Chapter Nine
No Madran princess ever forgot their eighteenth name day.
It meant they were one step closer to being rid of the mask for good.
Celebrations would stretch on for an entire week, beginning with the Madran games and cumulating in the ball where the mask would be removed once and for all.
Helena woke before the sun as anticipation twisted her gut. Today, she’d be allowed to be among the people. Not as the boy she’d pretended to be on her trips into the city, but as herself.
The jaunt to the docks to greet Camille had been her first journey outside the palace walls since she was a child—at least sanctioned journey. But she’d gone from palace steps to carriage to docks before returning to the carriage. There’d been no time to soak in the energy of the Madran people.
She sat u
