Chapter 54
Drumming my fingers against the wood of the council room table, I was getting impatient as Lord Foster went on and on at the notion of war and how I’d become a disgraceful ruler by allowing this to even happen. If I wanted to marry Ornella, I should have asked permission and created an alliance. Blah, blah, blah.
Part of me agreed, but I wouldn’t allow him to know that. I wouldn’t hear the end of him being right about something. Propping my chin on my hand, I nodded gracefully. My eyes rolled until he finally noticed and sat back down, shutting the hell up.
“No, by all means, Richard, please continue to tell me how much of a poor ruler I am. How my people live in fear of a pending war, which will arrive soon as you have made it very clear.”
Cracking my neck then, I sat back leisurely in my chair and the room fell silent. I hated these meetings, but with my decision making, and basically kidnapping Ornella, I had brought soldiers to our doorstep demanding the return of their princess.
“Percy, how is Nora doing now that we have received our final amount of fighters?”
Percy peeked up from under his parchment and tilted his head, as if his mind was trying to come up with an answer. For a second or two, I’d let him think of a lie or to decide to tell me the truth.
“She is doing fine, majesty. The new soldiers are already prepared in case the princess”s family does make it across the border.”
“I don’t see how they will be able to though, sire. Our border spell has held for hundreds of years,” Lord Wallace said.
He wasn’t wrong in the sense the spell was great, but if what Nora’s intel has suggested, the Crystal Fae prince has a mage with them who may know how to break that spell. Part of me hoped it did come down. It would give me a reason to fight and show Ornella—prove to her—I would willingly die to keep her safe.
“Sire, may I ask a question?” Foster again. Clearly he wasn’t allowed to speak at home.
“What is it?”
“We understand you do not wish to give up the princess?—”
”My wife and soon to be your queen,” I corrected him.
“Yes, yes, but surely we could come to an agreement without the potential loss of life?”
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I sighed. We’d been back and forth with this conversation for weeks and I understood why. I understood how important it was to keep the peace. But I wanted my revenge. That was how it had always been right from the start.
“Lord Foster, if you could come up with a plan, a fool proof plan that would prove to me that her majesty would be safe and our people would be safe, then by all means I will listen. But as for now?—”
I cut off, suddenly stopping as I began to feel a tightness in my chest as I tried to breathe. Coughing and spluttering. Each lord was up on their feet within seconds as Percy rushed to my side in a panic.
“Majesty?! What’s the matter?” he shouted.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t feel anything as a cold sweat ran down my neck. Flashes of a long-forgotten memory flooded my mind. Wildflowers, clouds, and Ornella. As if we were sitting in that Goddess forsaken field she would beg me to take her to.
Where I discovered I was in love with her.
I tried to catch my breath again, calling my shadows to protect me. To wrap around me and calm my body as it felt as if I were going into shock. Until another flash, of the ocean, raced across my mind’s eye.
“Ornella.”
Before I could see or say anything else, the world went black.