“I can help him.” I started to push myself up, but Matt put his hand on my arm.

“You can help tomorrow,” Matt said. “You’re going to have a lot to do. Today, you can be sad.”

“Matt’s right,” Willa said. “I can handle this for now.”

“Alright.” I settled back down and wiped my eyes. “We need to keep this to ourselves if we can. Keep her death quiet, and hold off on the funeral for as long as possible. I don’t want the King to find out.”

“He will eventually,” Willa said gently.

“I know.” I rested my elbows on my knees and turned to Tove. “How long do I have until I’m Queen?”

“Three days,” Tove said. He leaned back against Matt’s dresser, his legs crossed at the ankle. “Then somebody has to be coroneted.”

“So we have three days.” I let out a deep breath, my mind racing with all the things that had to be done.

“We’ll keep this quiet,” Duncan said. “You can arrange a private funeral.”

“We can’t keep the death of the Queen secret forever,” I said. “We have to begin to prepare now.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Willa said, offering me an apologetic smile. “Take care, okay?”

“Of course,” I nodded absently.

She gave Matt a quick kiss before leaving. Duncan came over and crouched down in front of me. His dark eyes were sympathetic, but I saw a fierce determination in them too.

“What do you need me to do, Princess?” Duncan asked.

“Duncan, not now,” Matt said sternly. “Wendy just lost her mother. She’s not in the right frame of mind.”

“I don’t have time to get in the right frame of mind,” I said. “We have three days before I’m Queen. If we’re lucky, we have four or five days until Oren comes to claim his prize. I’ve already taken too much time crying over Elora’s death. When this is all over with, I can mourn her. But now, I need to work.”

“I should tell Thomas,” Tove said. “He needs to have the trackers ready.”

“Yes,” I nodded. “When Willa gets back, she needs to talk to the refugees from Oslinna. I’m sure some of them will want to fight against the Vittra that killed their families and destroyed their town.”

“What are you going to do?” Tove asked.

“I still have to find a way to stop the King,” I said, and I looked up at Duncan. “And Duncan’s going to help me.”

Matt tried to protest. He thought I needed to process what was happening, and maybe he was right. But I didn’t have the time. Duncan took my hand and helped me to my feet. Tove opened the bedroom door to leave, but he stepped aside, letting Finn come into the room.

“Princess,” Finn said, his dark eyes on me. “I came to see if you were alright.”

“Yes.” I smoothed out my black dress, wrinkled from me sitting on the floor for so long.

“I’m going to talk to Thomas,” Tove said.

“I’ll wait outside for you,” Duncan offered. He gave me a small smile before hurrying out after Tove.

Matt, however, stood next to me. His arms were crossed firmly over his chest, and his blue eyes were like ice as he stared at Finn. I was actually grateful for Matt’s distrust. It used to be that I would kill to get a moment alone with Finn, but now I had no idea what to say to him anymore.

“I’m sorry to hear about your mother,” Finn said simply.

“Thank you.” I wiped at my eyes again. I’d stopped crying a while ago, but my cheeks were still sticky and damp from tears.

“She was a great Queen,” Finn said, his words carefully measured. “As you will be.”

“We have yet to see what kind of Queen I will be.” I ran a hand through my curls and gave him a thin smile. “I have much to do before I am to be Queen, and I’m sorry, but I really must get to it now.”

“Yes, of course.” Finn lowered his eyes, but not before I saw the hurt flash in them for a moment. He’d grown accustomed to me turning to him for comfort, but I didn’t need him anymore. “I didn’t mean to keep you.”

“It’s quite alright,” I said and turned to Matt. “Will you accompany me?”

“What?” Matt sounded surprised, probably because I hardly asked him to do anything with me anymore. So much of what I did involved the business of the palace, and I couldn’t let a mänsklig tag along with me.

“I’m going down to the library,” I clarified. “Would you come with me?”

“Yeah, sure,” Matt nodded, almost eagerly. “I’d love to help you any way I can.”

Matt and I left his room, but Finn walked with us because he was going in the same direction. The trackers were doing most of their training in the first floor ballroom since it had the most space. Tove had already gone down to work with them, but Duncan had waited for us.

“How is the training coming?” I asked Finn, since he was beside me, and I needed to fill the space with something.

“It’s going as well as can be expected,” Finn said. “They are learning quickly, which is good.”

“Is Loki being of any help?” I asked, and Finn stiffened at the mention of Loki’s name.

“Yes, surprisingly.” Finn scratched at his temple and seemed reluctant to say anything nice about Loki. “He is much stronger than our trackers, but he’s done a fine job of teaching them how to maneuver. We will be unable to beat the Vittra hobgoblins with our strength, but we have the upper hand with our wits.”