A cheer goes up from the back of the crowd and, smiling, I lift my hand to silence it. “So perhaps those who denounce me at every turn are correct in one regard, at least — I am not your typical royal. I say that not with regret, but with pride.” My lips twist wryly. “My so-called ‘commoner’ past may be easy ammunition for those taking aim at me. But I feel no shame in my upbringing. Long before I was your queen, I was merely one of you. A regular Germanian. Struggling to pay my bills and get to class on time and start a career and remember to take out the rubbish bins—” An appreciative laugh titters through the audience. “—and, perhaps, given half a chance… to leave some kind of mark on this world we all share.”
I look around again, sweeping through the gathered faces. This time, my gaze lands on the front row where Alden, Chloe, Simms, and Lady Morrell are standing. I search in vain for another face — one I know better than to look for, but can’t stop myself from seeking out anyway.
He’s not there.
Why would he be?
I jerk my eyes away and carry on. “My mother raised me to believe that if you are given the privilege of a loud voice, you are obligated to use it to spread truth and goodness, not malice or hate. I will not stand idly by as injustice and inequality find favor in our Parliament. I cannot, in good conscience, remain neutral on issues that my predecessors ignored for far too long.”
The cheer goes up again. It takes twice as long to extinguish it this time.
“My fellow citizens, I am speaking directly to you, now. In a few moments, polls all across our nation will open and you will have a chance to make your own voices heard. You will step through those doors and cast your votes in what I’m sure will be a historic election. I do not know what the results will be. I do not know whether our nation is yet ready to cast off the shackles of tradition, to embrace a new age of equality and prosperity. But I do know one thing. Regardless of the outcome today… I stand here before you, ever-hopeful for our future. A future in which we are defined not by the things that divide us, but rather, those that unite us. I stand here grateful that I have played even a small role in this groundswell of change. And, above all, I stand here eternally proud to call myself your queen.”
There’s no silencing the cheers.
Not this time.
They fill the air in a great crescendo, echoing off buildings, drifting upward into the clouds, drowning out any potentialboosfrom the opposition.
They sound like hope.
They sound like progress.
They sound like the future.
And it is bright.
Chapter Fourteen
I’m halfwaydown the National Assembly steps, so close to my waiting Rolls-Royce I can practically smell the vintage leather, when it happens.
Bang!
I know that sound. I’ve heard it before — once in real life, and a thousand times since in my nightmares.
An explosion.
A bomb.
A truck, bursting into flame and leveling a city block, the bodies of my countrymen along with it. A cataclysm of carnage and despair. A million sleepless nights and a hundred gleaming coffins…
The boom catches me off guard, piercing my eardrums like the blade of a knife. There’s no warning. No way to steel myself against it. And certainly no time to use rational thought or logic to counter the reaction it triggers inside me.
In the space between two blinks, I’m flooded with a sense of panic so strong, I can hardly breathe.
Run.
Hide.
It’s happening again.
The next thing I know, I’m on the ground beside the limo, ducking for cover between the wheel-well and the dirty curb. Something’s pressed against my chest.
An anvil, slowly pushing the air from my lungs.
No — it’s only my legs. They’re curled so close to my chest, the heels of my shoes dig sharply into the backs of my thighs. My arms wrap around my shins, hugging them like a child does a teddy bear at night, when monsters creep out of closets and shadows move without warning. My forehead presses against my kneecaps as my eyelids squeeze shut, blocking out everything around me.
Blind terror.