The Shadow Princess (Chronicles of the Stone Veil 6)

“Bastien,” Kieran chides, but that seems to infuriate Bastien even more.

“No,” he barks, looking from his brother to me. “Now that she has her memories back, she knows what she has to do. She needs to step up, and that doesn’t mean putting on an air of superiority to make herself feel better because her feelings got hurt.”

I stare at this man who I had loved to the depths of my soul. To me, it was just hours ago that he broke my heart—my memories were gone, and I knew no better.

And now, he’s an absolute stranger. He’s scary and a bit cruel, and he looks like all the happiness and joy for life have been sucked out of him. How in the hell did this happen?

I suppose it’s fitting it all came crashing down as fast as it did. It took eight-year-old me all of five minutes to fall in love with him. Granted, an eight-year-old doesn’t know much about love, but from our first meeting, I worshipped the ground Bastien walked on…

I’d just turned eight years old and being heir to the sovereign throne of Vyronas had already put quite a burden on my young shoulders. Oh, it’s not that my ultimate duties of ruling and protecting my people were bothering me at that tender age, but rather the burden of being unpopular with the other children.

My parents always encouraged me to just be a kid, and that included playing with whomever I wanted. They did not want me segregated to only hang out with the royals and upper class, as they wanted me to know and love all the people.

Even though my parents had given me the freedom to be a regular kid, I’d never been seen that way by the others. They wanted nothing to do with me. I had no friends, other than my cousin, but he often traveled with his parents and wasn’t always in residence at the castle in Kestevayne.

Eight was old enough to know the other kids were jealous of the privilege being a royal brought to my life. But I couldn’t change my circumstances. My family was wealthy, our magic was the strongest, and we lived in a palace. It made forging friendships almost impossible.

On a beautiful spring day, I followed a group of kids of varying ages as they headed to play in a meadow east of the palace, yet still inside the city walls. The kids were from diverse backgrounds, poor and rich alike. They got along well, which confused me as to why they wouldn’t accept me into their group.

Some of the kids came from working-class families with parents who were farmers, butchers, potion makers, and the like. Others came from the maiorn caste, which ranked above the working class but were not of royal lineage. These families owned land and high-profit businesses, and oversaw the running of the towns and cities on their lands outside Kestevayne. The maiorn swore allegiance to Kestevayne, and while they had a military force of their own, they were also under the protection of the Kestevayne army.

The remaining kids were from the warrior caste of Kestevayne. While not part of the royal family, they were about as close to royalty as one could get. Their duties were to protect Kestevayne, its citizens, and the royal family. It was a great honor to be part of the warrior caste, and their magic was just as strong as the Scrinia.

On that spring day, we’d gathered about twenty kids in all and discussed what to do for the day. Even though we were a realm of peace and prosperity and crime was almost nonexistent, I was always under the watchful eye of palace guards. Thankfully, they stood well back and pretended to be oblivious to us.

Some of the kids that day wanted to go fishing, while others wanted to play a sporting game. I stood on the fringes watching the discussion, but I didn’t participate in the choice. I was just happy to be there for the chance to play with them. I was happy not to be kicked out, not that the kids would do that. As a royal, they were forced to accept me, and I know most of them hated it.

When they finally settled on fishing, I decided that was my chance to be of true benefit to the group, which would in turn help them accept me.

“We could go fishing on Parness Creek,” I suggested.

All the kids turned to look at me. By the expressions on their faces, I could tell they were stunned I’d spoken.

“Sure,” one girl drawled haughtily. She was a few years older than me, and her name was Ralina Batton. I had thought she was the most beautiful of all the girls, with pale-blond hair that was almost white. She sneered at me. “We can just go fishing on royal land because you say so. In fact, I bet everyone in Kestevayne is invited, and we can all wear our jewels while we fish.”