Exclusive excerpt of Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue

With a resounding smack, Zahra slaps a stack of magazines down on the West Wing briefing room table.

"This is just what I saw on the way here this morning," she says. "I don't think I need to remind you I live two blocks away."

Alex stares down at the headlines in front of him.

TH E $ 75 , 000 S T U M B L E

BATTLE ROYAL: Prince Henry and FSOTUS Come to Blows at Royal Wedding

C A K E GATE :

Alex C laremont- Diaz Sparks Second English-American War

Each one is accompanied by a photo of himself and Henry flat on their backs in a pile of cake, Henry's ridiculous suit all askew and covered in smashed buttercream flowers, his wrist pinned in Alex's hand, a thin slice of red across Henry's cheek.

"Are you sure we shouldn't be in the Situation Room for this meeting?" Alex attempts.

Neither Zahra nor his mother, sitting across the table, seems to find it funny. The president gives him a withering look over the top of her reading glasses, and he clamps his mouth shut.

It's not exactly that he's afraid of Zahra, his mom's deputy chief of staff and right­hand woman. She has a spiky exterior, but Alex swears there's something soft in there somewhere. He's more afraid of what his mother might do. They grew up made to talk about their feelings a lot, and then his mother became president, and life became less about feelings and more about international relations. He's not sure which option spells a worse fate.

"'Sources inside the royal reception report the two were seen arguing minutes before the . . . cake-tastrophe,'" Ellen reads out loud with utter disdain from her own copy of The Sun. Alex doesn't even try to guess how she got her hands on today's edi­tion of a British tabloid. President Mom works in mysterious ways. "'But royal family insiders claim the First Son's feud with Henry has raged for years. A source tells The Sun that Henry and the First Son have been at odds ever since their first meet­ ing at the Rio Olympics, and the animosity has only grown— these days, they can't even be in the same room with each other. It seems it was only a matter of time before Alex took the American approach: a violent altercation.'"

"I really don't think you can call tripping over a table a 'violent'—"

"Alexander," Ellen says, her tone eerily calm. "Shut up." He does.