Chapter 3

Rose and Lissa took me through to the Queen's bedroom and I was astounded by the beauty of it. The room was large and elegant.

"Wow, is this actually where you live?"

"Weirdly, yes." Lissa laughed. "Four years as the Queen and I am still not used to this lifestyle."

"Didn't you grow up like this though?" I asked legitimately. I didn't know much about Moroi children apart from what Adrian had told me and to be honest it wasn't all to positive aside from the large amounts of money that his family had.

"Oh no, not at all. My parents were rich but they didn't spend all their money on fanciful decorations and expensive accessories. They saved it up and most of it came to me when they died. And anyway, I spent a lot of my time at school which was not this lavish!"

"That's an understatement." Rose muttered, launching herself onto the massive bed. "I like the accommodation, even if she doesn't."

"Yeah, but you don't have to do the job that comes attached to it." Lissa rolled her eyes.

"So, you don't like being Queen?"

"Would you want a ridiculously large responsibility thrown on you without any warning? I was only eighteen when I was made Queen, I wanted to go to college, I had so many plans for my life and they were all thrown away in the blink of an eye." Lissa paused. "I wouldn't say that I don't like it but it's a lot of work and it's pretty crazy!"

"But you get an awesome house, priority for everything and you get to make the laws!" Rose grinned. "Come and feel the bed she gets, it's the best."

I glanced at Lissa, who nodded, and walked towards the bed. I sat down sheepishly and almost screamed when Rose jerked me backwards so I was lying down. I had to admit it was ridiculously soft and I didn't really want to get up again. I had thought that Adrian's bed was soft but this took comfort to a whole new level.

"Wow. This makes Adrian's bed feel like a concrete floor," I said without thinking.

"Oh, yeah?" Rose sat up, grinning. "Do tell, Sydney!"

I blushed at what I had said, but I knew that there was no way back as Lissa had now joined us on the bed.

"What is there to say?"

"Sydney, you just admitted to having been in Adrian's bed and you aren't exactly the type of girl to jump into bed with everyone so it's pretty major."

I knew that I was usually the reserved, good girl type and I felt weird just having this conversation. "Everything's different with Adrian. Hell, I eat sugar when I'm with him!"

Lissa looked confused but Rose looked honestly surprised. She knew how I felt about large amounts of sugar and so realised the enormity of the statement.

"Am I missing something?"

"She doesn't like sugary foods, she used to avoid them like the plague."

"Ooh, Sydney, that sounds serious." Lissa laughed.

"I think it is," I said simply.

"He feels the same way, you know. He's crazy about you."

"I know." I smiled to myself. Adrian had told me so many times just how crazy he was about me but it felt nice for someone else to recognise it.

"I wish I could see your auras. They must burn so brightly when you're together." She sounded a little sad as she spoke and I remembered reading something about her being on meds to cut off the magic and stop spirit driving her crazy. I had realised that it might be uncomfortable or upsetting for her to be distanced from the magic. I knew a little about auras from what Adrian had told me but I was a little confused by this.

"Auras light up vividly when you are with the person you love." Rose explained for me. She then smiled to herself and looked a little distant; no doubt hers shined around a certain Russian.

"Anyway, all this boy talk isn't getting your outfit sorted, is it?" Lissa said, bringing both Rose and me back to the real world.

"No, but it's fun." Rose grinned.

"What size do you wear, Sydney?"

"A two usually, unless you're Mrs Delaney." I muttered the second part under my breath but the girls still heard me.

"Okay, I have a mix of twos and fours so there should be something that fits." Lissa smiled. I knew that she was trying to be nice and make a joke about Amberwood's uniform supplier but instead I felt a little hurt that she thought I might need the size four.

We rummaged through the excessively large wardrobe and I tried several things on which all looked lovely but I wasn't sure about any of them.

