There were almost no guests left in the ballroom, but the stragglers started at the abrupt slam of the doors and everyone's eyes, even the three alphas in the standoff in the centre of the ballroom next to the ice fountain, flew to the latest arrival.
"Beware!" said a familiar high-pitched reedy voice before the person came into view. I had only ever heard her on television, but I knew who it was the moment she stepped into the ballroom, garish robes and scarves floating around her almost ethereally.
Madame Rivera walked into the palace ballroom like she owned the place. Her steps were unhurried and determined as she walked straight towards Alpha Liam, whose face slightly scrunched with confusion for just a moment before it returned to his furious stare.
The king stepped out of the way solicitously so that she could pass more easily, and Arthur followed his father.
"Beware, Alpha Liam," she said, pointing a melodramatic finger in his direction. "The goddess has bestowed upon me a message for the current hour."
He scoffed. "The goddess abandoned me long ago, witch. I couldn't give less of a shit about your nonsense if I tried."
It was a testament to the incredible level of farce the evening had devolved into that the crazy alpha was actually making some sense."
"Silence, fool! The goddess does not abandon the children of her pack. She gathers them into her cave and bestows upon them the blessing of her mercy or justice of her wrath as they so deserve. And you, foolish alpha, have been piling upon yourself misdeeds of the lowest calibre, and she has turned her eye upon you in wrath."
He scoffed, and I hated myself for kind of agreeing with him again. "Look to your king if you want to see misdeeds."
"You can not distract me from my mission. You are not the first alpha I have seen rise, and you will not be the last that I will see fall. The chaos and shadows that you are unleashing upon the innocent of this world is being counted, and the phoenix shall rise from the ashes and bring you to your knees before your tally."
He rolled his eyes. Reynold would be horrified to see such behaviour in the presence of the king. Clearly Liam had not had my tutor as a teacher of etiquette when the king was raising him, or he was hardcore rebelling.
Madame Rivera's reedy voice rose higher, although it was hardly necessary since the ballroom was completely silent except for breathing, and every breather had werewolf hearing. "The chaos and shadows that you are unleashing upon the innocent of this world is being counted, and the phoenix shall rise from the ashes and bring you to your knees before your tally."
She continued to repeat her little verse several more times before she finally laid off. If she was trying to make everyone remember it, it worked, because her nonsense was ringing in my ears.
Liam scowled at her, and for a moment I thought he would try to kill her, but then he turned his attention back to the king. "Stay out of my pack's affairs, Your Majesty." He spun around and marched out of the ballroom, his warriors following in formation, and the royal guards hemming them in on all sides.
I released the breath I hadn't realized that I had been holding during the strange confrontation. It hadn't come to bloodshed, which was a temporary relief.
The silence of the room was quickly flooded by noise. The crowd of guests had diminished by at least half, but people spilled out of the corners they had pressed into and doors they had hid behind. Clearly, even the threat of the beginning of war wasn't enough to truly send all the gawkers away. No wonder the National Scentsation still sold so many copies.
While the people were still talking, a sizable number of people converged upon Madam Rivera, babbling with all the excitement of idol worshippers. She smiled and simpered under the attention, and to my pure disgust, I saw her signing a few pieces of paper and one young woman's arm.
Pasting my social smile to my face in its most strenuous test ever, I gazed around the ballroom. Arthur and his father were standing together silently with Lucas's father, and I could only assume they were all discussing what had occurred through their mind link. I didn't know where Lucas was, but my sister was also absent, so I hoped that they were together for safety.
Madame Rivera's voice rose above the chatter of the crowd. "My apologies, my lovelies, but I must now give my regards to Her Majesty and meet the new princess of the flames."
I blinked at the stupid title. One or two people repeated it in excited tones, and my fake smile momentarily faltered. I slammed it back into place with Herculean effort as she glided towards the queen and I.
Madame Rivera swept into a low curtsy, and begrudgingly I had to admit it was very graceful and impressive. She should have been a curtsying instructor rather than a televised sham.
