“Only another hour or so,” he assures me in a low voice. “Then it will be over. For today, at least.”
I sigh.
We both know it will never be over. For the rest of our lives, this will be our reality. Posing for the press. Shaking hands. Smiling wide.
The perfect royal couple.
I extract my hand from Alden’s as another couple steps up onto the platform to congratulate us, a greeting poised on my lips.
“Baroness Nye, how good of you to come…”
And on and on it goes.
Confronted with a sea of cagey smiles and falsely-bright blessings for our nuptials, I can only hope this strategic move will work; that the wolves circling in this room will cease their support for King Ludwig, now that I’m marrying into their blue-blooded circles.
The commoner-queen no longer.
Ludwig himself is here, somewhere, wandering around amidst the canapés and cater-waiters. It’s the first time we’ve been in the same room; the first time we’ve been introduced in any official capacity.
I must confess, he is not what I was expecting. Absent is the charisma of a leader, the spark of a revolutionary. His personality is dull as the dishwater-brown hue of his hair.
With a soft, quivering voice — and a body type to match — he stood before me like a bashful child, barely able to meet my gaze or mutter a proper greeting. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was actuallyfrightenedto meet the Lancaster Lioness.
I felt almost sorry for the man — a hapless gazelle, no match for these political schemes he’s found himself embroiled in. Without Octavia to prop him up as a viable candidate for my throne, he might just crumble beneath the weight of his own inadequacies.
Unfortunately, not all of my enemies possess such weak constitutions. Like a she-devil delivered straight from the innermost ring of Hell, Ava Sterling sidles up to the dais, a malicious smile already affixed to pink-painted lips.
“Sister,” Alden says stiffly in greeting.
“Brother,” she sneers coldly back at him. “What a mess you’ve gotten yourself into. Mother and father are quite beside themselves.”
“I assume they sent you here to express their disappointment?”
“Naturally. It’s not as if they could come themselves — you’ve placed them in quite an uneasy predicament by aligning yourself with the imposter queen.”
“The only imposter here is you, sister. Why did you really come?”
“To express my sincerest congratulations!” She laughs. “Oh. No. Wait. That wasn’t it. I suppose I came to warn you.”
“Spare me the pleasure, Ava.”
Her eyes narrow. “I told you before, brother.I own you. You think you can escape that, merely by relinquishing your title? You think you are any safer from me, now that you’re moving into the palace? We both know I could destroy you with one interview.”
“And our family’s reputation, in the process.” He shakes his head. “We both know you’d never go that far. Taking me down will ensure your own demise as well.”
“Don’t test me, Alden. I promise, you won’t like the results.”
My eyes are zinging back and forth between siblings, attempting to decipher their volley of words. It is conversational ping-pong; a threat-laden sparring match full of subtext I cannot understand.
“You should be happy — with me out of the way, you’ll inherit,” Alden reminds her. “You’re the heir to Westgate, now.”
She scoffs. “A pittance, when I was meant to be the queen.”
“Why can’t you ever be satisfied?” he asks.
“Satisfaction is for fools. You should know that better than anyone, Alden — you’ve never been satisfied a day in your life. But how could you be, when you’re living a lie?”
“Ava,” he snaps. “That’s enough.”