“Yes.”
“And then you took your almost-dying brother back to the palace?”
“Yes!” I say. I’m not mad at my friends. I’m mad at myself. “It was dark and the streets were so crowded. I didn’t know who’d hurt him. I didn’t know what to do, so Alexei helped me carry him to the palace.”
“How did you get out?” Rosie asks. “I mean, if the royal family wants you both dead and all.”
“Dominic,” I say. “He told the guards that he was there to arrest Alexei, and then he dragged the three of us out of the palace and back to the embassy. Grandpa called in a favor from a general he knows and he sent a helicopter to get us. They flew us to an army hospital in Germany and rushed Jamie into surgery. He lived. Barely. And as soon as he could be moved, Dominic took the three of us on the run.”
“Took you where?” Megan asks.
Alexei and I share a look, and I shrug. “Everywhere,” I say. “We kept moving. But Jamie wasn’t getting better. Jamie was never going to get better if they kept chasing us, so I …”
“So you what?” Now it’s Alexei who is making demands.
I stare him down. “So I gave them someone else to chase.”
That’s the truth, isn’t it? It’s why I’m here. Why I’m not somewhere safely under the Scarred Man’s watch. Or as safe as I possibly could be. No one seems to argue my logic. Not because I’m right, I know. Just because the people in this train car know there’s never any use arguing with me.
“Grace.” It’s Noah who breaks the silence. He’s not pleading, not blaming. He’s just honestly confused as he says, “Why?”
I should answer. I owe him that much. More. I owe them all more than I could ever, ever repay. But for some reason I just look at Alexei.
“How familiar are you all with the story of the lost princess of Adria?” he says, as if super hot Russian guys are often obsessed with princess stories.
“You mean the baby?” Megan says. “Amelia? The one who was killed in the coup?”
“She wasn’t killed,” Alexei tells them.
“Awesome!” Rosie exclaims after a moment. “I mean. It’s true? Really? Because I’ve been calling that for weeks, haven’t I? I mean, that has always been my own personal theory.”
“No,” Noah says, shaking his head. “That’s crazy.”
“Yeah. It’s true,” I say. “A nurse smuggled Amelia out of the palace, and then the Society hid her among their own babies. Some Society member took her home that night and raised her. No one ever knew which baby girl she was. They just brought her home and kept her safe until she grew up and had a kid of her own. And then that kid had a kid. And so on and so on, and then my mom …” I take a deep breath. “My mom found out that she was one of those kids. My mom was Amelia’s direct descendant. I am Amelia’s descendant.”
“So you’re a …” Rosie starts, a mischievous gleam in her eye.
“Yes, Rosie. I’m a princess.”
Noah can’t help himself. He laughs. And then Rosie bursts out laughing, too. Even Megan can’t hide a giggle, and the pressure that Alexei and I have been living under—the constant worry and fatigue and stress—it’s too much. And we both snap. Laughter pours out of us. For a second, I feel young.
Noah is trying to take a deep breath. He’s trying to speak. “Do I need to bow?” he asks. “I really think I should bow.”
He tries to stand, but I grab his hand. “If you get out of that seat, I’m going to kick you really, really hard.”
“Fine. Your Highness.”
And just that quickly, the laughter fades. The truth of the matter settles over us like a fog.
No one is laughing anymore.
“So the royal family tried to kill Jamie,” Rosie says, so matter-of-fact that any other theory sounds stupid. “Right?”
Everyone is looking at me. “I think so. I mean … probably. It’s just …”
“What is it, Gracie?” Alexei slides into the seat beside me. I can feel the warmth that radiates off him, centering me.
“The Society,” I say.
“What about them?” Megan sounds almost afraid, almost like a part of her knew this might be coming.
“When I was with the Council of Elders, I thought they might help. They’re the ones who saved Amelia after all. But they didn’t want to help. In fact, they seemed to think that my existence—that Jamie’s existence—might severely threaten the stability of Europe. And they are very committed to a stable Europe.”
“So you think the Society might want you dead, too?” Noah asks me.
For the first time I wonder if Noah’s mom was there. At the meeting of the elders. I might have just called Noah’s mom a killer, but he doesn’t look concerned.
“So, long story short, there are a whole lot of people who might want you dead,” Rosie says in an entirely too-cheerful summary of my situation.
Megan is too quiet.
“What?” I turn to her. She’s maybe the smartest person I know, and something in her silence scares me.
“That explains it.” Megan’s voice is almost a whisper, part awe and part fear.
“Explains what?” I ask.
“The embassy,” she tells me. “That night, The Night of a Thousand Amelias … the embassy was crazy. No one would tell me why, but it was obvious something had happened. My mom wouldn’t let me near the residence, but everything was insane. I’ve never seen the marines like that. It was like a war zone.”