Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
When Lorne woke, Adeline was still deeply asleep beside him with the fleech dragon curled up on her other side, still giving that little rumbling purr even in sleep.
Reaching over, Lorne brushed a strand of her hair from her face, his touch so light that she didn’t even stir.
He’d come so close to losing her. A part of him—a large part—wanted to whisk her away to the heart of Lalsacia where she would be safe and happy. Hang the consequences of war and political fallout for Kelverny if their queen never returned.
She’d never agree to it. As much as her grandfather tried to break her, she had a determination he’d never been able to steal. No matter how hard it was, she’d rule Kelverny with a hand that, while not the oppressive one of her grandfather, would still be strong and courageous.
As her prince consort, he would be there at her side, supporting her every step of the way. And on a day in what he hoped was a future a long, long time off, she would stand at his side as his queen consort when he became the king of Lalsacia.
After easing out of the bed and dressing, Lorne made his way out of the room he and Adeline had been given and down the hall to the sitting room where they’d met with his father the night before.
The rumble of talking echoed up the stairs from the taproom below, and he thought he caught a few Kelvernese accented voices in the hubbub.
Likely some of the Kelvernese guards had arrived during the night after receiving his father’s note.
Once he stepped inside, he found his father already there, perusing a few messages while he ate his breakfast. A tray with a few covered dishes waited on a side table for other early risers.
“Good morn—” Lorne began, but his father was on his feet, crossing the room, and pulling Lorne into a crushing hug before Lorne even managed to get the full greeting out.
Lorne oofed out a breath and returned the hug, just with somewhat less force than his father.
“I’m all right. Nothing happened to me overnight. ”
“Indulge me another moment.” His father’s grip didn’t loosen. “I spent weeks not knowing what was happening to you or if you were even still alive.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get word to you sooner.
” Lorne patted his father’s back. He’d known those months had to have been hard on his father.
After losing Lorne’s mother, all they had were each other.
“I didn’t want to give away who I was, so I had to be careful how I asked for information and how much I pushed. ”
“No, you were wise in that. Especially with things so unsettled in the Kelverny court and between our kingdoms.” His father finally released him, but he didn’t take a step back. His gaze searched Lorne’s face. “I spoke with Godwin. He told me about…what happened in the dungeon.”
Lorne didn’t miss the hesitation, as if his father couldn’t bring himself to say torture out loud when it came to his son.
An irrational irritation stirred in his chest. He had hoped to keep the full truth of what had happened to him from his father. Surely there had been no reason to burden his father like that. It was over and done. And with Adeline on the throne, it wouldn’t happen again.
But of course, Godwin wouldn’t prevaricate when confronted by his king. He might have even felt compelled to relay the whole of it since he’d known that Lorne wouldn’t.
Lorne sighed, glancing away. “I’m fine. It was hard.
” He’d come so very close to breaking, down there in the dungeon.
He’d been one torture session away from collapsing into a sobbing, begging mess.
“But then Adeline came, and…well, she saved me. I married her out of sheer desperation at first, but then she became so much more to me.”
“You’ve grown.” His father’s gaze still searched his face, but his expression held a smile, a note of pride in his voice.
Lorne nodded. His father didn’t just mean that he’d toughened after experiencing a harsher reality than anything he’d known before.
But it was more than that. He was more able to face the harder things with compassion and gentleness.
He’d left a brash boy filled with the overconfidence that he could end this war, and he’d returned a man prepared to give of himself in a way he hadn’t been before. “I have.”
Father nodded and took a step back. “I look forward to getting to know your wife better.”
“You’ll like her. She’s nothing like her grandfather.” Lorne flexed his fingers at his sides. “She needs family in her life. I might have suffered for a few weeks under her grandfather, but she suffered for years. It’s telling that the fleech dragon is bonding with her, not me.”
There were many theories on why some fleech dragons bonded with a person. But most often, the bonding occurred with a person who needed healing in some way.
While Adeline had been physically healed, she would battle the effects of her grandfather’s manipulation and degradation for the rest of her life. That wasn’t something that would go away quickly, even with a fleech dragon’s soothing magic.
“I will do my best.” His father turned and strolled back to his seat. “I will gladly provide any support or mentoring she wishes as a new monarch, but it will be tricky. Kelverny will not be comfortable with the Lalsacian king having too much influence over their queen.”
“They’ll have to get used to it, considering their prince consort also happens to be the heir to the Lalsacian throne.
” Lorne shrugged as he headed for the side table.
After grabbing an empty plate, he lifted the covers on the dishes and helped himself to the sausages, eggs, and toast provided.
The savory scents of the breakfast set his stomach to rumbling.
“A problem we’ll need to discuss during the official diplomatic meeting.” His father sat, picked up a mug, and took a sip of his coffee. “While it was a rather brilliant move on your part, marrying the Kelvernese queen, it does leave us in a rather interesting political pickle.”
“Yes.” Lorne re-covered the dishes, crossed the room, and took the seat across from his father. “But I don’t regret it.”
There was a reason heirs to thrones—especially sole heirs—didn’t marry each other, leaving that duty to younger siblings or daughters of high-ranking nobles.
