Take the Key and Lock Her Up

“Hi, Thomas,” I tell him.

“Grace.” He strides toward me, but he doesn’t seem very prince-like. He just looks like a scared kid who snuck out looking for adventure and got so much more than he bargained for. “What were you talking about?”

I glance from the prince to my friends. “I should introduce you to everyone.”

Then he seems to realize that we’re not alone. He shifts from scared kid to future ruler in a heartbeat. “I am sorry to interrupt,” he says, as if he’s just popped by during high tea, unannounced.

“Thomas, these are my friends.” One by one I make the introductions, but he doesn’t care about the names, the nationalities.

“Hello, Rosemarie,” he says to Rosie as I get to her.

“Hey,” she tells him. When I look at her, she shrugs. “Thomas and I go way back.” I must make a face because she throws up her hands. “What? I know people.”

I’m just starting to realize that Rosie knows everyone, but that is hardly the point.

“What is the meaning of this?” the prince asks, turning back to me.

“These are my friends,” I repeat like an idiot. “I’m allowed to have friends even though I live in the palace. Aren’t I?”

“That’s not what I was talking about, and you know it,” Thomas snaps. “What did you mean when I came in, about marrying a prince. This prince?”

I look around the group, but they all just shake their heads, and I know I’m on my own.

“Your mother and my mother were friends.”

“Yes. I know. But why should that mean—Don’t tell me we’ve gone back to arranged marriages?” He tries to laugh. I think this is his idea of a joke. Or maybe he just wants it to be.

“Not exactly,” I say.

I hear Alexei mutter something in Russian and then move to the opposite side of the room, as far away from me and my future husband as possible.

I am officially on my own.

“Your mother is of the opinion that it would be best for everyone if you and I were to marry,” I choke out.

“Why?” There’s a hard edge to the prince’s voice, a deep mistrust in his eyes.

“It’s a long story,” I tell him.

“I have time,” he says.

“But—”

“Oh, have mercy!” Lila snaps, then takes the prince by the shoulders and spins him around to face her. “Two hundred years ago, when the royal family was massacred, the baby lived. Grace is her descendant, and Grace’s brother should be king, so Grace is going to marry you and have your babies so people will stop trying to kill her. Is that everything?” Lila eyes me, then edges away. “I think that’s everything.”

For a second, the room is silent, but then the door opens and Karina starts to sing. “‘Hush, little princess, don’t you wait.’” Karina reaches for me and refuses to let go. “‘The truth is locked behind the gates.’”

I can feel the prince easing away as Karina comes closer. I don’t know if he’s afraid of me or the truth or this too-thin woman with the haunted eyes, but I can tell he hasn’t just gone over the palace fences; he’s gone through the looking glass and his world will never be the same again.

“‘Hush, little princess, pretty babe,’” she sings again.

“Yes,” I tell Karina. “That’s nice.” I try to soothe, but her eyes are growing wilder, her face paler. When her hands start to shake, Alexei lunges toward us.

“Come on,” Alexei says, his voice soft. “Karina, come with me.”

But his mother keeps looking in my eyes, and when she speaks again, the word is almost a whisper. “Caroline?”

“Caroline died,” I tell her. “She’s gone.”

For a second, her eyes focus. Her gaze clears. It’s like she heard me, understands. Knows. But then she sees the prince and spins on him, slaps him hard across the face and starts kicking and clawing. It takes both Alexei and Lila to pull her off while Noah shoves the prince behind him and tries to keep Karina away.

But no one can keep me back. Not ever again.

“What is it, Karina?” I ask, moving closer even as I should be pulling away. “What is going on in there?” I lean down, look into her eyes.

“They never knew.” She sounds panicked but oddly lucid.

“Who, Karina? What didn’t they know?”

It’s like she’s trying to find the words when the dreamy gaze descends again, falling across her face like a veil as she softly starts to sing. “‘The sunlight shines where the truth is laid.’”

“Karina, what are you talking about? Did my mother come to see you? What did you tell her?” Is that why she’s dead? I want to scream but Alexei is shouting, pushing me toward the door.

“Stop! Leave her alone. Go home.”

“But—”

“Just get out, Grace. You’re upsetting her. Just go.”

I could argue and I could fight, but even I know better than to stay where I’m not wanted.

Still, it’s harder than I’d like to admit when I take my future husband’s arm and give a gentle tug toward the door. We’re almost to the stairs when I hear Megan call, “Grace, wait up a sec.”

“What is it?” I hope I don’t sound as frazzled as I feel.

Megan glances at the prince, who is waiting for me at the end of the hall, then drops her voice. “I’ve been doing some research into your mom’s puzzle box. Turns out, there was this really famous Adrian carpenter-slash-inventor back in the 1800s. There are whole clubs that devote themselves to solving those boxes. There are desks, too. And chests and … lots of stuff.”