“Yes, just for fun,” Annie said. “Though I will add that my best friend wrestled an antelope for me and Makalele and I have been married since—”

“Eighteen seventy-three,” Makalele cut in, then struck a pose. “Melanin, the greatest beauty secret.”

Everyone broke into laughter, except Nya.

“Let’s go, friend,” she said, then sauntered off after the crowd moving toward the stable.

“Hmm,” Johan said, then followed her.

Chapter 5

ONE TRUE PRINCE, GROUP CHAT MODE

Basitho: What did you do to upset Nya, Hanjo!?

Hanjo: I didn’t do anything. Maybe she’s just intimidated by my ethereal beauty.

Basitho: She’s been pretty quiet today. You better not have made her angry with your weird talk about the monarchy.

Hanjo: I would never upset Nya. I don’t upset people I like. What would be the fun in that?

Nya had never ridden a horse. The animals were an integral part of Thesolo’s culture, but her father had denied her pleas to be allowed to take riding lessons during primary school.

A horse can tell when its rider does not possess a strong will. You are already sick, do you want a broken leg, too? Or worse?

The lessons were compulsory, but he was a Jerami and a royal minister, so the teachers had accepted his decree without question. She’d helped teachers grade exams instead because she was a good, dutiful girl. Now she was wondering if her father had been right, as she sat perched atop her horse, which had stopped in the middle of a clearing and was refusing to move.

“Please. Just work with me.” She tugged the reins. “Come on. Who’s a good horse?”

The horse raised one hoof and Nya thought she’d finally gotten through to it, but then it stamped the ground and firmly shook its head, tossing its blond mane.

Johan led his horse in a tight circle around Nya and pulled up beside her, but she refused to look at him. She was still under the dark cloud of humiliation from his announcement in front of her family and closest friends that they need not worry because he certainly wouldn’t be tempted by her.

She wasn’t owed anyone’s affection or desire—she knew that. She simply wished he hadn’t said it like it was so obvious, like it was beyond the realm of possibility. Especially after the spark she’d felt when he’d stood next to her during the selfie. She’d been very aware of his body pressed along her side, and the weight of his hand on her shoulder, and the press of his cheek against her head. His nearness had shaken her, because he certainly hadn’t confused her with a pillow this time, and of course her imagination had run away with her again. As usual, reality had clotheslined it.

She supposed it wasn’t his fault. Everyone treated her like a silly girl instead of a woman. At a certain point she had to consider that maybe they were right.

Plus she’d missed an important message from Hanjo while she was sleeping. Now the character was in passive-aggressive mode and she’d have to spend the rest of the day placating him, evidence that the game developers were indeed men. She didn’t even have reception in the grassy plain where they’d been dropped off. Her mood was decidedly not good, and Johan sitting smugly beside her with his perfect face and his perfectly behaved horse didn’t help.

He adjusted the hat, woven from rushes, that he’d been given by the stableman who had helped them select their horses. The man who had said Nya’s horse had a sweet and docile temperament to match her own, as if that was a compliment.

“Do you know how to ride?” Johan asked when he got tired of waiting for her to acknowledge him. Nya wasn’t sure if there really was laughing condescension in the question or if his words were being filtered through her mood, and she didn’t quite care.

“Not everyone grows up participating in international polo competitions,” she responded curtly.

“You’re right.” He absentmindedly scratched his horse behind the ears.

Johan seemed to be ignoring her annoyance, which annoyed her even more.

“I certainly didn’t,” he continued. “I learned to ride a horse alongside my younger brother, to make sure he was safe. The polo came later. I’m not very good at it, but my pants are usually tight enough to distract everyone from that. My personal trainer is really into glute definition.”

Her eye twitched but she willed herself not to look down at his jeans-clad bottom. “No, I don’t know how to ride, but it can’t be that hard if you can do it. My horse is defective.”

She turned to glare at him head-on, her chin lifted toward the summit of the mountain range in the distance, and found him looking at her with amusement.

“Horses can’t be defective,” he said. “But they can pick up on the mood of the rider.”

“Oh, so I’m defective, then?” she snapped, perilously close to tears. “Perfect. Great.”

His brow furrowed. “That’s not what I said. Humans can’t be defective either, and you could never be thought to be so.”

“Mmm-hmm.” She wouldn’t fall for his smooth talking.

“You’re upset about something, and your horse is picking up on that. I certainly am.”

Nya’s eyes went wide. Something. He wasn’t even aware that announcing that she was undesirable in a public setting could be that something.