“This better be good,” I said to Lynette. “I canceled our meeting for a reason.”

She nodded, her face completely blank. “Yes. I saw your reason.”

Lynette was a no-nonsense person, and she was loyal, which were two traits I liked in a person. But she was also prone to overstepping her position, and that could sometimes annoy the hell out of me.

Still, she wouldn’t pull me away from something unless it was important. Part of being a good ruler was knowing when you needed to listen and when you needed to rule. When Lynette pulled me for a meeting, I knew it was time to listen, even if I didn’t always want to hear what she had to say.

“What’s so pressing, Lynette?”

“It’s about the girl, sir.”

We walked side by side back toward the west wing and the official cabinet meetings.

“What about her?”

“Sir, I think we should scrap the marriage idea.”

I frowned at her. “Max tells me the people like her.”

“They do, but not for the right reason. They’re just happy someone slapped you in the face.”

I clenched my jaw. “That’s not how Max put it.”

“To be frank, Your Majesty, I’d know better than Max. Sir, I believe the girl would do more harm than good at this point.”

“That’s disappointing,” I said.

“I think we should send them off to a resort, let them have a nice time, and forget about all of this. Concentrate on the rebellion. Maybe find you a good Starkish girl.”

I pursed my lips. This was exactly what I had been afraid of. Lynette was forever doing opinion polls and testing. She was obsessed with public opinion, and for good reason: A King couldn’t effectively rule people who hated him.

But there was a line. I could only care what the people thought so much. I couldn’t make every decision based on what was popular. Sometimes I did the unpopular thing because it was the right thing.

“No. The Koch family stays,” I said.

“Sir,” she said gently, “there is a large population of people that still miss your brother.”

“I miss my brother,” I snapped at her.

“I understand. But many people believe you should marry Victoria.”

I stopped walking, forcing Lynette to turn and face me.

Victoria had been my brother’s fiancée. They never actually got married, and truthfully they barely knew each other, but she had been promised to him. She was a beautiful woman and very well liked among the people, but we all thought it would be strange for me to marry her.

And frankly, I was not my brother. Victoria was an uptight aristocrat like every rich, spoiled girl in Starkland. That was fine for my brother, since he knew it would be a good political match, but I wasn’t so practical in my marriage. If I had it my way, I wouldn’t get married at all, let alone to some baron’s daughter.

“No,” I said simply. “That isn’t happening.”

“I urge you to reconsider.”

“She is my dead brother’s girl. Leo is barely buried, and you want me to marry her?”

“King Leopold never married her,” Lynette pointed out. “Some would see it as you honoring your brother’s memory.”

“Enough,” I said, feeling my anger rise. “Here is what’s going to happen: You’re going to forget about me marrying Victoria; the Koch family is going to stay here for the remainder of their trip, as planned; and you aren’t going to interfere.”

“Your Highness—”

“Do you understand me?” I said, glaring at her. “Your king is giving you a command.”

She nodded once. “Very well, sir.”

“Good. I like you, Lynette, but don’t push this.”

“As you command, sir.”

I turned away from her and quickly left. I felt her watching as I walked away, but that didn’t matter.

Maybe that was a bad move politically. My older brother had been a beloved ruler, and when my father died of old age and my brother took the crown, the people rejoiced. When Leo went to the south to fight the rebels, everyone assumed that Great King Leopold would end the conflict and solidify the monarchy’s control over Starkland.

Instead, Leo’s caravan rode over a bomb and he blew himself to little bits and pieces. The people were distraught when their beloved king had died bleeding on the side of the road.

To them, he was a king. They didn’t know Leo. When he died, I didn’t just lose a king. I lost my older brother, the man I was closest to in the world.

We were very different people. Leo was always so sober and serious all the damn time. But he was my foil, the man I could rely on no matter what. Without Leo, I’d felt lost at first.

And the people weren’t happy that the bad boy was suddenly their king.

I never asked for any of this. I was born into this family and only became king because of dumb bad luck. I didn’t choose for Leo to go to war, and I certainly never wanted him to get blown up.

I had very few choices in my life. There weren’t many things I could actually control. The woman I married was one of the few things.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to marry Bryce. I barely knew the girl. But I did know that I wanted to get to know her. I wanted to make her mine. And maybe in the process, I’d teach her that she wanted to be my queen. Maybe that wasn’t a great political move, but fuck politics.

Sometimes I needed to do whatever the fuck I wanted to do. What was the point of being king if I couldn’t make my own choices?

I was choosing to keep Bryce around, because she made my fucking blood ring like a bell. That was good enough for now.

As I turned a corner, I nearly ran headfirst into a man coming the other way.

“Your Highness,” he said, stepping back. “I’m very sorry.”

I cleared my throat. It was Nicolai Corvin, the young agricultural minister. He came from a prominent southern family and was currently living in the castle because rebels had captured his family’s estate.

I didn’t like Nicolai one fucking bit. He was a thin, pale man with a thin mustache and a creepy smile. He was always so damn polite; it drove me mad.

“Forget it, Nicolai,” I said. “As you were.”

“Your Majesty, while I have you, could we talk some about the farmland in the Hinter Valley?”

“Maybe another time, Nicolai. I have meetings to attend.”

“Yes, of course, Your Majesty. It’s just that, the rebels took them, and they were a big source of grain for the capital.”

I sighed. “Yes, I’m aware.”

“We’ll need to subsidize other farmland, and possibly import some grain to make up for shortages.”

“We’ll talk later, Nicolai,” I said. “Make an appointment.”

“Very well, Your Majesty.”

I nodded to him and resumed my walk, the guards close behind me.

That Nicolai guy always made me uncomfortable, but he’d reminded me of what I was supposed to be doing. We were fighting a war, and I couldn’t lose sight of that.

I needed to keep focused and ready no matter what.