Royal Date (26 page)

“Stay here, please,” he said as he walked off with long, angry strides.

I wanted to follow him, but he had asked so nicely and I was so relieved that we were okay that I would have been willing to do anything he wanted me to.

Nico was talking to Lady Claire, who was putting on a show of disbelief and pretending to not understand what he was saying. I heard him actually yell. It surprised me. I’d never heard Nico yell before. He looked furious. Like an avenging angel. I could see her pleading with him, putting her hands on his arms, and him jerking back, like he couldn’t stand to have her touch him.

A few minutes later he was walking back toward me. Claire, who had been making a show of crying great sobs in front of him, turned off the waterworks and glared at me as he returned.

“She won’t be bothering you anymore,” Nico promised as he put his arm around my waist. “She’ll be leaving soon and won’t be bothering any of us ever again.”

He kissed me quickly, fiercely, and it was over too soon.

“Now let’s go find Alex so I can rub the match in his face.”

Alex and Nico went back and forth about the match, arguing in a friendly and joking way, in between bites of food. They were eating like their last meal had been a month ago. Lemon had gone off somewhere with Dante, and Caitlin and I were talking, watching the guys, and laughing at their conversation.

Nico looked over and winked at me before going back to his play fight. The way he looked at me, the way he took care of me, the way he believed in me, all added up to something that I didn’t quite comprehend and had never felt before. All these small and big things created a sensation that I only felt when I was with him.

“What are your plans after your holiday?” Caitlin asked me. It was such an innocuous, innocent question, but I felt like she’d just flattened me with a steamroller.

I only had four more days with Nico. Just four more days. Then it was back to real life. I couldn’t even think about it.

“Back to school. Finishing up my final semester before I can get my master’s degree in social work.”

“You know, they have a university here,” Caitlin said. “I’ve heard they even have a king’s scholarship that covers tuition. I bet you might have a bit of an in on that one.”

I glanced over at Nico to see if he was listening. Wondering if he’d told her about this, or if she’d just come up with it on her own. I realized that Lemon had possibly been involved.

“It’s really hard to transfer schools this far along. I would have to take classes over again, and I’m not interested in doing that.”

“Oh, well. It’s only a few months. Alex and I have certainly had to go through that kind of separation while he was out with the military.”

Why did everyone talk about Nico and me as if we were some foregone conclusion? Had he not told anyone else about his plans to not marry? Was I supposed to just hang around him like one of Leonardo DiCaprio’s girlfriends? Hoping against hope that he might eventually change his mind someday about marriage, and that I might possibly be the one to change it?

Much as I liked Nico, much as I wanted to be with him, I did not want to waste my life being his accessory.

The winter carnival had begun, and it had completely taken over the capital city. We were scheduled to spend the day there with his family. Nico had already set out early that morning for some ceremony, and we were to meet up with him later. Serafina insisted on staying with Lemon and me. To my amusement, so did Dante. And where Dante went, Rafe wasn’t far behind.

The sun was high, the air was cold, and the snow crunched under our feet as we walked through the market. There were Christmas ornaments, musical instruments, homemade soap, hand-carved toys, clothing sewn by hand. Anything you could imagine was for sale. The man at the ornament booth was actually blowing the glass himself, and we stopped to watch him for a little while. I picked up one of his snow globes and was tempted to buy it. He had Nico’s castle inside of it. I put it down when I saw the price.

The market was full of people, and the scents of gingerbread and sugar cookies filled the air. The twins bought themselves and Lemon a hot drink called mulled wine, and they got hot apple cider for Serafina and me.

There were musicians on the corners and small groups of singers. I saw a juggler on another corner. One street had been blocked off by a large stage, and there was a group of dancers performing on it.

Aside from all the hustle and bustle, what probably impressed me most was how clean everything was. Pristine. All the little storybook stores and houses were in perfect condition. Like I’d wandered into a pretend place that didn’t really exist. I wondered how involved Nico was with keeping his city looking like this.

As if on cue, I felt his arms sliding around my waist, and he planted a kiss on the side of my neck.

“I was just thinking about you,” I told him.

“I like occupying your thoughts,” he said. I smiled and turned around to kiss him properly, but I had to stop when Serafina started making gagging noises. His brothers laughed, and I knew the exact moment my cheeks went red, because they started laughing harder.

“Come on, y’all. Let’s leave them alone,” Lemon said to Dante and Rafe, trying to take Serafina with her as well.

“No! I want to stay with Nico and Kat,” she protested as she wrapped herself around Nico’s leg.

“She can stay with us. Go have fun,” I told my friend. She gave me a hug and said she’d see me later. I assumed we would run into them at some point during the carnival. It couldn’t be that big.

