The first rule I’m ever going to make as queen, if I have the power to do so at all, is allow the new queen to wear less-traditional attire at her own coronation.

The dress I currently walked in was two-times heavier than my wedding dress, and I felt like I was drowning in it. Yards and yards of thick gold and white fabric with jeweled details.

Jamie helped hold me upright, his arm in mine, as we made the slow steps throughout the town square, heading for its center. He looked absolutely heart stopping in his full military dress, his ribbons and medals from his time serving his country glittering under the noonday sun.

Thousands of people watched from the barriers, and hundreds of guards stood between us and the people of Elleston. Some of the more distinguished and invited guests were on this side of the barrier—people like the royal family, of course, and my stepfather—Sir Dean of Corbin—who carried my crown on a velvet pillow older than Jaime and I combined. Xander held the honor of carrying Jaime’s crown, and their mother walked behind us, Sophie and Brie following behind her. My mother was somewhere behind them, and even further behind, we’d even allowed the families of those who’d competed for Jaime’s heart partial access to the coronation.

The thought of those women reminded me of Trinity with a jolt of shock, and I nearly tripped. Though that mess had been cleaned up, and Jaime and I were stronger than ever…I couldn’t help but fear the next woman from Jaime’s past would come out of the shadows and threaten to turn my world upside down.

But, as we neared the center of the town square, the Archbishop of Bonneville and his assisting bishops waiting for us, I knew none of that mattered. I’d lived Jaime’s past with him, even if on the sidelines, but now I owned his future. And he mine. Together we would be crowned King and Queen, but our lives as man and wife would be cemented no matter who or what tried to rob us of our happiness.

Jaime had been right. We’d suffered years of distance, and now it was time for our happily ever after.

First, we had to survive the long process of coronation and the following procession. Then the following weeks that were booked solid with events and appearances. And somewhere between all that and the next few months, we’d find a way to balance both being King and Queen, and a married couple in life-altering-love.

“Are you ready for this?” Jaime whispered, squeezing my hand as he helped me up the stone steps to the raised portion of the square.

“If you are, I am.” I smiled at him, returning his squeeze.

“With you?” He asked, that smirk on his lips. “I can do anything.”

We sank to our knees on the plush red pillows that had been positioned there for us, and I couldn’t help but tremble. The next hour would change our lives forever, but with Jaime by my side, it wasn’t all so terrifying.

“We cloak you,” the archbishop said, his voice booming over the silent crowd. “In the fabric of truth and justice and honor.” He motioned to his assisting bishops, who placed another layer of fabric over Jaime’s shoulders, then mine. The combined heat of all the layers threatened to suffocate me, but the man kneeling next to me helped keep the breath flowing freely in my lungs.

I’d envisioned this day for nearly all my life, and in the past, it had always been Xander next to me in that vision. My eyes dared to flicker over to where he stood stoically holding Jaime’s crown, a soft smile on his lips when he caught me looking up. He supported this, supported us without hesitation, and it made a day I used to dread turn into one of pure happiness. I’d never thought I’d be able to have Jaime in all the ways I wanted, and now that I did, I was experiencing a level of bliss I never knew possible.

“Rise,” the archbishop commanded, and we somehow managed to stand without falling backward with the weight of the cloaks. “I present you with the ring of emerald and ruby, the one your father wore, and his father before him.” He slid the ring on Jaime’s expectant finger, and my heart expanded in my chest as I saw his adam’s apple bob up and down. “And, the scepter of Kingly responsibility and power.” He handed him the scepter I’d only seen a handful of times in his father’s hands. Jamie didn’t shake as he held the ornate staff, didn’t blink as he was given the symbols of what would rule his entire future.

I envied his strength and siphoned it as I knew my time was coming.

The archbishop moved over to me, placing an identical ring of emerald and ruby, recently re-sized after Jaime’s mother had worn it since she was coronated. “And now,” he said, returning to stand between each of us. “Kneel once again, so we may crown you.”

Jaime held my hand as we kneeled again, and the archbishop ushered Xander and my stepfather over. Tears clogged my throat as I saw the glitter in my stepfather’s eye when he handed the archbishop my crown. He sat it on my head; I tried not to flinch at its weight. I supposed it was a natural thing, for all the symbols of being King and Queen to be heavy, to imply the weight of the responsibility Jaime and I were undertaking. But damn was I more than ready to get out of the physical symbolism and back to business as usual—one where I could rule in my elegant gowns and pencil skirts and blouses.

The archbishop moved over to Jaime, taking the crown from Xander’s velvet pillow, and raising it high above Jaime’s head. It seemed to take an eternity to bring the crown down on top of his head, but the second he did, he yelled, “Long live the King and Queen!” And the crowd took part in the chant as the orchestra set up behind the raised stone structure of the square played Elleston’s song.

I breathed for the first time all day, standing with Jaime to face the crowd as their new King and Queen. The coronation was over, but now the procession had started, and it would be hours before I could get Jaime alone in a room and simply be with him as we unwound from the trials of one of the most important days of our lives. I anxiously awaited that time, but as we waited, holding perfectly still, hands joined, as the procession started, I knew everything was going to be okay.

