“Or what?” he asks. “I was under the impression that I am the reigning monarch. Not you. Now we’ll get on to the last question of whether I am unfit to rule, which I assure you, I am not. If that were to be the case, my Queen would rule in place of my heir and if there is no heir, then the crown goes to Taylor, again not you. You carry no royal blood.”
“He’s not fit at all, just look at him,” Saoirse says with a gleam in her eyes that I do not like. “But in that case, I would rule in Dahlia’s place until she’s ready. I am her mother.”
“Is that really the angle you want to take?” Rhys asks quietly.
“You wouldn’t!” she gasps.
“I would do anything to protect my country, my crown, and my Queen. You would do well to remember that,” he says quietly before pushing back to stand . “I think we’ll dine in our rooms after all. Ready, hen?”
“Of course,” I reply taking his hand and letting him help me from my seat at the table.
“Tomorrow we’ll begin planning a coronation—mine—let’s not forget that detail, shall we? It has been a long time since we’ve hanged someone for treason. Also, Leo will have teams searching for Lady Thomley if he doesn’t already. I’ll know who sent her by theend of the week because we both know she didn’t act alone. Until then… goodnight.”
And with that he turns like the king he is and leads me out of the dining room and down the hall to our rooms.
When we finally make it to the main door of our suite, Rhys pulls a key from his pants pocket, an old fashioned one like you would see in movies, and uses it to unlock the door.
“This one’s for you,” he says, handing me the key. “I have the skeleton key, and Maeve has its twin so you should be safe in here at all times if you keep the main door locked.”
“Okay,” I reply, following him into the room.
“I need you to promise me that you’ll keep the doors locked when you’re alone,” he says as he closes the door and flips the old lock.
“You’re scaring me,” I whisper.
“I’m not trying to,” he sighs. “But I canno’ keep you safe if you leave yourself open to attacks. Leo and his team, along with myself and Maeve, will do all we can. Outside of her and Dahlia, no one is to be trusted.”
“What about Taylor?”
Rhys looks me straight in the eye before responding to my question. “No one else is to be trusted,” he repeats with meaning. I nod once, afraid of what I might say out loud. “Now, let’s get comfortable. Dahlia should be here soon enough with your feline and then we can go to bed. Tomorrow will be a big day.”
“What’s tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow, we plan our coronation.”
Yikes. I know I’m not ready. There’s so much I don’t know—their customs, traditions, and laws if the constant threat of treason is anything to go by—and still, I know that there’s no going back. The only way to survive this is through it, and that means a coronation. And what all goes into a coronation anyway? I’m sure there are promises and crowns and all kinds of things, but it can’t be that intense, right?
“I can hear you thinking from all the way over here, hen,” Rhys says, capturing my attention.
I turn my head toward him and notice he’s halfway undressed, standing in our closet. “There’s kind of a lot going on up there.”
“How do you eat an elephant?” he asks, and I wonder if he’s losing his marbles too. Maybe we can go crazy together.
“What?”
He repeats his earlier madness. “How do you eat an elephant?”
“I have no idea.”
“One bite at a time,” he answers his own question, moving through the closet to where I stand just outside the doorway. “I know it seems like a lot, it’s a lot for me too and I’ve been preparing for it my whole life.”
“Lucky for you,” I mutter as he pulls me into his arms.
“In some ways, yes. In others, no’ so much,” hesays sadly, and I feel bad for my earlier bitterness. He’s lost as much as I have and he’s led his life with much more pressure on his shoulders while I was having a fantastically boring but normal life in America.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he says, placing a soft kiss on my temple. “It’s okay to have your feelings and you’re entitled to them. But it will be all right.”