CHAPTER TWENTY
Nikolai
MY STEPMOTHER IS sent to recuperate on a private therapeutic island in the Indian Ocean. Father is still blinded by his love for her, trusting that her betrayal comes only from a place of grief. But I know better, as does X. He promises to continue a private investigation into Adele’s past. Something will turn up.
X briefs me on all the particulars as we race home at top speed. The Rolls-Royce screeches through the palace gates. It is time to face Father.
“Pet.” I take Kate’s hand between mine and kiss each fingertip. We step out of the car and into the palace’s grand entrance. “X can escort you to my chambers. Ensure you get a proper shower and that the cooks prepare a batch of fresh scones.”
Kate spent some time with her grandmother before we left the hospital. But now that she is off the ventilator, she and her sister no longer have to remain vigilant at her bedside.
“I don’t want to leave you alone to confront your father,” she says, setting her jaw in the stubborn manner that I love.
“I don’t need anyone to fight my battles for me,” I snap, harder than I intend to.
She is unmoved. “Of course you don’t. But you deserve to have the woman who loves you by your side no matter what. In good times and bad.”
“My father’s temper is worse than mine,” I warn.
“I don’t scare easily,” she says with a small smile. Given that she is still beside me despite everything that has happened, I can only choose to believe her. Love for this amazing woman ignites my veins. She is a spark of everlasting fire. When I am beside her the darkness doesn’t stand a chance.
X clicks his heels. “I’ll inform air traffic control that we intend to depart for the Bottomless Lake within the hour?”
I nod. “Yes. The sooner the better.” I squeeze Kate’s hand. “I want you to be mine.”
She squeezes back, but then I feel her go rigid.
“Something is wrong,” I say.
She worries her bottom lip between her teeth. “Won’t it—won’t it be dark when we arrive?”
The sun already dips beyond the horizon.
I nod. “Yes. But X will see to it that torches are lit so we can find our way. We can wait until morning, though.” I kiss her. “Patience is not one of my finer traits, but I can do it—for you.”
She shakes her head. “You’re right. The sooner the better. I don’t want to chance anything else getting in the way of you being mine, as well.” She offers me a nervous smile, and my whole being is set ablaze. What this woman has already risked for me—what she’s willing to still chance on my behalf—knocks the air straight out of my lungs. I’ve never known love like this, and I’m still not sure what I’ve done to deserve it. She needs to know I’d do the same for her.
I turn her toward me and settle my hands on her shoulders. She seems so delicate. Yet behind that fragility is a strength that threatens to bring me to my knees. “The lake, it is deep beyond measure.”
She mashes her lips. “Hence the name.”
“I will not force you to swim for me. This kingdom isn’t worth making you feel like you’re in danger for even a moment.”
She swallows. “You’d walk away from all this for me?” Her face is pale even as her blue eyes shine bright.
“Without a second thought,” I rumble. “Outside of telling you that I love you, these are the truest words that I have ever spoken.”
She dips her head. “You think I’m strong enough for this?”
I tilt her chin up and fix my gaze on her. “I think you are strong enough for anything. Never doubt that, Kate. Not for one second, my beautiful, courageous queen.”
Her eyes glisten, but she holds her head high and smiles. “Then I won’t back down. Not an inch. You and I shall rule this kingdom, and I will start demonstrating my future courage as a queen by not letting the Bottomless Lake stand between me and my dreams.”
She wraps her arms around my neck and presses her lips to mine. There is the sound of slow clapping.
I glance over, and Father stands in a nearby doorway, studying us with a sardonic expression. “Touching,” he says in his deep voice. “The best performance I’ve seen in years.”
Kate
I freeze. Yes, I’ve spoken to the king before, but it was for business purposes only. His voice hadn’t sent ice flowing through my veins then. It does now.
“Don’t, Father,” Nikolai says, his voice firm, but I’m so attuned to him now that I can hear the strain. The worry.
The prince has his father’s eyes, but King Nikolai’s irises grow dark as he takes a step toward his son. His salt-and-pepper hair is perfectly in place, his suit tailored to an older yet still ruggedly fit body. If he’s any indication of what I have to look forward to as Nikolai ages... I shake my head, banishing the thought. Because other than his distinguished good looks, the king stares at me with utter condescension and disapproval, his own gray eyes mired in distaste.
“How dare you speak to me as such,” the man says, standing inches from his son. “How dare you bring your whore into our home when you’ve broken it beyond repair. The queen is ruined, you selfish, ungrateful child.”
I gasp. The king opens his mouth to speak again, but Nikolai cuts him off.
“Enough, Father!” he roars, enough so that the man takes a step back. Nikolai’s hand still grips mine fiercely, enough so that I feel pain, but I stand my ground along with him. “The true queen was my mother. And I know everything. I know about the Bottomless Lake, about the Wagmire Defense, and that my own mother was not of royal blood.” He holds up his arm. “Look, Father. Take a good look at where common blood flows through my veins all because you wanted to marry for love. And you dare to deny me the same?”
