Free The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson

party?”
    He nods vigorously. “Such interesting customs you have here, June. The trouble of translation … I’d been led to imagine your summer king was some sort of consort for your Queen. And I now see it’s quite different.”
    “Consort?” I say, smiling. Auntie Yaha will kill me when this is over, and I don’t care at all. “Well, there’s some of that too, don’t get me wrong. I don’t see much hope for Enki and Oreste, but you’re right, itwasn’t very good manners for Enki to ignore her like that on his election day. Moon year kings don’t have any power — I’m sure she thought he wouldn’t dare.”
    Auntie Yaha discreetly attempts to steer Ueda-sama farther down the hall, but he pauses, forcing her to hover behind him like some lost camera bot. “No power? I had it explained to me rather differently.”
    Auntie Yaha’s mask is slipping. “Power isn’t that simple a matter, June.”
    “Funny,” I say, “I’ve noticed that.”
    I think that’s when she realizes what this is about. She nods her head slowly and then turns to Ueda-sama with a blinding smile and a reassuring pat on the back. Somehow, she convinces him to wait in her office while she marches me to the far end of the hallway. No need to worry about eavesdroppers so deep in Royal Tower, with its soundproof walls and strict anti-bot policy.
    “I thought you’d be happy,” she says. Something I appreciate about Auntie Yaha: At least she can drop the act every once in a while. Unlike her wife. “This is what you wanted.”
    “Not because you bought it for me!”
    “You’re talented, June. You know that. I just made sure it came to the Queen’s attention. I didn’t need to do more. I know you’ve always wanted this.”
    I want to scream, but I have a feeling that it would draw undue attention even in this place. “And who did I push out, Yaha? What amazing waka’s life have I ruined, and she doesn’t even know it? All so you can go back home and tell Mother that you’ve bribed me a future?”
    It’s strange, Auntie Yaha has only known me for two years, but she’s the one I can hurt. And so I always try to hurt her.
    I know what that says about me.
    “Your mother didn’t ask me to do this.”
    My surprise feels a little like disappointment. Mother’s interference has always been so reliable. Has she even given up on that?
    “She’ll still blame me if I make you lose your post.”
    Yaha puts that reassuring hand on my shoulder. “You’ll do fine, June,” she says.
    I shake it off. I wish I could have gotten the nomination on my own, but it doesn’t matter now. I’ve always had something to prove. “I’ll win .”

    Gil sees Enki once more that week, though they’re discreet enough to keep it off all but the most speculative gossip feeds. Gil isn’t in school the next day and I finally find him that evening, half naked in his mother’s garden, blasting the latest from King Zumbi, one of the verde’s biggest blocos, and dancing with a sunflower.
    “She any good?” I ask when I’m close enough to hear him over the music.
    Gil plants a kiss in the middle of the sunflower’s dark brown center and laughs. “She’s beautiful,” he says. He reaches for my hand and, despite myself, I dance with him for a little while. I can’t refuse Gil when he’s so present and happy. I force all thoughts about the last dance out of my mind; it’s easier than I would have guessed.
    Maybe my feelings weren’t hurt as much as my pride, after all.
    We dance until his sweat gleams in the sunlight and my shirt feels damp. I break it off, ’cause on his own Gil would dance until he passed out (he has, I’ve seen it), and dip my feet in the koi pond to cool off.
    Gil does a back handspring and seems for a moment like he might keep moving. He still has it, I can see, that manic energy that sometimes nothing can dissipate. But I raise my eyebrows at him and he takes a deep breath and sits beside me.
    “I’ve been nominated