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  “Zoe!” I hissed at her, mortified.

  “No, I’m sorry, Charlotte—you two are obviously crazy for each other but you’re pussy-footing around the issue and nothing’s getting done!” She scowled at Kristoff. “If you love Charlotte, you have to fight for her!”

  “If you knew the situation here on Femme One, you’d know I’ve been doing nothing but fighting for my Lady,” Kristoff said, frowning. “But what you’re asking me to do would compromise her reputation and ruin her standing with the Council of Wisdom and the peerage of the entire Majoran system.”

  “Who cares about them?” Zoe said, frowning. “And who says Charlotte has to be the Goddess-Empress anyway? It’s not like she applied for this job—she basically got forced into it. Why doesn’t she get a say? What about her happiness?”

  “Zoe,” I said, rubbing my temples where I could feel a tension headache forming. “It’s just not that simple.”

  “This is love, Charlotte,” she said. “It’s never simple. But that doesn’t mean you should give up all sense of self and just blindly sacrifice yourself for a bunch of people you never met before a few days ago.”

  “My Lady,” Kristoff said. “We really must go.”

  “I have to go,” I told my friends. “Thanks for calling me.”

  “We’ll see you soon.” Leah shot me a sympathetic look. “Stay strong, Charlotte. We’ll be there for your coronation.”

  Zoe just shook her finger at me. “Remember what I said. Think about it.”

  Then the viewscreen went black and their beloved faces faded from view. Kristoff rushed me into the next room to get dressed and made-up but I couldn’t help thinking of Zoe’s words. If only I could follow her advice and do what I wanted to do—love who I wanted to love.

  I knew it was impossible, but I couldn’t help wishing, just the same…

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Charlotte

  “Well, well, my dear—aren’t you looking especially fetching tonight?”

  I gritted my teeth and looked at the golden plate, as wide as a hubcap, which was sitting in front of me. Though I tried to ignore it, I could see the reflection of Prince Morbain, sitting right beside me at the banquet table. Not only that, but Head Councilor Tannus was directly across the table from me, though at least he didn’t seem inclined to talk.

  It really was a huge table with literally hundreds of other seating options. Whoever had made the seating arrangement and put the odious Morbain directly beside me and the surly Tannus across from me would be in big trouble if I found out their identity. I needed to talk to the chamberlain of seating charts or whoever it was and make sure it never happened again.

  Still, here we were and since everyone else was already seated, it didn’t seem likely that I would be able to change seats, especially since I was smack-dab in the middle of the enormous table in a special throne-looking chair. Morbain was seated on my left and the seat on my right was empty. I had tried to get Kristoff to sit there beside me but he had declined.

  “I am sorry, my Lady,” he’d murmured in a low voice. “But that seat is kept empty on purpose. It is the seat your future Consort will occupy once you choose him.”

  Of course then I wanted him to sit to my right more than ever but he was standing behind my throne-chair instead, keeping a watchful eye on everyone at the table. He’d told me that my status as the True Incarnation would do much to keep me safe but it was clear he was still being vigilant and protective, which I very much appreciated.

  “I said you’re looking radiant tonight, my dear,” Morbain repeated, stroking his curling pirate’s mustache and leering at my cleavage, which the forest green feasting gown emphasized with its low-cut bodice.

  I gave him the most withering stare I could.

  “That’s Goddess-Empress or Sundalla the 1000th to you,” I said, biting the words out slowly and clearly. “Not ‘my dear’ or any other endearment or nickname you might think up, Morbain.”

  Several of the Royals around us sucked in their breath and I saw glances and whispers being exchanged all up and down the long table. Head Councilor Tannus scowled, as though I’d said something shocking.

  I didn’t give a damn. I wanted nothing to do with a murderous, conniving asshole like Morbain and I didn’t care who knew how I felt.

  Morbain’s smile became a bit forced.

  “Technically you’re not the Goddess-Empress until you’ve been crowned and ascended the Golden Throne,” he pointed out. “Until then you’re simply the True Incarnation.”

  “Fine,” I snapped. “Call me that, then. Or better yet, don’t call me anything at all. Let’s just eat and each pretend the other doesn’t exist.”

  Morbain opened his mouth, no doubt to give an angry retort, but just then the middle of my hubcap-sized golden plate slid to one side and a steaming pot of bubbling, dark blue broth rose out of the table.

  “Oh!” I jumped a little in the huge, padded chair. “What in the world?”

  “This is quantro, my Lady,” Kristoff murmured in my ear. “It’s considered a great delicacy. You dip the palas in the quantro pot and they will turn into whatever delicacy the chef has prepared for you.”

  “Dip the what into the pot?” I asked, frowning. But just then, a servant in the gold and black palace livery set a plate of small green and blue balls beside the boiling blue broth.

  “Those are the palas,” Kristoff said. He nodded to a long, skinny pair of golden tongs next to my plate. “You pick up the pala of your choice and dip it into the pot…” He gestured to the blue, bubbling broth. “In order to reveal the secret tidbit the chef has prepared just for you. But first…”

  He reached into a fold of his uniform and withdrew a silver wand with a blinking red light on the end of it. This he proceeded to wave over both the bubbling broth and the green and blue balls—which ranged in size from a walnut to a lemon—until the light turned from red to green and began to glow.

  “All right, my Lady,” he murmured in my ear. “You may dine in safety. There is no poison on or in your food.”

  “Thanks,” I muttered and he nodded and resumed his place, standing behind my chair.

  “Well, well—your Guard is certainly very protective of you, my dear. Excuse me—I mean, True Incarnation,” Morbain remarked as I picked up the golden tongs and looked at them doubtfully.

  “Can you blame him?” I snapped. “I’ve nearly been killed three or four times in the space of the last week. Apparently someone doesn’t want me on the throne. Can’t imagine who that might be.” I glared at him as I spoke but he didn’t even have the grace to blush or drop his eyes.

  “A most regrettable state of affairs, I’m sure,” he remarked, picking up his own tongs. By now, a pot of the bubbling blue stuff had appeared in front of everyone at the table and the servants had finished placing the plates of blue and green balls in front of all the other diners as well.

  After a moment, I became aware that everyone at the table was looking at me expectantly.

  “True Incarnation,” Head Councilor Tannus said, looking down his long, boney nose at me across the table. “It is customary for the Goddess-Empress to take the first bite at a banquet of state.”

  “Oh. Oh, of course,” I said, feeling foolish and put on the spot. Quickly I grabbed one of the little blue balls at random and dunked it into the bubbling blue broth.

  Of course, I had no idea how long it was supposed to cook but after a moment I checked my tongs and saw that the blue casing around the tidbit of food had melted, revealing…

  A long, green, writhing slug.

  “Ugh!” I exclaimed involuntarily and nearly dropped my golden tongs.

  “Oh, a perech grub—and still alive too!” Morbain exclaimed. “Such a delicacy!”

  “It…it’s supposed to be alive?” I asked in a low voice.

  “Most assuredly! They’re quite a rarity this time of the year—normally they only spawn in the rainy season. Why?” He raised one pointed black eyebrow