“I am continuing on my path.”
“How so? You make merry with your lover. You hold on to this place,” she said, her chin jerking to the compound. “You cling to what you must abandon.”
“I’ll never abandon my family.”
“You sacrifice yourself, not because you think it is right, but because you think you deserve it. Punishment? Compensation? Do not twist the old ways and the words of the gods. You are the victor, Lila of New Bristol. You are the punishment.”
“I was born to—”
“That life is forfeit,” the woman insisted. “None of this matters. The oracle in your village summons you. Attend her, or I will return. I won’t speak so politely next time.”
“Why should—”
A knock sounded on Lila’s bedroom door.
She flinched, startling at the noise. Her breath hitched as her sore belly protested the sudden movement.
Sinking into her covers, she ignored the next knock, her mind spiraling to the day before. She hadn’t spent too long in the gym or gotten into a fight. Her future had changed. Rubio had reversed her CUT. Bullstow would hold the Closing Ceremony the next evening before the ball. She would attend and stand among the heirs. She’d take a senator. She’d accept the prime role soon after.
She’d have a child, an heir for the family.
It didn’t matter how many odd dreams her mind produced.
Nothing would change her duty and her new future.
The knock came again.
Alex did not wait an
y longer to be invited. She wordlessly flipped on half the lights in the room rather than firing every cannon at once. Lila hid her face underneath the covers, but the sound of casters rolling on the hardwood floor garnered her attention, as did the smell of food. She poked an eyeball from under her blankets.
“Wake up, lazy bones,” her old friend whispered over the clattering of silver trays and china. “Surgery or not, it wouldn’t do for the new Randolph prime to wallow in bed all day.”
“Jewel’s been doing it wrong, then.” Lila inclined her head toward the cart, sniffing eggs, bacon, pancakes, and maple syrup. In a little bowl, she spied blackberries. “How’d you find out?”
“I have my ways.”
Lila raised a brow.
“I guessed,” Alex admitted.
“What’s with the pancakes?”
“Chef,” Alex said, setting the breakfast on a tray so Lila could eat in bed. Given the amount of food, Chef apparently believed that Lila was already eating for two, or perhaps ten. “After the chairwoman asked her to cook all your favorite foods yesterday, Chef naturally assumed that you’d need it today as well. She’s still in the dark about the consequences of your meeting. As far as I can tell, everyone is. The family is talking, though. The chairwoman summoned you back from vacation early, and everyone knows it.”
“Great.” Lila winced as she sat up, holding her stomach.
“Perhaps you should lie down.”
“Not when there are pancakes on the line. Chef will take them away and send up oatmeal. I hate oatmeal. I’m just sore, and there’s nothing wrong with my appetite.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. I just sat up too fast.”
The slave nodded, and her fingers lingered on a second plate. “I thought you might want to have breakfast with an old friend, given everything that’s happened. Am I an old friend?” She waited uncertainly next to the dinner cart, her ankles bending like an awkward child. She wouldn’t meet Lila’s eyes.
“Of course you are. You’ll always be.”