Chapter Ten
The barrel locket lay open on the table as Juno slowly poured a mixture into a glass tube. She had been up since sunrise. Tinkering away with her latest experiment. It was the only way to keep her mind from completely spiralling.
It was worse than she had expected.
Contained in the palace. Locked in her room. Only allowed out to assist her father.
It had been two days and already she was going mad.
The events in the throne room had her heart pounding.
The attack, the enemies, The Ball of Endless Nights. It all set her on edge.
In all the balls in all the years of her life she had only ever had one role to play. The blushing princess made to dance with any suitor her family deemed advantageous to their cause. While Juno might be here to help the queen she didn’t for a moment believe her duties would end there.
Her hands shook.
And that was without even considering the worst.
The queen dying.
Maeve taking over the throne.
The two of them forming the new Trinity. Her role as the Heir Provider would have her wedded and bedded before she knew it.
Heir Provider’s relationships, although not fully arranged, were heavily guided by the throne and continuing the line of succession was paramount.
Juno's heart quickened. She had always known the moment she came into power that her life would be signed off. She just hadn’t expected that moment to be so imminent.
A knock on the door pulled Juno from her medicines and the spiral she had unsuccessfully distracted herself from.
“It’s open,” she called over her shoulder as she placed the glass tube into a small compartment in one of the drawers of her desk.
“Your father will be waiting for you,” Helen replied entering the bedchamber as Juno covered the compartment with a book and closed the drawer.
If Helen noticed her movements she didn’t mention it.
“Is it that time again?” Juno asked, picking up her locket, putting it around her neck.
“The same as yesterday and the same as tomorrow,” Helen answered.
Juno nodded as she crossed the room to the hidden door in the wall that led to one of the underground tunnels.
“Wait,” Helen ordered, her voice more like a mother than a handmaid. Juno stopped in her path and turned. Tutting, Helen hooked Juno’s chin as she took in her face.
“You need to sleep, child,” she said, a slight scold in her voice.
Juno’s stomach clenched. “I’ll sleep when I’ve found the cure.”
She slipped out of Helen’s hold and through the door.
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Juno set up her workstation with the mixtures required.
Her and her father had slipped into a comfortable working pattern easily enough. Sebastian was impressed with her learnings and insights on his work, and Juno simply absorbed everything she could about the illness as quickly as possible.
“We are going to have to talk sometime.”
Juno looked up to see her father staring at her.
While their conversations the last two days about medicines and symptoms and gifts were full, they spoke of little else.
Her throat tightened. “About what?”
Sebastian blinked at her a couple times before taking a breath. “We may have made some mistakes but we were only ever trying to protect you.”
Oh he wanted to go there.
Juno straightened her back. “I’m sure that’s the way you see it.”
“Juno–”
“What, Father?” She said dropping her mixtures. “What do you want me to say?”
“I just want to talk.” Sebastian looked at her like a hurt child.
Juno stared at him and all the reflections he shone back at her.
His skin pale from the years cooped up working in the palace rather than out on assignment. His curled hair, sitting just above his shoulders, neatly held off his face by a simple band. His healer's robes, crisp and white - everything so clean and perfectly presented. Nothing like the healers Juno had worked alongside, covered in every type of bodily fluid as they tended patient after patient.
“We’ve had years to talk.”
“Things are different now,” Sebastian insisted.
“How are they different?” Juno’s nails dug into her palms. “How is this any different from when I left?”
“You are working now.” Sebastian rushed to her table. “We are working together. It might not be under the best circumstances but this is what you have always wanted.”
“Ha!” Juno’s sour laugh bounced off the walls, “I would hardly call being locked in my room and escorted back and forth from your workroom what I wanted.”
Sebastian’s golden eyes crinkled. “Please Juno, this a delicate situation–”
“My whole life is one big delicate situation, Father. And even if we fix this delicate situation there will be another one and another one, that is the nature of our lives.”
Sebastian nibbled on his lip as clearly no words came to his defence.
“When are you going to trust that I can handle this?” Juno’s voice became softer, “that’s what I want.”
“I know.” He nodded his head sadly. “That’s what I want too. I do, but these are the queen's orders.”
Disappointment seeped through Juno. “We should get to work.”
Sebastian hovered for a moment before looking at the mixtures she had laid out. Nodding his head in approval, he looked up at his daughter. “We’ll fix this Juno. And then things will change, I’ll make sure of it.”
“Okay, Father.” Juno smiled back at the promise in his eyes. Despite his words, she couldn’t help the sinking feeling that spread in her stomach.
She couldn’t rely on anyone else to change this system, if Juno wanted out, she knew she had to do it herself.
