CHAPTER NINETEEN
Nikolai
ONE OF ADELE’S thuggish goons lunges at Kate. But before the oversize gorilla with the neck tattoos can set a single finger on my love’s skin, I lay him out with a swift uppercut to the underside of his mean jaw.
“Oof.” He hits the floor like a sack of rotten potatoes and doesn’t move again.
“That’s going to be one hell of a migraine when he comes around,” X says with approval, rolling the henchman over with his toe. “Well-played, Sire.”
“Who’s next?” I roar at the remaining guards. They forget what blood pulses through my veins, that of generations of fierce warriors and plunderers. I am descended from a long and noble line of men and women who got and secured what they wanted by any means necessary. I call on them now to aid me in this hour of dire need. My gut tells me that Nightgardin is using her as their puppet, but I don’t have the proof to make an accusation now. Better to wait and watch. For now, the threat is neutralized. She is going down, and Kate will be protected.
Adele snaps her fingers. Sven and Sval, giant twins who reportedly did time in a Siberian prison as hit men for the Russian mafia, swagger forward, cracking their scarred knuckles.
“Want to tag team, X?” I call out. “A little fun for old times’ sake?”
“Only if we challenge ourselves to taking these amateurs in under ten seconds.” My bodyguard’s wager enrages the twins.
“We amateurs eat little worms like you for breakfast.” Sven opens his mouth to reveal a row of gold-plated teeth.
“Scared, pretty boy?” Sval jeers.
“I am, actually.” I yawn. “Scared that by the time X and I finish with you, there will be nothing left to interrogate.”
Sven slowly blinks. “But the queen—”
“Is not heir to the throne.” I draw myself to my full height. “And is acting without a signed decree from the royal liege and is therefore in breach of the law. She doesn’t have a leg to stand on legally with this attempt at a coup. Treason is being committed here, but it’s not by me. With whom do you want to align loyalties, gentlemen?”
“Catriona is not with heir, either!” Christian says, stepping forward, his sister’s upper arm in his grasp. “I mean, she’s not carrying your heir. She made the mistake of confiding her and the queen’s little scheme to me. My sister actually thought I’d be party to her own treason to further Rosegate’s interests alongside Adele’s bigger and more diabolical ambitions. But it’s not your child she carries, Nikolai. She has said so herself.”
Catriona wrenches from her brother’s grasp and slaps him across the face. “You spoiled everything for me. Everything! The queen will make you pay. All of you!”
“I will ruin you,” Adele says to my friend, her voice as threatening as the hiss of an adder.
“So be it,” Christian says. “But you will not ruin the prince.” He turns to me. “I’m so sorry, Your Highness. I will never doubt you again.” Then he grabs Catriona’s arm again and hauls her away.
“Well,” I say, eyeing the queen. “That solves the problem of my upcoming nuptials, X. Wouldn’t you agree?”
X steps beside me, removing a deadly-looking blade with a jewel-encrusted handle from his black boot. He uses it to casually clean his nails. We are in a hospital, after all, and do wish to remain civil.
“Don’t be fools, my good men,” I order Adele’s remaining brutes. “I am prepared to be reasonable based on the fact you have a combined IQ that is smaller than today’s date, but if you come one step closer to Kate, you will be dead.” I’ll resurrect Edenvale’s old beheading customs and do the deed myself.
“Blood doesn’t need to be spilled,” Benedict breaks in with his deep, commanding voice, as if sensing my murderous urges. A crucifix dangles from his wrist beneath his black clerical habit.
But I am not to be reasoned with. “Anyone here who makes the mistake of touching a single square inch of Kate’s body will be chewing on my boot.” My voice echoes through the hospital corridor.
The door behind us creaks open.
“Kate?” A fiery-haired woman with creamy skin and a smattering of freckles peers out. “What’s going on? You brought company?”
“Maddie!” Kate sounds on the verge of tears. “Is Gran—?”
“Still touch and go,” Maddie says, hugging herself. “She has moments of consciousness, but they are few and far between. Where have you been? You were supposed to relieve me hours ago. I need to step outside for five minutes. Feel fresh air on my face.”