The queen nodded for her to approach the dais. She did so, a wide smile on her face. "Your Majesty, I wish you stability and peace for the duration of your reign."
"Many thanks, Madame Rivera," the queen said with a benevolent smile.
"And my greetings to you, Lady Anne, Princess of the Flames."
"Greetings," I repeated, forcing my cheeks to stay in position. I didn't need to consult Andre to know that insulting 'everyone's favourite moon goddess adherent' would be bad for my public image. Now that she was closer and facing me, I studied her, noting how much deeper the lines on her face were and how much more plastic she looked than she did on television. It wasn't botox, because werewolves healed too fast for the paralysis to work long enough to make it worth it, so it was probably some sort of witchery at work.
Not that it mattered. Everyone knew that she was really old by werewolf standards since the prophesy about vegetarian vampires was from more than a century ago. I was pretty sure she had held the record for the longest continuously running show by a couple of decades now. While it pained me to admit it, that sort of success was impressive in the most annoying way possible.
"I've been quite interested in meeting you, Lady Anne. Many fascinating things about you have been revealed to me."
"Oh." What did you even say to that.
The queen broke in. "Tell me, what is that bit about the princess of the flames?"
Madame Rivera smiled mysteriously, an obvious ploy to avoid giving a serious answer. "The goddess reveals what she wishes in the proper time. I have not been given leave to speak more of it."
The queen nodded as if she was falling for the charlatan's act, and it honestly made me kind of sick to think of it.
"Can you tell me if it is related to the prophesy you spoke to Alpha Liam.
Another coy smile crossed the old woman's features, but she merely shook her head. "A million apologies, but I must answer to the highest authority."
The queen smiled. "Of course, Madame Rivera. I respect your calling more than you know."
"Thank you, my benevolent queen. May I be excused?"
"Of course, Madame."
The old fraud swept into a curtsy, and then walked away with her usual floating gait, signing a few more autographs on her way out the door, leaving a bunch of excited fans in her wake.
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When the king and my mate returned, they suggested we end the formalities early, and I seconded the idea with every tired fibre of my being. There were several hours left, and I didn't think I could take even five more action packed minutes.
My hopes were crushed by the queen. "The ball must go on, or our subjects will feel matters are more amiss than they are."
I resigned myself to more torture.
It wasn't too bad, even though most of the guests returned and everyone acted like no interruption had occurred. In fact, I heard more flattering blabbering about Madame Rivera and her prophesy than anything else, and if Alpha Liam was mentioned at all, it was usually in connection to her words or how incredibly brave she was to stand up to such an intimidating alpha.
My polite smile was threatening to go on strike until Arthur swept me off onto the dance floor. Just touching him seemed to recharge my battery better than even rest and sustenance, and I finally relaxed in his secure arms.
With no one vying to talk to us, we looked into each other's eyes. His smile was a bit disappointed when I immediately started asking him about the night's events.
{Why did your father just let Liam go like that? He's going to be trouble in the future, I'm sure of it.}
{That's likely true, but we don't have any evidence to prove that he's plotting.}
{He was pretty openly treasonous, Arthur. And the way he glared...}
Arthur nodded his head and looked into my eyes with a steadiness that conveyed his certainty. {I promise you we are taking the threat of Liam seriously, Anne, but tonight demonstrated nothing other than an alpha displeased with alleged trespass into his territory. There's not an alpha here tonight who wouldn't have a similar reaction if he felt equally threatened. So, unfortunately, if we act without due process, if would cause ripples of unrest throughout the land, which might be worse than whatever he's doing, if he's doing anything at all besides mouthing off.}
{I understand, but...}
{I promise you, I won't let him hurt you.}
{I'm not worried about me being hurt, I'm worried about me being abducted. It's you I'm worried about being hurt.}
He chuckled a bit. {I won't let anyone take you.}
{I know you think that, but probably so do all the other alphas whose mates get kidnapped. Except when it's them doing the kidnapping, they probably don't. Do you know what happened with Fleur and Xavier?}
{They talked without incident, and Xavier has been extended a visit next week.}
{Wait, so he listened?} I had zero luck with Serenity, so I was quite surprised.