"This is the one." I had just put on a purple taffeta dress. It was quite tight across my upper body, but that wasn't something that bothered me as much as it used to, and then crinkled from my waist down to just above my knee. I knew that Adrian loved it when I wore purple and so wanted to wear this one for him.

"It looks great," Lissa said. "It actually looks better on you than it ever did on me."

"I can hardly believe that," I replied. I had to admit though, it did look rather nice.

"It's true. You can keep it if you want."

"Oh, no! I couldn't possibly do that."

"Why not?"

"Because you're the Queen and this is your dress."

"I'm the Queen and hundreds of designers would jump at the chance if I wanted another hundred exact replicas of the dress. And anyway, like I said, it looks better on you."

"She's right, Sydney, it looks amazing." Rose grinned.

I looked at myself in the mirror for a little while longer, maybe I could keep it without feeling like a royal thief.

"Your Majesty, Princess Jillian has arrived." A new voice announced. I jumped in surprised and turned to see a footman standing in the doorway.

"Thank you, John, Lord Ozera will accept her." The man retreated with a bow and Lissa turned to me a chuckle. "You get used to it eventually. But when they say there's no privacy, they really do mean it!"

I laughed as I began to remove the dress so that we could go and see Jill.

"Sydney, I can't believe you are here, at Court!"

"Or in the Royal Palace!" I welcomed the presence of someone that I knew well. Whilst I considered Rose a good friend and thought Dimitri was a gentleman, I felt incredibly awkward in front of the Queen and Christian. Jill was also the queen's sister and so her presence made me feel a whole lot more comfortable.

"That too." Jill grinned. "How have you been?"

"Like you need to ask," I joked, thinking about the bond she shared with Adrian.

"I've been doing better at keeping out of his head, he's still happy to see you but he's not always quite so ecstatic when you're around!" Jill laughed.

I wasn't sure whether to be happy that Jill was no longer viewing everything that happened between us or to be disappointed that my boyfriend wasn't always excited to see me.

"She's wrong you know, I still love it every time you show up!" Adrian stepped forward and slipped his arms around my waist from behind.

"Oh, Sydney, I didn't mean..."

"I know, it's fine, Jill."

There was a moment's awkward silence and I caught the pair of them giving each other meaningful looks as if having a conversation through the bond despite its one sidedness. I glanced around the room and saw someone that I hadn't yet noticed.

"Eddie!" I spotted the sandy haired boy standing a little way across the room, talking to Rose. "I was beginning to wonder where you were."

I left Jill and Adrian to have their silent conversation and walked across the room where Eddie welcomed me with a grin. After all the years that we had pretended to be twins, I really did think of Eddie as a brother, especially when I had lost most contact with my own family.

"Sydney," he said brightly. "I'm glad you finally showed up!"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it would be nice to know what's going on in your life without it being secondhand information from my girlfriend's spirit bond. You never call!"

"Sorry." I mumbled. "I don't really have a decent excuse either."

"Oh, come here." Eddie laughed and pulled me into a bear hug.

"I've missed you, Eddie." I mumbled into his shoulder.

"So what are we doing?" Jill asked animatedly, clearly having finished whatever conversation it was with Adrian.

I turned to look at her and she had a look on her face that was just as excited as her tone of voice.

"We have got to show Sydney Court! I mean it's not everyday we get people who have never been before."

"True, but we have a few days before Adrian and I go back to Palm Springs."

"You could always just stay here?" Jill suggested. "Move?"

"And leave all of our stuff back in the flat?" I pointed out.

"Huh, good point. But we're all here!"

"Jill-" I struggled to find something to say. I was afraid of moving to Court but I didn't really want to say that in front of everyone.

"That's something Sydney and I need to talk about." Adrian stressed the personal pronouns and thankfully convinced Jill to drop it.

"So a tour of Court?" Rose asked, attempting to relieve some of the awkwardness.

"Sounds great." I grinned. Although slightly scared of the residents, I couldn't deny being curious to see the Moroi Court.