Shanti curtsied beautifully. “Your Majesty, I have been trained in all the womanly arts, molded by my teachers and my parents to be the best possible bride to a king. If you allow me, I would be honored to show you what an excellent wife I can be.”

Thabiso noticed that Naledi was abnormally quiet, and his anger flared. She was probably already rolling back the trust she’d placed in him, wondering why she had allowed him into her life again. He was bracing himself for her to pull away, but she sagged against him instead.

“She looks like a princess,” Ledi murmured. “Your mother has a point.”

“There’s only one person I’d consider for my wife, and we’re already betrothed,” he said.

“Who?” Ledi asked angrily, her brows drawn in confusion. “Is there another woman?”

Something colder than the ice storm they’d evaded slid down his spine. “I’m talking about you. About us. Ledi, are you all right?”

“Oh! Right. I trust you, Jamal. You wouldn’t hurt me. Except for when you tried to set me on fire.”

She laughed, a slow and unnerving sound that was nothing like her usual laughter.

“What?” His mother started to approach, and she wasn’t wearing the haughty mask she’d had on earlier. This was the face he’d always seen behind closed doors, drawn with concern when she placed her hand against his forehead or waved a thermometer in the air. “Thabiso, did she fall and hit her head? What happened out there?”

His mother stood before them, brows drawn as she studied Ledi’s face. She raised a hand to touch her, then dropped it, intertwining the fingers of both hands with worry.

Thabiso adjusted Ledi in his arms. She was no longer leaning on him for moral support, as he’d thought, but because she couldn’t have stood without his assistance.

“You’re frightening me, Ledi. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“I’m fine. I just have to call Portia,” she said cheerily. Then she bent over and was sick, right down the front of the queen’s cloak.

“Son,” his parents said in unison, this time in fear, but then Ledi began to sink to the ground. Thabiso didn’t think. He scooped her up as she was falling and ran as fast as he could toward the hospital. She had been in the middle of all those people yesterday with no protection but rubber gloves and a silly little mask. And he’d brought her there.

He stopped himself from ramming through the slow automatic doors of the hospital, then barreled through the waiting room. He saw the nurse from the other day—what was her name, Ammina? Sesi? Unimportant!

“You! Help her, now!” he roared. She would listen to him because he was a prince and people did what he commanded, dammit.

She rushed forward and then stopped in her tracks. “Your Highness, please put her down right now and step away.”

“What are you talking about? I told you to help her!”

Sesi picked up the phone and made an announcement over the loudspeakers. “Decontamination team, please report to the entrance. Immediately.”

She put the phone down and advanced toward him as she pulled on gloves. “Sire, you cannot afford to get ill. Your people need you. Put her down.” She pulled a gurney away from the wall and pushed it ahead of her.

It was only then that he saw the raised rash winding its way up Ledi’s neck and over her jawline.

“No. No, Ledi.” His world came crashing down around him in that split second. He’d invited Ledi to Thesolo to save his people, but he’d wanted her to save him too, if he was honest with himself. And now she was going to die because of his selfishness.

“Prince Thabiso, we can’t help her until you put her down.” A team of doctors had arrived without him noticing. They wore suits designed to protect them from disease, but it was too late to protect Ledi.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice thick.

He placed Ledi on the gurney and they converged on her, wheeling her toward the ICU and out of his sight. He heard noise behind him, felt his mother and father’s familiar presence at his side, and his father’s hand cupping the back of his head as if he were a child again.

“She’ll be all right. Ingoka did not bring her back to you just to take her away like this.”

Thabiso wasn’t so sure, but he prayed that his father was right.

Chapter 32

Ledi was looking up at her mother and father, who were hurriedly stuffing their belongings into bags. She couldn’t understand what they were saying, except for two words: her name, and Alehk. The way her father’s face contorted in fury when he said her uncle’s name scared her. Then he picked her up and kissed her on the cheek, and they walked into the dark night . . .

Ledi awoke with a jump. For a moment she thought she was at Alehk’s house again. Was that place real? Maybe she was at her studio on the cheap futon. Jamal was across the hall. Was he real? Had everything that passed been a dream? Sorrow clogged her throat at the thought, but then her eyes fluttered open and looked around her. The area was stark and white and she heard a steady beeping noise. Her alarm? She patted the bed beside her for her phone, and something stopped her arm from moving. She sat up, feeling woozy. And thirsty. So thirsty.

For a second she thought the woman at her bedside was Nya—had Nya been real or part of her dream?—but then she recognized the rust-brown curls and the smattering of freckles on the downturned face.