Nikolai’s chest heaves with every breath. All of his words, his passion—it’s for me.
The king’s eyes widen. His skin grows pale, and he stumbles back another step. Yet he says nothing.
“If you ever, ever refer to Kate as my whore again, I won’t be so kind with you as I was with Adele. She is not fit to be queen, Father. And I think, deep down, you know it. But also know this. If you loved my mother enough to risk the kingdom for her, then you might understand a fraction of what I feel for Kate. We will swim the lake. We will make it to the Island of Atonement. And I will prove that I am worthy of her love.”
I take in a sharp breath. “No,” I finally interrupt. “Nikolai—I must prove myself to you.”
He lessens his grip on my hand and brings my palm to his lips, pressing a soft kiss against my skin.
“You never had anything to prove,” he said. “You and your sister have given everything of yourselves to take care of the only family you have left. I know this was never about money for you but about unconditional and unwavering love. I’ve spent too long surrounded by people who are with me for their own gain that I forgot what love was. Perhaps this test of will is meant to prove something to the rest of the royal court, but know that whether we make it to the end of this quest or not, we’ve already won.”
I let out a hiccuping sob, yet my smile is as broad as my love for this amazing man.
I cup his hands in my palms. “We’ve already won,” I echo.
X appears in the doorway behind the king, which is odd considering he should have had to walk past us to arrive there. Then again—as I’m beginning to learn—X is capable of far more than we know.
“Sire. My Lady,” he says. “The jet is fueled and ready to go. Are you ready?”
We both nod without hesitation, but the king approaches his son again, this time planting his hands on Nikolai’s shoulders. Nikolai stiffens.
“You really love her,” he says, and then he begins to laugh. “You love her!”
“Father, have you gone mad?”
The king laughs again, his head tilted toward the ceiling. “How,” he says, “after all these years, could you expect me to believe your feelings were true? You’ve never so much as brought a woman to dine with us, yet you are willing to swim the lake for a commoner.”
Nikolai’s jaw tightens, and his father’s laughing ceases.
“Commoner or not, your mother had more royal blood than any queen before her. No one—and I mean no one—shall ever be her equal.”
Nikolai swallows hard, understanding what I know to be true, as well.
Theirs was a great love—Nikolai’s mother and father’s. Perhaps that is why someone like Adele was able to manipulate her way to the throne. No one could ever replace the love the king lost, but the kingdom needed a queen. Adele must have been the perfect aristocratic fit—on paper.
But there is so much more to finding the perfect match, as I’ve found mine in the most unlikely of places.
“I know the feeling,” Nikolai says, the slightest tremor in his otherwise determined voice.
“How did you know?” the king asks, scrubbing a hand across his jaw. “How did you know about your mother?”
I clear my throat. “My grandmother, Your Highness,” I say, taking a steady breath. “She’s not well, mentally speaking, but she has moments of clarity. I believe she might have known the late queen many years ago.”
The king pulls both Nikolai and I into an unexpected embrace, and I respond on instinct, wrapping one arm around each of the men at my sides.
“Go,” King Nikolai whispers to us both. “Go prove your love to the rest of the world. You’ve already proven it to me.”
He releases us, and both Nikolai and I bow our heads to our respected ruler.
“Why, though?” Nikolai asks. “Why did you never tell us?”
The king shudders his expression, and I wait for him to repeat what Gran said, something about protecting her sons.
“My father wasn’t so understanding,” he simply says. “So we were forced to live a lie, to tell all that she came from an ancient royal line only recently uncovered. And because I loved your mother, I didn’t fight him on it. She was my queen. That was all that mattered.”
It’s a nice enough story, but for reasons I cannot explain, I think he’s lying. Maybe it’s that Nikolai is so much like his father, that being able to read one allows me to read the other.
But Nikolai’s beautiful smile is his acceptance, so I let it go. Because Nikolai is my prince. And that’s all that matters to me.
“Thank you, My Liege,” Nikolai says, and it’s in this moment I know he will be the king this country needs...and the man I cannot live without.
As X leads us toward the doors from where we came, Nikolai stops and turns toward his father once more.
“I’d like to move Kate’s grandmother—and sister, if she chooses—to the palace after the wedding. Her grandmother will need constant care, so I’ll be hiring nursing staff, as well.”
His father nods. “Tell me her name, and I’ll see to it the preparations are made.”
“Sophia Winter,” Nikolai says before spinning back toward X so that only I see the look of complete and utter astonishment take over the king’s countenance. But it lasts no longer than a second before he is a mask of calm again, so much so that I believe it must have been my imagination playing tricks on me.
“Consider it done,” the king says, and before I know it, I’m spirited out the palace gates and to the airfield once again.
“It’s time to claim our future,” Nikolai says as we stand before the steps leading up to the aircraft.
And then he kisses me until I forget that I almost died tonight, until I forget the king’s strange reaction to my grandmother’s name, until I forget that I have anything to fear.
I will claim my future, I think, as his tongue sweeps past my lips and I taste victory already.
And then I whisper against him. “My future—is you.”