I was accustomed to being disliked, to being loathed, even, and I hadn’t expected to be treated as though I was a much-needed addition to this royal house. That wasn’t what unsettled me. It was the tension that stalked the halls. A reek of secrets and ghosts. It was the inescapable feeling that no matter who I was—a soon-to-be queen or a changeling—I would not be welcome here.
