Jacinda's Challenge (Imperial 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

eyebrow, she laughed again.
    “No, it didn’t turn out that way. The ancestors have the strangest sense of humor.”
    “Do you regret it?” Jotham asked.
    “No. Stephan was worth every minute of it.”
    “I still find it hard to believe I never noticed you.”
    “As I said, Majesty, I was a cycle ahead of you. I’m sure you knew my sister though. She and Lata roomed together at the Academy.”
    “Your sister?” Jotham searched his mind trying to remember who Lata’s roommate had been. “Palma? Palma Crocetti was your sister?”
    “Is my sister and yes. She’s Palma Metaxas now and lives in Kisurri. Lata used to come stay at our house during breaks.”
    “Yes, I remember that I just… I never made that connection before. I’m sorry.”
    “There’s nothing to be sorry for, it really didn’t involve you. Lata and I knew about it and it actually helped us both in those early cycles.”
    Jotham remembered those first cycles, remembered how Lata had struggled, remembered how she would cry in her bath where she thought he couldn’t hear, remembered how he felt he had failed her. Jerking himself back from that painful memory, Jotham gave Jacinda a sharp look. How had the conversation strayed onto such a painful subject? This was so far away from what he had meant to talk to Jacinda about. It was time he got back to the topic at hand.
    “Yes, well that has nothing to do with what I wished to speak to you about,” Jotham told her coldly.
    Jacinda stared at Jotham for a moment, hurt at his abrupt change then realized what he was doing. It was something he had always done if the conversation turned to Lata, not that it ever did anymore, but if it did, Jotham would always abruptly end the conversation. Jacinda had never understood it, but everyone grieved in his or her own way.
    “Of course it’s not,” she replied coolly, “so maybe you should tell me why you summoned me here.”
    Jotham leaned back slightly surprised not only by her words but by the coolness of her tone and how remote her eyes had suddenly become when just moments before they had been sparkling. He knew he had caused it by his reaction and his words, but no one had ever ‘voiced’ their displeasure with him quite so eloquently or so politely in cycles.
    “Summoned? You weren’t summoned, Madame Michelakakis. I asked you here.”
    “When a King ‘asks,’ it is a summons, Majesty.” Jacinda wasn’t going to back down. Jotham was the one who had moved this from friendly to merely polite so that was where she would stay. “I am no longer the wife of an Assemblyman, so what possible ‘situation’ could I help you with?”
    “Alright.” Jotham rose and went to sit behind his desk, the place he should have been all along and gestured to the chair before it, indicating he wanted her to sit there. Opening the folder he had closed when he’d gone to greet her, he lifted the visual out then slid it across the desk to her.
    Jacinda sat before picking it up. In the visual stood four people, all of whom she either knew or knew of. In the center was Lucas Zafar standing tall and proud in his Coalition dress uniform. The violet pants representing he was from the House of Protection were perfectly pressed. The left side of his white dress jacket displayed the medals he had earned and his newly acquired Captain’s insignia was gleaming on its collar.
    Standing next to Lucas was Victoria, her arms around her new husband’s waist. She was literally glowing in the visual and it wasn’t because of the incredible gown she was wearing although it was magnificent, one of Kia’s creations Jacinda was sure. The violet sash around Victoria’s waist was a surprise though. It stated that her loyalty was with her husband and his House, the House of Protection, not her aunt’s House, the House of Knowledge.
    On either side of the couple stood Prince Barek also wearing his dress uniform and Jacinda’s great niece, Amina, in a solid violet gown that was a