All hail Queen Emilia!
All hail Queen Emilia!
“I hear them,” I murmur.
“They’re saying the vote passed in a landslide. It wasn’t even close. The opposition was blown right out of the water.”
I shrug. “I guess Simms was right — you can’t always predict what people are going to do when they get inside a voting booth.”
“Lancaster Lioness Roars Her Way To Parliamentary Reform,” Chloe reads from her cellphone screen, scrolling headlines rapidly. “Emilia the Liberator: How Germania’s Young Queen is Shaping A Feminist Future.”Chloe glances at me. “Dude. You are officially such a badass. ”
Despite my tear-swollen eyes and kiss-swollen mouth, despite the ache of loss radiating from the left side of my chest… I feel my face break into an irrepressible smile.
We won.
We actually won.
Even if I accomplish nothing else during my reign… Even if Ludwig forces me off my throne… Even if I’ve had to sacrifice everything to get here… My family, my future, my love…
I did this.
I did this.
And I’m damn proud.
The chants are growing fainter as we speed toward the back gate, but I can still hear them.
All hail Queen Emilia!
All hail Queen Emilia!
For the first time, it doesn’t feel like a mistake — an honor given to me by accident or a mantle thrust upon me without consent. It feels like something I’m starting to earn, in my own right. A merit I am beginning to deserve.
Chapter Sixteen
OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
WATERFORD PALACE
On this day, the Fifteenth of April in the Year of Our Lord Two-Thousand and Twenty
HER ROYAL MAJESTY EMILIA VICTORIA LANCASTER OF GERMANIA AND LORD ALDEN NOTTINGHAM STERLING OF WESTGATE ARE ENGAGED TO BE MARRIED
Her Royal Highness the Reigning Queen of Germania is delighted to announce her engagement to the honorable Alden Sterling, heir to Westgate.
Their forthcoming union was officially made public this afternoon, at an intimate engagement party at Waterford Palace. Attendees included Germania’s ranking aristocrats, family members, and friends close to the royal couple.
The wedding ceremony will take place this August at Windsor Abbey in Vasgaard, with a formal ball to follow at Waterford Palace.
* * *
I stare downat the press release, feeling curiously numb. Sliding the paper back to Simms across the gleaming wood of the conference room table, I rise to my feet in a fluid movement. The pale blue skirt of my engagement dress swishes around my knees.
“It’s suitable. You can send it out.”
Simms clears his throat. “Your Majesty…”
“Yes?”