Chapter 8

                                    

                                          
            
                          
Something poked Ryder in the forehead. Blearily, still mostly asleep, he peeled his eyes open.
                          
    Blue eyes were inches from him, and he jumped, scrambling to the side to move out from under the queen.
                          
    She giggled at him and sat back, against the wall. Somehow, while he'd been sleeping, she'd slipped into his room and sat on his bed—by his head. He blinked at her and rubbed his eyes, yawning.
                          
    "What do you need?" He asked, trying not to sound too cross. It wasn't her fault she was crazy.
                          
    She beamed, twining her fingers together in her lap and leaning forward. "Well," She started. "I want to play a card game."
                          
    He blinked again and shook his head. It was going to be one of the crazy days, then. He staggered to his feet and pulled a shirt from his dressers, yanking it over his head and jerking his head towards the door. "Let's go play a card game, then." He yawned again.
                          
    "Not in here." She told him, hopping off his bed and breezing past him. "I'll catch cold."
                          
    He frowned as he buckled his sword belt on—she was too chipper this morning, so different from the somber woman who'd lain in the bed for hours without a word.  
                          
    "The fire is going," He replied, nodding at the fire burning in the grate. She rolled her eyes.
                          
    "Yes, but we're up so high, the clouds will get me." She tapped her foot pointedly.
                          
    "Mmhmm." He didn't bother putting his armor on—she was too impatient, and they wouldn't be leaving the palace. "Well, I'm ready. Let's go play a card game."
                          
    She grinned again and yanked open her door, and he followed her down the stairs. Today, she was wearing a loose white shirt and brown leggings. She was the only lady in the entire court that wore pants, and fairly often at that. Ryder had also noticed that she was more at ease when her hair was messy—she had it pulled back in an easy ponytail that reached the middle of her back. She was more tense whenever it was tight, like it had been last night.
                          
    "The cracks are getting bigger," She said over her shoulder, tapping the wall beside her. When he glanced at where she was pointing, there wasn't a single crack within four feet. "They're going to eat me."
                          
    "Cracks don't eat people, Juliet."
                          
    "No?" She frowned and stepped off the final stair of the spiral staircase and kept her brisk pace through the antechamber. "I thought I saw them eat a rat once."
                          
    Please, not the rats. "I'm quite positive that they are simply cracks."
                          
    "That's lovely." Several servants scurried through the room, ignoring Ryder and Juliet as usual. "I was very worried."
                          
    "Anything else you're worried about?" Ryder had found that Juliet did best talking through her problems, one by one, as they came. So far that 
week, they'd gone over blue cats, carnivorous trees, fairies, the trees again, and now cracks that ate people. He hid a bemused smile as she tapped her chin.
                          
    "Well, I heard one of the servants say that black crowns suck the soul out of the wearer."
                          
    "Did they? Do you believe them?"  
                          
    Juliet shrugged. "Not really. That's a bit silly, don't you think?"
                          
    "Definitely."
                          
    She stopped in front of a glass door and grinned at him before pushing it open. It was one of the gaming rooms that he'd seen before, although she'd never stopped in one before. She went to step through the threshold but held out a hand in front of him, gazing seriously into the room. Then, "Take your shoes off here."