Stella looked over the crowd, searching for just one person who wasn’t completely entranced. Unfortunately, the only gaze she caught was her mother’s.
Cecilia looked from Stella to Arden, her eyes narrowed.
She can’t know. Stella’s mother had an unnerving and supernatural way of reading people and situations and it took enormous effort for Stella to hide her feelings for the prince.
Cecilia frowned at Arden and Eleria and then looked at Stella again.
Stella schooled her face into calm indifference, but the second Arden dipped the princess and the crowd began to murmur, her control slipped. She grabbed a glass of bubble wine and a napkin from a passing waiter.
She gulped the wine, ignoring the stinging bubbles. She set theempty glass on a nearby table and tried to dry her sweaty palms on the napkin.
Arden’s charm was so natural and magnetic. He glowed and his rapt attention had always made Stella feel like the sun was shining just on her. He was like that with everyone; it was a gift for a prince to be so sincere and so good at making people feel heard and understood. Stella had known him her whole life and still felt the same rush when he spoke to her. It was hard to blame other women for being so charmed.
Stella tried to reason with herself that Arden was just being a gracious host—that’s why he was whispering to Eleria. The princess tipped back her perfect chin, elongating her graceful neck, and laughed. Her jet-black hair shone in the candlelight. Everyone in the tent seemed just as transfixed by the princess.
Stella twisted the linen napkin in her hands. She was certain she’d never looked so elegant while laughing. But Eleria was graceful in every movement and everyone in the room was riveted.
Anger burned in Stella’s chest. Could she so easily be replaced?
“Stell-bell.”
Her father’s voice startled her from her fuming, and she dropped the linen napkin she’d been holding.
Rainer’s gaze lingered on the hand-shaped scorch mark on the white linen. “What has you so upset, Little Star?”
She shook her head and rearranged her smile. “Nothing. I’m just too warm and I’ve had enough fun for one night. I think I’ll head home soon.”
Her father studied her. She hated lying to him. They’d always been so close, but if he knew that she was sneaking around with the prince before marriage, he’d not be a brute like most fathers. He’d do something so much worse, like sit Arden down and have a conversation with him about respect. That was a humiliation she would not survive.
Her father eyed her skeptically and nodded to the napkin. “It’s been a long time since you sparked without trying.”
Stella flushed. Fire magic was her primary affinity, and it wasusually well-contained, but it had always followed her emotions. When she was angry, she was known to burn a dress or cause all the candles in a room to become temporary torches. She hated the lack of composure because it proved what everyone always said about how witches’ temperaments matched their strongest affinities. It was embarrassing to be the stereotypical example of a hot-headed fire witch.
Stella shrugged. “It’s just an off night. Where’s Mama?”
Rainer nodded to the dance floor, where her mother was dancing with King Marcos. The two of them were speaking animatedly. Her mother laughed and swatted the king’s arm. You could do things like that when you had saved the kingdom more than once.
“She wasn’t always like this at court events,” Rainer said. “She used to be so grumpy anytime she had to get dressed up, and she didn’t like how I flirted with other girls.”
Stella shook her head. Her father still got plenty of female attention, including from her best friend Kate, who mooned over him in the most revolting way possible.
“It’s hard to imagine her being anything other than natural. Everyone loves her,” Stella said.
Rainer laughed. “I promise it wasn’t always like that. You’ll grow into it too. Or you won’t and you’ll just find something you enjoy more than court events. Just don’t take it so seriously.” He glanced around the room. “I haven’t seen you out there dancing. Is there no one you’d like to dance with? I see quite a few lonely guardians around the room.”
Stella wrinkled her nose. “Papa, if you try to set me up with anice young man, I swear I’ll never come to a court party again to avoid the sheer embarrassment of needing my father to make an introduction. I’m fine not dancing.”
Rainer chuckled. “Someday, Little Star. Someday you’ll meet someone you want to tell all your stories to.” He kissed the top of her head and disappeared into the crowd.
He’d been saying that to her since she was young, but Stella had begun to doubt it in recent years. She always felt she had too manyedges for court. Despite her best efforts to smooth herself, she always seemed a little too sharp and cutting with her words and looks.
While she got on with most of the ladies, it never ceased to feel like work. She could never quite relax and she always felt like an extension of her parents. She wasn’t Stella McKay. She was Rainer and Cecilia’s daughter.
Perhaps Leo and Rosie felt the same way, but neither of them had ever said so and they both seemed so relaxed.
“I like your edges. They’re what makes you you,”Arden had once told her when she lamented not being softer like her mother.
She smiled at the memory. That was what she loved about Arden. They balanced each other out.
