Selene POV
The palace gates open before the carriage fully stops.
Word travels fast in a royal household. By the time Rex steps out and reaches back to help me down, there are at least thirty people in the courtyard — guards, servants, attendants — all trying very hard to look like they weren't waiting.
I am wearing Rex's ceremonial robes.
My own clothes are at the bottom of a forest lake, which is a sentence I never expected my life to contain. The black and crimson fabric swamps me entirely, pooling at my feet, the gold embroidery catching torchlight. I have to gather the hem in both fists just to walk without tripping.
Rex finds this funnier than he should.
"You could just carry me," I say. "Faster."
"I could." He doesn't offer.
The looks we receive as we cross the courtyard are
