Chapitre 13: Chapter 13: Through Black I Swam

Through the window, I aggressively raised both middle fingers to the naked Mad Ivory King as Rowan and I puttered away on the skoolie. I had never flipped anyone off before, but it felt like a long time coming.

Rowan laughed with an energy that could barely be contained, bouncing in his drivers seat, surely as drunk off of victory as I was. “I - I bow to you, Princess Lily, that was - You were - ” Apparently at a loss for words, he substituted in a chef’s kiss.

He flashed a smile at me before redirecting his gaze outside. “You were a force! You were a sight!”

He didn’t say my true name because he believed it was really my name. Rather, I didn’t think he did. He wouldn’t have been so happy if he knew, so this must have been one of his bits of dry humor, using the “false” name I had used to trick the madmen as a means to refer to me as royalty, fitting with the image of bowing to me.