She turned to him with raised eyebrows. “Pardon me?”
“Please, let us dispense with the formalities. I think these bruises are proof that we are past all that,” Luka said, grinning at her, then wincing when it pulled at the cut at his lip. “Please, call me Luka.”
“Then you must call me Maya,” she said, smiling.
“Good night, Maya.”
“Good night, Luka.”
~
The next day at breakfast, Volkov smiled as he looked at them sitting together and eating quietly. He took his seat beside them, looking over their fresh bruises and the cut on Luka’s lip.
“Had a good sparring session yesterday, did you?”
“That’s the only thing you have to say?” Luka sputtered out a laugh, shocked into amusement by his friend’s irreverence, as always.
“Yes,” Maya said evenly, looking at Volkov. “We did.” She took a sip of her tea. “But that’s not what I want to talk about right now. It seems the upperclassmen who assaulted me had much worse injuries thanIcould’ve inflicted on them. Lord Utkin said something about broken ribs and bruises.” She looked down at Volkov’s split knuckles significantly. “I’m assuming you had something to do with that?”
Volkov hummed happily as he sipped his coffee. “The Prince and I just gave them a little encouragement to remind the boys to tell thetruthabout their…encounter with you.”
Maya’s eyes darted to him in surprise, and Luka just shrugged awkwardly.
Maya chewed in silence for a moment more, before nodding. “I could’ve taken care of it myself, but…thank you. Both of you. For standing by me.”
“Of course,” Volkov said heartily. Silence fell on their little table.
Volkov looked back and forth between them as Maya silently passed Luka the salt and took the water jug from him.
“You don’t know how happy I am that you both are friends now!”
It was Maya who gave voice to Luka’s thoughts, as her gaze darted to the still healing cut on his lip. She broke into a reluctant smile.
“I think the Prince and I have come to understand one another better.”
“Well, the three of us are going to be the best of friends from now on,” Volkov said with a grin, serving himself some breakfast eggs. “And just think, all it took was some bloody revenge and a little sparring session!”
CHAPTER THREE
“Your Majesty?”
Queen Inessa looked up, her eyes dark. She waved Maya into a chair and turned back to her tea.
“Thank you for agreeing to see me, Your Highness.” Maya paused, unsure how to go on. After Maya and Luka had become best friends in the academy, he’d introduced her to his mother as his friend, and the way the Second Queen’s eyes had lit up had made Maya realize that she was one of the few people who could claim the honor.
Over the years, it had become habit for Maya to have tea with Queen Inessa every summer. Every year, when the court abandoned their country estates in their own provinces and moved to the capital to enjoy the summer sunshine, the Second Queen had made a point of it to invite Maya to Rurik Castle for tea with her only child, every summer like clockwork.
When Luka had gone to the frontlines, the Second Queen had discontinued their little tradition. So, she looked at Maya now with raised eyebrows, evidently surprised that Maya had sought a meeting with her. The Second Queen was at Rurik Castle with the rest of the royal family. The Tsar was meeting with his closest aides before court was to reconvene for the summer, and the castle was bustling with activity.
Queen Inessa nodded to the serving ladies, who poured them both tea. The silence stretched between them as Maya waited for the ladies to withdraw, the quiet fraying her already tightened nerves.
Finally, when they were alone, Maya took a deep breath. She’d rehearsed this all week, after meeting with the Crown Princess and sending off her letter to the Second Queen, trying to decide how to strike the right balance between inquiry and politeness, and she opened her mouth now to speak her practiced speech—
And said something else entirely.
“Your Highness, is it true?”
The Second Queen narrowed her eyes at her, but she didn’t ask what Maya had meant, which meant she knewexactlywhat Maya was talking about. The older woman said nothing, and Maya took that as a sign to press the matter.