“I said arrest them!” the queen shouts to Sven and Sval, but they remain motionless. “Or I shall make sure you are both the first volunteers in my new all-eunuch squadron.”
“I must insist that everyone listen to me,” Benedict says in a calm voice that silences the chaos. He has always been good at that. “Nikolai has been ordered to marry according to the proclamation, but I have recently learned of the Wagmire Defense.”
“The what?” Adele waves her hand. “Never mind—I don’t care. Arrest them all.”
“If true love can be proven...” Benedict catches and holds my gaze as if the queen hasn’t opened her mouth. “Then the marriage may proceed.”
Kate gasps behind me.
“Is this true?” I ask, unable to grasp the fact that I might be able to somehow get everything I want.
“I read all eight hundred pages of The Lesser Known Edenvale Royal Bylaws and Subcommands.” Benedict raises a finger. “There is one catch. To prove true love the couple must swim unassisted across the Bottomless Lake to the Island of Atonement, in accordance with our ancient customs, thereby passing a test of the heart.”
I flex my jaw. A mighty challenge awaits us, but I am determined we shall prove our love’s worth. After so many years in the darkness, I am ready to fight for this shot at the light.
“Did you just say swim?” Kate asks in a tiny voice shot through with fear.
An ominous medical device alarm sounds from the room Maddie has just emerged from. Two nurses run up the hall. Kate steps forward, the panic on her face from her fear of water twisting to an expression of pure anguish.
“Gran, no!”
Kate
The nurses rush past me and nearly knock Maddie out of the way. The queen and her two guards are forced to move as well. Nikolai doesn’t waste a breath, grabbing my hand and spiriting me inside the room.
I can’t see anything other than the nurses, a flurry of movement around my grandmother’s bed. My breathing hitches as I prepare myself for the worst.
“Sophia,” one of them chides, calling Gran by her first name. “You gave us quite a fright. Next time press the call button, and we’ll be in as soon as you need us.”
One of the nurses turns to face my sister and me, and her eyes widen when she recognizes Nikolai.
“Your—Your Highness. I didn’t realize—”
“Ignore me,” he commands. “Let the two Miss Winters know what has happened with their grandmother at once. That should be all that matters here.”
Her cheeks redden with embarrassment. “Of course, Your Highness.” She turns to Maddie, the one who’s been here all day. I swallow back the guilt. I should have come last night when she called. I should have thought about something other than my own fleeting chance at happiness. Then half the ruling body of Edenvale wouldn’t be waiting in the hall to take me from my family for good.
“Miss Winter, it seems as if your grandmother is ready to breathe on her own, and she took to telling us by turning off her heart monitor.”
Maddie gasps and covers her mouth. I let out a strangled sob.
“She’s—she’s okay?” I ask, tears of happiness overpowering whatever awaits me when I walk out this door.
The nurse nods, her warm brown eyes immediately setting me at ease. “Please, if you all step out for a few minutes, we can get the doctor in here so we can remove the tube and check her vitals. We’ll call you as soon as she’s ready.”
I nod eagerly, grabbing Maddie’s hand. Nikolai holds my other one, and I squeeze them both, two people I love dearly standing beside me.
We step out into the hall, where I find the Royal Police leading away the queen’s brutish guards.
“I’ve spoken with Father,” Benedict says to Nikolai. Both men shoot a glance toward Adele, who is also being detained by two officers. “It sounds as if much has gone on tonight that he was unaware of. He’d like to see you for a full statement when you’re through here.”
Adele growls at us and spits at Nikolai’s feet. “You don’t deserve happiness,” she says. “Not after any chance of it was taken from me because of you and your miserable family. I know people. Powerful people. This is not the last you’ll hear from me, Prince Nikolai,” she vows, her words dripping with both anguish and disdain.
“I’m sure it’s not,” he says. “But for now I want you out of my sight.” He eyes the officers. “Detain her somewhere safe—where she cannot harm others or herself. My father will be in contact with further instructions.”
The men nod and take hold of her under the arms, leading her away with heels dragging.