{It's too early to celebrate, but it looks promising.}
{I've had enough celebrating for the rest of the year.}
{Sorry, Anne,} he said quickly.
{Don't be sorry, you're worth dealing with all the Alpha Xaviers and Alpha Liams in the world. And if some of them will actually listen to me...}
{They'd better listen to you, since you're the princess of the flames now.}
I groaned audibly. What was that madwoman thinking? My best guess was that she thought it would be good for ratings.
{I didn't need Madame Rivera to tell me that. I already knew you were too hot.}
I giggled at his silliness. It was flattering to have a one hundred and eighty-four flirt with me. {Seriously, though, I'm dreading the news from tonight.}
I danced with Arthur in our wonderful little bubble for two more songs of him sweeping me across the floor. I would have liked to stay there with him there forever, isolated from all the people who wanted his attention, but unfortunately my bladder decided to sabotage me.
Excusing myself, I hurried to the washroom without notable incident. The walls dampened the sound, and I got a few moments of peace by myself while I took care of business. I washed up and walked through the swanky setup towards the door.
Which opened, and a girl stumbled in and slammed into me.
The attack caught me off guard, but before I could figure out how to respond, I realized it wasn't an attack so much as a clumsy girl in a slinky black dress and pumps. More surprisingly, I recognized her. She recognized me, too, because her eyes widened in shock when she looked at my face.
"Lily?" I hadn't seen her since training at Handimart, what felt like a lifetime ago. And the last I'd heard, she had been abducted.
As she stumbled backwards away from me her ankle twisted, and she fell to the floor. "I am so sorry, Your Majesty."
"I'm not 'Your Majesty'. At least, not yet," I amended. I wished I could do away with the formality when Arthur and I were in charge, but after Reynold's lectures on the necessity of formality as a ritual of respect that reinforced my position, I was convinced I'd just have to deal with it.
I held out my hand to her, and she hesitated to take it. "Hey, we were almost coworkers, right? I'm not upset you ran into me, so let me help you. Is your ankle okay?"
"It's okay." She reluctantly took my hand, and I hauled her to her feet.
She began to wobble again, so I held her by both shoulders. "Are you sure you're okay? You're so shaky."
"I promise I'm fine. It's these shoes."
Looking down, I inspected normal pumps on her feet. They might be a high class brand for all I knew, but otherwise they were nothing extraordinary. "What's wrong with them?"
"I just can't do it. Everyone else here is graceful in them, and I look like..."
"A baby deer taking its first steps?"
"But it's not even my first steps. I've been trying to balance since we got here. It was such a journey, too. After Tyrone and the royal fighters got me out of that dungeon, we were attacked on the way to the capital by insane rogues. And now I just look like a clumsy fool, nothing like a future luna."
I of course wanted to know more about the dungeon and the rogues, but her voice kept cracking like she was on the verge of tears. "Let me see you walk," I suggested instead. I knew how overwhelming things could be, and I could at least help her with one small aspect.
She took a couple of steps forward, and I stopped her. "Now take off your shoes."
"Okay," she said, casting a doubtful look at me.
"Now, tiptoe."
"Okay?" She tiptoed perfectly fine.
"Okay, now walk like that in the shoes. You can put some weight on the heels, but keep the bulk and balance on your toes."
Lily took two more steps before her face spread out in a wide grin. "This isn't so bad."
Her grin was contagious. "See? You can do it. Just like you'll handle being luna to your new pack."
"I can. Thank you so much, Your..."
"Lady Anne, I guess," I said, still hating the formality.
She nodded. "Thank you, Lady Anne. And thank you for ensuring that I would be rescued. My mate told me that having the royal forces to assist in my rescue made it much safer.
Smiling bashfully, I shook my head. "I didn't do anything but tell my mate about the problem. Arthur—and the royal troops are the ones that did everything."
"Still..." She smiled at me in a weirdly reverent way that made me want to squirm.
The most surreal part was that we had been equals and near-coworkers in our lives before ranked wolves had swept in and completely upended our lives.
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