the King. You half cleared that when you took a soul kiss. There are doubts, of course, but..."

Delta kept going, and I took a moment to think. It was so funny because I had not even realized that would help my cause. The tenets of the magic said I would be marked for death if I opposed the crown and survived. So of course, I was cleared in the eyes of many now.

"... Point is, they also know you are the Regent’s mate now. At least that is what is being passed around. I have to tell you, the Omega quarters were buzzing last night. Everyone was talking about you. You and the Regent. Half the house knows it now, and it will not un-know it just because you are humble."

My stomach tightened. "What exactly were they saying?"

"Mostly that they could not believe it. A rogue retainer who turned out to be a caste of legend, and the mate of the next Alpha King." She shrugged, though her eyes had softened. "Some were scared. A few were nasty. But most of them, they were hopeful. They think maybe things might change. Somebody even cried to some fairytale her grandmother had passed down."

I stared at the toast on my lap.

"That is a great deal to put on one person."

"Yes," Delta said simply. "It is."

There was no point arguing with it. I took a sip of tea instead, and it was good, strong and a little sweet, and I realized with some embarrassment that I had been hungry for hours.

I managed half the toast before the freckled Omega returned with her hands clasped.

"Your bath is ready, my lady."

"I can run my own bath."

"It is already drawn, my lady."

"I..." I gave up. "Fine. Thank you."

"We will see to your dress while you bathe." She said it as though it were the most natural arrangement in the world, and perhaps for her it was. "We have chosen several options. His Majesty requested that you be comfortable but presentable. The Lily of the Valley elders will be watching after all."

My fingers tightened on the teacup.

"Of course they will be," I murmured. Everyone was always watching.