A feeling of calm rushed over my body, slowing my heart rate as clarity clicked in my mind. Jaime and I were a match in every single way, and we would rule together, a true partnership that would hopefully usher in a modernized Elleston. What I once believed would be a job when I had thought Xander and I would be forced to marry, I know realized was a passion with Jaime. A life. Something we could cherish forever, and nurture and grow and learn from throughout each day. Each task. Each royal undertaking.

The Prime Minister led the procession, walking incredibly slow and confident as the other distinguished guests, officials, and bishops followed him out. The crowd cheered and clapped as they did. The royal family would be second to last, and then Jaime and I along with our security details. I took steadying breaths, happy to have found the sense of calm, and clung to it like a lifeline as the procession seemed to never end.

“You look radiant,” Jaime whispered, keeping his eyes and face straight.

I tried not to laugh. “I look like an ornately decorated mattress,” I whispered back.

“Don’t mention a bed to me right now, Charlie,” he said. “Unless you want the world to see how desperately I want you. How I’m always hopelessly ready to bury myself in you.”

A warm shiver danced up my spine as if the man himself was trailing his finger along it. “Jaime,” I said, sighing. “It’s already hot enough under all this fabric, must you make it worse?”

I saw his smile from the corner of my eye, and it was all I could do to not turn my head and really look at him.

Finally, Brie and Sophie and their mother took their turns to walk, and then Xander. We were all that was left, and I was more than ready to move. To do anything other than be the smiling statue I had to be.

Jaime took the first two steps down, my hand in his as I gathered the robes of my dress in the other.

“Your Majesty,” Ian called from behind me, and I turned to look at him.

Crack!

An explosion broke the air.

The ground shook beneath me.

Smoke and debris and rock flew around us.

My hand was ripped from Jaime’s as I was hauled backward, someone’s arms around my waist.

I fought against the hold. “Jaime!” I screamed…I know I screamed, but I could barely hear my own voice inside my head. The sharp ringing in my ears dulling out everything around me as I searched for Jaime.

Chaos.

People ducking, running, laying in pools of blood.

Oh god. Where is he? Where is he?

My body trembled as I fought and thrashed. “Jaime!”

“Oliver has him!” A muffled voice yelled right in my ear. “Please, you have to come with me!”

Ian.

I managed to turn within his grasp, relieved that the person holding me was my security detail.

I stopped fighting, realizing he was dragging me toward the tunnels that would lead us back to the palace.

Oliver would know that was safest, too. They may have already made it there somehow during the chaos.

I let him lead me by the hand, fighting the fabric all the way as I tried to hurry. The ground shook again.

Another bomb.

“Jaime!” I screamed once we’d made it into the tunnels, my hearing slowly returning to me. “Oh my god, he isn’t in here! Where is he, Ian? Where did Oliver take him?” Tears filled my eyes, and I ripped off the cloak, needing more room to breathe as Ian led me deeper into the tunnels.

The air was cold down here, the walls too close together. I never liked using them and had only done so on practice emergency runs.

The pounding of feet and screams that rumbled above us made my heart shatter. This was no practice drill. My husband, the love of my life was up there somewhere.

Please, God. Let him be all right.

Ian halted in a clearing that held two path options: one would lead to the palace’s gardens, the other to the formal dining hall’s kitchen.

“That one,” I said, raising a trembling finger toward the one that would lead to the kitchen. That would be more concealed, safer.

Ian slowly turned around, his dark eyes wide and alert and…laughing?

The hackles rose on the back of my neck, my already broken heart stalling in my chest.

My eyes trailed to the service revolver in his hand, hanging casually at his side. He wasn’t shaking. He wasn’t panicking.

“Your Majesty,” he’d called seconds before the bomb went off.

He’d taken me, and not Jaime. Relief pooled through my chest, and I straightened my spine. Oliver wouldn’t let anything happen to him.

“Are you planning on ransoming my safe-return?” I asked, surprised at the even tone in my voice since I was trembling on the inside.

He laughed again, this one more manic as he rubbed the barrel of the gun against his black hair. “You always were smart,” he said. “But not as sharp as my girl.”

A flash of him kissing Lady Katherine in the hallway burst behind my eyes.

Fear gripped my heart with an icy-cold fist. We’d allowed her inside the barrier.

“Does she have Jaime?” I growled. “What do you want? You’ll get your money. They’ll pay, just let him go.”

He laughed, rolling his eyes, rubbing that barrel against his head.

“Whoever said a thing about money?” He lowered the gun, aiming it directly at my chest.

The world shifted around me like a drop in altitude. The atmosphere all at once seemed to move too fast and too slow.

“Charlie!” Jaime’s voice echoed at the end of the tunnel at the same moment a crack ripped through the air.

A sharp, searing heat stung above my breast. A burst of hot liquid soaked my chest. I was on my back, staring up at the rock ceiling of the tunnels, spinning, blinking, gasping as I slipped into nothingness.