I was wrong.

Serafina wanted to go to the petting zoo in the main park, and so we headed that way. I gasped when we got there. The entire park was full of ice sculptures.

“Serafina picked the theme this year. Winter Fairyland.”

“I wanted
Frozen
, but nobody would let me have it.”

There were fairies, trolls, princesses, knights, mermaids, and Disney characters all perfectly formed in ice. They looked like they could come to life at any moment. Blue, pink, and purple lights hit them from behind, and I bet they looked amazing at night.

Near the petting zoo was a kid-sized castle that looked just like the Fiorelli family castle on the outside. They had a free hot chocolate station next to it, and I grabbed one. I took a sip. Not nearly as good as the stuff Giacomo brought me, but still good. They had a cookie-decorating table next to it, and I seriously considered creating something delicious for us to eat, but Serafina had already run into the petting zoo.

The zoo was as overrun by kids as it was by animals. There were reindeer, goats, sheep, white rabbits, guinea pigs, Shetland ponies wearing cardigans, and one very fat and very annoyed miniature donkey.

Beyond the petting zoo I could see a carnival dedicated solely to kids. There were games and rides. I guessed we would be spending some time there next. Nico put his arm around me, and I leaned into him. Even when it was this cold, he still seemed to be radiating heat.

“You do this every year?”

“Every year. It’s tradition and has been for generations. It used to be much smaller, but every year we add something to it.”

He told me about all the nighttime activities. The Mozart concert by the Monterran Symphony Orchestra. The nightclubs with DJs and famous bands. Bobsledding and ice horse racing. Opera performances. The Vienna Boys Choir singing. An ice hockey game. They even had a bar made solely out of ice. Everybody had to wear special clothing to drink there and could only stay for thirty minutes at a time.

“And then we have the costume ball at the end of the week as the finale.”

“Why a costume ball?” Maybe I shouldn’t have asked. These were the same people who had a witch delivering presents at Christmas. Why not Halloween costumes too?

“Mainly because my great-great-grandfather wanted to consort publicly and openly with his mistresses without public redress. By wearing masks and costumes, nobody suspected he was up to no good.”

“What costume are you wearing?”

His hold on me tightened. “I’m not telling.”

“Then neither am I. Guess you’ll just have to hope you recognize me.”

He looked at me seriously. “I would know you anywhere.”

I gulped. “We’ll see in a few days.”

He grinned and then kissed me gently and softly, and I had to stop him before we lost track of time and space and potentially his sister.

The days went by too quickly. There was a moonlit carriage ride one night, and Nico and I cuddled up on the back bench under a blanket so we could kiss without anyone giving us a hard time.

He took me dancing at nightclubs. To cafés and restaurants. To quaint bookstores. Always sat next to me at dinners with his family. Took me to all the events he could at the carnival like the concerts and the operas. Whenever he had a free moment, he was showing me something else darling and wonderful about Imperia. He was making me like him more and more every time we were together.

And every midnight, there was a tray of moonflowers and gelato waiting for me.

But as much fun as I had, as much as I enjoyed being with him, it was like there was this axe hanging over our heads because our time was quickly coming to an end.

Nico was also careful to never be alone with me. We were always surrounded by other people. He didn’t walk me back to my room anymore. And when he did kiss me, it was like there was a wall between us. Like he was holding back. I knew that he did it because I’d asked him to, but I didn’t like it. It was a frustrating limbo to be in—we couldn’t go forward, and I didn’t want to stay stuck.

I finished my article for Lemon. She wanted me to finish before we left so that she could make sure it got uploaded correctly. It was bittersweet writing everything down. I loved the chance to relive those experiences over again, remembering how much I had changed since I’d first come here. How much I enjoyed being with him. How much I wanted to be with him. But it was all tainted by the idea that soon I would be gone and it would be over.

“How many words?” she asked.

“Six thousand, two hundred and forty-three,” I told her. “We can call it an even six thousand.”

“I’ll let the press office know so they can get you your money,” she told me.

Six thousand dollars would help with my tuition problems, but it wasn’t enough to cover everything. I still had to figure out a way to make up the difference.

And then, before I knew it, it was New Year’s Eve and the night of the costume ball. I sat in my chair next to my fireplace in my perfect Elsa costume, sobbing my eyes out as one of the stylists did my hair in a massive side braid.

We would be leaving the next day. The next day! And I would never see Nico again.

“What is it,
signorina
? Should I send for someone?” the woman asked anxiously.

“No,” I said, wiping my tears away. “I’ll be fine.”

And no matter what, I would be. Reality would return tomorrow. I would take this night, this one last night, and I would make it count.