4 #3
“It’s not about you right now, asshole,” I seethed and pushed him towards Darren who had also gotten up to intervene. “Stay away from her. Do your job or we’ll figure out how to get rid of you finally.”
Sagan snorted as she stared at the balcony floor.
“He’s beloved. The whole nation loves him more than me.
He’s been forgiven everything and—it’s his home more than mine.
Even if we could ever tell anyone the truth…
They’d still blame me.” She let out a shaky sigh. “It doesn’t matter. He can have it.”
We all froze to the point I wasn’t even breathing.
“What do you mean?” Maple finally whispered.
Sagan looked out at the night that was growing lighter, dawn probably not even a few hours off. She pushed to stand. “I wasn’t supposed to be queen. Time to find out who just Sagan is.”
Fear raced through me as blood rushed to my ears just like when Rhys had died and people said that I should become regent until Sagan was older and mated. But this time it wouldn’t be regent or whatever.
It would be king.
It would be real.
I would have to be in charge for real.
I almost puked again in horror as she turned towards me looking determined… Until I saw the dead look in her eyes like she’d lost everything.
Then I was angry.
Angry at my brother. At Amelia. At Thovudin.
At the whole world for breaking this wonderful girl who had been such a blessing to all of us.
To this sweet little poppet who used to tell me about studying in other countries and promised to take me there and would make sure I wasn’t scared to travel because she’d done it so young and she wasn’t scared anymore.
No. No, I can’t let this happen.
I grabbed her arms before she opened her mouth and shook her. “Fuck them. Fuck Rhys. You were born to be queen. The gods decided you were the person and gave you life, Sagan.” I chuffed when she opened her mouth. “Rhys is dead and was weak to have lost his mind—I don’t know, but he’s gone.
“He doesn’t get a vote anymore. He stopped getting a vote the moment he could call his own daughter a monster.
He stopped being someone we fucking listen to when he started thinking crazy shit, okay?
” I shook my head when she tried to argue.
“I won’t do it. I won’t take your position.
I can’t. I can’t take your birthright from you. ”
“I won’t either,” Maple said firmly. “None of us will. Not because of this crazy. We’ll tell them and—no. It’s insane.”
Darren snorted. “No one sane would want to come in after you and the amazing job you’re doing. They’d have to be an idiot, and everything would collapse around them. That’s what would happen and fast.”
I mentally winced when Sagan physically did. That was almost cruel of him to say because she would feel guilty about doing that… But he wasn’t wrong. One of our idiot family members might still take the job and they would make a mess that toppled the monarchy. Probably in less than a few months.
I cupped Sagan’s cheek. “You are better than Rhys ever was, poppet.”
I smiled when her eyes flashed shock at the cute name I’d secretly called her when she was really young.
Rhys and Amelia hated it, so I would tease her with it when we were alone.
It wasn’t even a popular term for children in Thovudin, but when she was really little and no one was watching she used to make popping noises as she played.
Just skipped around and popped her lips.
It was beyond adorable. I had an image of that tiny girl, and it killed me how my own brother had hurt her beyond repair.
“You fixed everything he couldn’t and so many of his mistakes in mere months, poppet,” I whispered.
“Fuck, Rhys. He wasn’t worthy of being your father.
That’s the truth. I don’t know—I don’t care about his insanity anymore but honestly, all I see is jealousy.
That’s all I can think is he was jealous he wasn’t the special one from the gods with two dragons. ”
“You can’t really think that,” she hedged.
I ran my tongue over my teeth, hating to lie to her, but also not sure it was a lie.
“Nothing was bigger than his ego. If you crushed that, then he would… I don’t know.
We’ll never really know, and Amelia couldn’t ever really know either since it’s only what he told her, not his own thoughts.
” I gave a half shrug. “What I do know is you are who the gods wanted.
“I know you are the ruler Thovudin needs. I know you are amazing already and the world will lose out if you quit because your dead parents were fucking lunatics and didn’t want you to be queen.
Fuck them. Like… Fuck them, poppet. I say that as someone who feels the same about his parents.
” I kissed her forehead. “Prove them wrong. That’s their punishment. ”
I wasn’t sure it was the right way to handle this, but I couldn’t have her quit and me be king. More than that, I couldn’t have Rhys and Amelia win and Sagan lose what was supposed to be hers. They couldn’t break her.
But as I pulled away and saw darkness in her eyes, her dragons moving behind them, I wondered if maybe I’d made everything worse and lit the fuse on something even graver.