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"That was then, Charlaina,"across the table to push more bread my way Bread, to him, was always the solution "Surely they can have no qualms now Not after these past es you’vewith the fact that er a secret I couldn’t stay locked insidefor this job forthe proper way to be the queen of Ludania It was time for me toI could find peace the way everyone else did Only when the hour ticked far pastto do but sleep The guards posted outside my door never moved, but I often wondered if they knew about the secret doors, the hidden passageways behind the walls that tunneled like a labyrinth, connecting one roo ht when they’d said I could do this I wondered if I was the right girl to be sitting on the throne and ruling Ludania

I understood the reasons it had to be me, of course, yet at ti dress updonning a paper crown decorated with only glitter and glue

Clumsily, I reached to unclasp the delicate necklace I still wore as it glinted at , and frustration welled as I struggled, fu with the clasp

Then I heard it A voice

I can help you The voice was hushed, al, hollow tunnel, but I kneas speaking I knehispered inside my head

Sabara

Sabara who should have died o Sabara upon whose throne I now sat, whose queendo inside aped atback athow I’d sound to anyone who ca in the e to ht as I stood there, waiting for so to happen Silence stretched like an endless cord that tugged atme realize I was all alone, that she hadn’t heard me

That maybe she wasn’t really there at all

My shoulders fell

I was tired, so very tired, and I had to be up early in thethe carpet to my bed, the covers rumpled from when I’d tried once already to sleep I prayed fervently that this time I’d find what I so desperately needed Rest Peace

I curled into a ball, wrappingheavier and heavier