I understand her sadness. I’ve known great loss, too, as has Nikolai. I’d even shut myself away from the prospect of happiness again after Jean-Luc. For two years I played it safe, afraid to move on. But the queen—she is stuck in a cycle of hate and blame so big that it’s blinded her to the world around her.
I shudder.
“No, Pet,” I hear Nikolai say. Then my eyes meet his. “I know what you’re thinking, and no. I would not have ended up like that.”
A tear rolls down my cheek, not only because he’s read my thoughts but that he knows what I was thinking about him.
He cups my face in his palms. “It could have been me. I admit that wholly and completely. But it only could have happened had you not walked into my life—or had Adele truly sent you to your death.”
He kisses me, his lips fierce and insistent against mine. I can taste the salt of my own tears.
“No,” I say. “Your heart may have been dark, but hers is black and cruel. Yours was always salvageable.”
“Only by you, Kate.”
I smile. “Only by me.”
Benedict clears his throat, and I’m reminded that we are not alone.
“The Wagmire Defense,” he says.
My grandmother’s door opens, and the nurse ushers us in.
“Did someone just say the Wagmire Defense?”
Her voice is like the sweetest music. I keep from throwing myself on her frail body, but I grab Gran’s hand and press it to my cheek.
“Yes.” I laugh through falling tears. “The Wagmire Defense. Do you—do you know something of it?”
She huffs out a breath as if whatever she’s about to say she’s told me a million times.
“I knew your mother,” she says, and I frown as I realize she’s not lucid after all.
“Yes, Grandmother. I know. My mother was your daughter-in-law, remember?”
She waves me off, and the focus of her gaze fixes not on me, not Maddie, but—Nikolai and Benedict.
“I knew your mother,” she says to the two men. “Knew her when she was a commoner and even after she’d met the terms of the Defense. A great woman, she was—your mother. Pity her history couldn’t be shared, sworn to secrecy as we all were.”
Nikolai’s normally golden skin blanches while Benedict’s expression remains impassive.
“She did what she had to do to protect her sons,” Gran says, and her gaze returns to me. “And you, my Katie. Love will carry you across the Bottomless Lake. I am sure of it as I’m sure their mother isn’t—”
She pauses, and a far-off look takes over her features.
“Nurse,” she says, eyeing the woman who’s wheeling the ventilator to the other side of the room. The woman turns to face us. “Nurse, would you introduce me to my visitors?”
“We’re just volunteers,” Maddie says, understanding that Gran’s memories have left her. We are once again strangers to her. “Happy to see you’re feeling well.”
Maddie puts an arm around my shoulders and backs me away from the bed.
“She’s gone for now,” she whispers. “But it looks like the worst is over.”
I nod and swallow back any more tears, for Gran’s sake.
“She knew Mother,” Benedict says, and I don’t miss the hint of bitterness in his voice.
“If your grandmother is telling the truth...” Nikolai starts, but I cut him off.
“She’s ill,” I tell him. “She could be confusing your mother for someone else.”
He shakes his head. “Confusion or not, she knew the Wagmire Defense. Our very own mother found the loophole,” Nikolai says softly. “And now Kate—”
I shake my head. “I can’t swim,” I remind him.
“You can,” he says and kisses me. “We can together. And then you’ll be my bride.”
“I’m terrified,” I admit. “And also, that was a terrible proposal. If we survive this Bottomless Lake, I want a real one,” I tell him.
He laughs. “And then you’ll say yes?”
I shrug but can’t fight the giddy smile taking over my face. “I guess we’ll see.”
He whisks me into the hall, where we hardly have any more privacy, but then, Nikolai loves to put on a show when he has a proper audience. He surprises me, though, with nothing more than a sweet, tender kiss that makes me positively melt.
“I love you,” he whispers. “Just so we’re clear on that.”
I swallow as the words sink in, the words I never thought I’d hear, words he now cannot stop saying. “I love you, too.”
“Then that settles it. You will be my queen.”
I can’t help but laugh.
“Still not a proposal,” I say.
But yes, I think quietly to myself. My answer is most certainly yes.