Kingdoms didn’t just merge because their royalty had done so, and Kelverny and Lalsacia weren’t even starting from a position of peace but from the bitterness of five years of war.
But once they had his father, Adeline, Thaddeus, and Lorne all in the same room, he trusted that they’d figure something out.
Clutching the fleech dragon to her chest—the dragon didn’t seem to want to leave her side, much less her arms—Adeline made her way from the bedroom toward the parlor she vaguely recalled from the night before.
When she’d woken, she’d discovered Lorne gone, and a bag with some of her things left beside the bed.
She’d felt a lot more herself after washing up with the water and basin, and she was thankful she could change into a clean dress instead of having to put on the dress from the previous day.
That dress was currently missing. Presumably the inn staff was attempting to clean it of her vomit, sweat, and dirt from the forest floor from the day before.
She shuddered to remember how she’d hugged the king of Lalsacia while wearing that rather soiled garment.
Worse, she’d kissed Lorne before having the chance to brush her teeth.
As she opened the door to the parlor, she was hit with the sound of laughter and multiple voices.
Inside, the king of Lalsacia, Lorne, and Thaddeus sat in a circle, empty plates on the tables showing they’d already eaten breakfast. They were all smiling—Lorne seemed to have been laughing a moment ago—and even Thaddeus had a smile, even if his posture remained stiff and professional in the presence of a king and prince.
“Adeline.” Lorne spotted her first, hopping to his feet and hurrying toward her.
Behind him, Thaddeus stood and bowed, sheer relief in every line of his face and the easing of his posture. “Your Majesty. It is good to see you awake and well.”
“I’m sorry to have worried you.” Adeline sent a smile past Lorne’s shoulder in the moment before Lorne reached her.
Lorne wrapped her in his arms and pressed a light kiss to her forehead. “Good morning. You seemed to sleep well.”
“I did.” The best she’d slept in a long time. She guessed that likely had to do with the dragon she currently held. And perhaps she subconsciously felt more safe here in an inn within the borders of what was supposed to be an enemy kingdom than she did in her own bed at her own castle.
That instinct wasn’t without cause. She was probably more at risk of assassination from her own people than she was from her enemy. Her lords had already tried to kill her. Twice.
Lorne took a step back and gestured toward a side table, where a large tray piled with dishes rested. “There’s food, although it might have gone cold by now. We can request the kitchen send up more.”
“I’ll be fine.” She made her way to the side table and investigated the remnants of food left on the tray. The toast, eggs, and sausages were looking rather cold and unappetizing, but she didn’t want to delay everyone by asking for fresh food.
Lorne halted behind her, then grabbed the tray of food before she could take any of it. “There’s no way you’re eating that. I’ll see about getting a fresh plate for you.”
With that, he whisked the tray out of the room and disappeared, leaving her alone with Thaddeus and King Philip. Not a situation she’d ever envisioned.
“Come. Sit.” King Philip gestured at the chair Lorne had vacated.
“We shouldn’t linger too long.” Adeline edged toward the chair, not sure if she dared face King Philip, now that she knew he was her father-in-law.
Sure, he’d hugged her the night before. But that didn’t erase the strange tension.
“I’m not sure what kind of chaos is happening in Kelverny right now, and we really need to finish negotiating that peace treaty. ”
“Yes, but we have enough time for you to eat a hearty breakfast. No reason you need to go into the negotiations on an empty stomach.” King Philip gave her a smile that was somehow parental, despite how awkward he too must feel.
He cast a glance around the room and heaved a sigh.
“As much as I’d love to suggest that we finish the treaty negotiations in comfort here, we can’t risk the Kelvernese people believing I exerted undue influence over you or that you signed the peace treaty while under duress on Lalsacian soil. ”
“No.” Adeline heaved a sigh of her own. It would have been much nicer to simply get the negotiations over with here in this comfortable room with its plush chairs rather than return to that tent between the battle lines.
She stroked a hand over the fleech dragon’s back.
“I suppose I’ll need to return this little one to the forest on our way. ”
“Actually, I think the dragon has bonded with you. I doubt he will leave, even if you give him the option.” King Philip smiled, as if he was unconcerned that one of his kingdom’s precious fleech dragons had bonded with the enemy queen.
“Sounds like someone else I know.” She hadn’t meant to trap this fleech dragon with her, any more than she’d meant to trap Lorne.
But had she trapped them? Or, as Lorne kept insisting, had they chosen her? Chosen to be with her, no matter what they were giving up to do so?
The thought of being chosen like that was so overwhelming that she couldn’t quite fathom it.
Her grandfather had certainly never chosen anyone with such a depth of love.
Not her. Not his own son, whom he’d likely had a hand in killing.
Even as king, he’d chosen his own power by inciting a war rather than doing what was truly good for his kingdom.
But there had been others. Hadn’t Thaddeus and Jelsa shown her what chosen loyalty could look like? And all the guards who had remained loyal to her? They’d never swayed in their devotion, even when she was standing alone and vulnerable beneath her grandfather’s dictates.
Could she choose them as wholeheartedly in return? Could she give her heart to her kingdom, her people, and to Lorne as completely as she ought?