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THE PALACE BUZZED WITH ACTIVITY the night of the ball. Servants covered the entire building with imported flowers and showered the guests with food and drink. Now the kingdom had come out on the other side of the disease, it was time to get on with things. The New Choosing would be announced after the final ball. The royals, potentials, and their families were invited back to the palace to celebrate. They'd lost two of the potential ladies and one prince to the disease that swept the eleven kingdoms, but even their families were invited.
Prince Bashir wanted this ball to bring people's attention away from the disease and its mysterious cure. When Rasha explained to him what would be involved in accepting the cure, he'd agreed without contest. When he learned about the origins of the m
