Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“Do you need help?”
I startled to see Devana behind me, wearing a dressing gown, her long, curly blonde hair in a single braid to the side of her head. In one hand she held a candle and in the other a bucket. Of all of us, she’d taken the most after Father, including his height, for despite the four years between us, she was nearly taller than me now. In fact, she had blossomed so much in the last two years that one would think we were the same age.
“Hathor?” she called, tilting her head to the side. “Come, let’s start so you may rest and have energy for the morning.”
“You have been rather helpful of late, Devana, when you need not be,” I said as I followed her inside, closing the door and eyeing her carefully. Devana was often in her own little world, just her and her piano. Abena and I could be tearing down the castle, and Devana would continue playing as if she had been hired by the queen for a concerto. It wasn’t that she was uncaring. Instead, she preferred to mind her own business quietly. But lately, she’d been hovering about Mama and me, and now, before bed, she’d come ready to pick up pillow feathers. That was very unlike her. “What is going on with you?”
“Nothing. I merely wish to help my older sister. Why are you so suspicious of kindness?” she said, picking the white feathers one by one off the center of my bed, but in doing so, she lifted one of my papers.
“Don’t look!” I rushed to her, taking the sheet from her hand, but it was too late. Sadly, she was just as fast a reader as Aphrodite.
“Are these the notes you’ve collected about the prince?” she asked, staring back with her bright blue eyes.
“You’ve heard of him?”
“The entire castle heard of him the moment you screamed in glee,” she teased, and I glared at her.
“I did not scream.”
“Squealed then?”
I tried not to laugh. “I might have done that slightly.”
She giggled. “Mama has turned the whole castle over to make space for the queen. I still cannot believe she is coming or that you seek to marry a prince.”
“You do not think it is possible for me either?” Did no one have faith in my dreams?
“I think anything is possible for you, sister,” she replied, taking a seat on my bed and causing it to bounce slightly.
“Good, as you ought to.” I nodded, moving to take a seat beside her. “Now, did you come only to tease or is there something the matter?”
“I came merely to see you because I was interested.”
“Interested? In what?”
“All of it. How to court, how to…garner attention.”
“Since when do you care for anything beyond the piano?”
“I am no longer a child, Hathor, but a lady of sixteen. In two years, Mama will bring me into society as well. So, is this not the time to begin taking an interest?” she asked, and a suspicious feeling crept upon me. I did not know much about others, but I knew my sisters. Devana had only ever had one interest in her life: music. Now, all of a sudden, she wished to know about suitors. I leaned closer and closer until my face was right before hers.
“Do you like someone,” I said—not asked—only to see her pink lips tucked for the briefest of seconds before she shook her head.
“What? No. Of course not! Not at all! I know no one to like—”
“You protest far too much!” I gasped, seeing the look of panic on her face. “You like someone!”
“Shh! Hathor!”
“Be honest, Devana.”
She sighed and hung her head. “You must swear not to say a word, Hathor.”
My eyes widened while she gripped her white hands tightly. “Have you— Who is— When did— What is happening? Does Mama know?”
“Nothing is happening, and Mama does not know, as there is nothing to know. It is a mere crush, that is all. The gentleman in question does not even know I exist. But please do not say anything, Hathor. Please.” She grabbed my hand, and I realized then that the sister I thought I knew was gone. Just like Verity, her personality had shifted, all from this force called love, this force that continued to skip over me as if I were invisible.
“Hathor, swear you will not say anything of it,” she begged again, and the panicked look on her face was the only thing that stirred me from my rising shock.
I nodded slowly before the words finally made it out of my lips. “I swear. But, Devana, you are not—”
“Do not worry. I promise I will not do anything foolish or against the rules, not that I can anyway.”
“What does that mean?”
“I told you that he does not know I exist.”