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chasing a beat up her spine, she apologized to her hostess. It was only a taste of the wedding madness, she knew, and it left her in an exceedingly cranky mood as she returned to Akathinia for a dress fitting with her sister-in-law, Sofía, and sister, Alex. A designer who was making her name on the world stage, Sofía was creating both her engagement party and wedding dresses.
    “What do you think about this?” Sofía held up a sensational sapphire-hued backless satin gown in the bright light of her palace workshop at the front of the white Maltese stone Akathinian palace.
    “Too obvious.”
    Sofía returned the dress to the rack and pulled out a white chiffon gown for her inspection.
    “Too virginal.”
    Her sister-in-law flicked through the row of dresses and held up an elegant, midnight blue lace number.
    She shook her head. “Just...not right.”
    Alex eyed her. “What are you, Goldilocks?”
    At least there was a happy ending to that story. She ran a hand through her hair. “Sorry, I know I’m being a pain. It’s been a bad week.”
    Sofía folded the dress over her arm. “You don’t have to do this, you know. Nothing has been done that can’t be undone.”
    Her sister-in-law should know. She’d been an ambitious, career-driven dress-shop owner in Manhattan before she’d fallen in love with Stella’s brother, been swept up in romance and taken the unlikely path of becoming queen. But the road to happiness hadn’t been an easy one for her and Nik.
    “I’m doing the right thing.” She said the words more vehemently than she felt them at the moment.
    “For you or for your country?”
    “For both.”
    Alex stayed quiet and she knew why. Her sister was blissfully happy with Aristos, who’d mellowed out from his jungle-cat personality to something approaching civility of late. Stella was happy for her, she really was, but it was like being slapped in the face with her own romantic futility every time she saw them together.
    A knock on the door brought their heads up. Her brother strolled in, jacket over his arm, tie loose. He gave his wife a kiss, then glanced at the dress rack. “How’s it going?”
    Alex made a face. “How’s it not going, you mean.”
    Nik took in Stella’s dark look. “Can you give us a second?”
    His wife and Alex left, clearly happy for a breather. Her brother turned his ever-perceptive gaze on her. “Everything okay?”
    “Never better.”
    “This was your decision, Stella.”
    “It’s not that.” She waved a hand at him. “I needed a challenge like this. I was dying inside going through the motions. It’s this media circus that’s getting to me. You’d think I’d solved world hunger instead of getting engaged.”
    “Think of it as good for Carnelia. People are excited.”
    “I know.” She raked a hand through her hair. Strode to the window to look out at the glittering, sun-dappled Ionian Sea, across which her fiancé was attempting to manage the media firestorm he’d created. She wondered how he was doing. She’d talked to him on the phone a few times, but she’d mostly been working with Takis, his personal aide, on logistics, while Kostas attempted to hold a faltering country together.
    “Kostas is a good man. Survivor’s guilt is a hell of a thing to deal with. Give him some leeway.”
    She turned around. “You absolve him of any responsibility?”
    “I have chosen to let go. You should, too.”
    She wasn’t sure she was as enlightened as he was.
    “I wanted to mention something else. Darius is going to accompany you to Carnelia. Permanently.”
    “I can’t ask him to do that—he lives here.”
    “He wants to go. His loyalty to you has always been unquestionable.”
    She adored Darius. He’d kept her sane at times when it felt as if her life was just too much . “Does Kostas know about this?”
    “He’s in full agreement. I trust Kostas implicitly—he will take care of you. It’s when he’s not there I want an Akathinian, a known