Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Axel opened the door to the royal suite. Sabine still considered these rooms Rainer’s. After returning from the army camp near the border, she had gone through them, but she hadn’t removed any of the king’s personal items yet. Eventually, she would have his brothers come in to take his things away.
Drew remained in the hallway. “I’m going to have someone walk Harta and give her a treat as her reward for saving you,” he said.
“Thank you.” Sabine closed the door then sat on the sofa. Now that Rainer was dead, she didn’t have to worry about having a guard with her for proprietary reasons.
Axel meandered over to a cabinet, pulling out a bottle and two glasses. “How are you really doing?”
Sabine didn’t know how to answer that. The past couple of weeks had been a whirlwind. So much so that she hadn’t had time to sit and think. It was all about maintaining control and making sure things moved forward. Her sole focus was on the kingdom, not on herself or her feelings.
“How are you doing?” she countered. “You lost your brother and sister. That’s a lot.
” Since being back, she hadn’t had a personal conversation with either prince.
At supper, most everything revolved around the kingdom’s matters.
This was good that the two of them were finally getting a chance to sit and talk without anyone around to overhear them.
After pouring whisky into the glasses, he gave one to Sabine before taking the other and sitting on the sofa across from her. “I’ve been better.” He took a sip.
Sabine held the glass, twisting it in her hands. “While I didn’t love Rainer, I am sorry he’s dead.” Instead of rotting in the dungeon where he belonged. “I’m sorry for your loss.” But not sorry she’d stopped the war and managed to keep the League in place.
He lifted a single shoulder in a semi shrug. “I’ve been thinking,” he said, taking another sip. “What if we married?”
Of all the things he could have said, Sabine hadn’t expected that.
“You look shocked.” He chuckled, setting his glass on the low table and resting his elbows on his thighs. “Consider it—you need guidance. I can give you that. I know you don’t love me, but you didn’t love Rainer either. At least we’re friends.”
Twisting the cup between her hands, she tried to comprehend what Axel was offering.
“I don’t have a lover,” he continued. “I won’t take one. I would like the freedom to dally here and there, but never in front of you or the court. I would never disrespect you like Rainer did.”
Until now, she’d never considered the possibility of marrying Axel. A part of her had hoped she could still be with Evander. But she hadn’t heard from him since Rainer’s death.
“Our law dictates you marry and produce an heir,” Axel said. “You should marry someone from Lynk since you’re not from here. I make sense.”
What he said was true and it did make sense, but her heart screamed against it. After going through everything she had with Rainer, she wanted to marry someone she truly loved. It was naive, yet it was what she wanted.
“What do you think?” he asked, his voice hesitant.
“I don’t know.”
He stood and moved to sit beside her on the sofa. “Sabine, talk to me. What’s wrong?”
“There have been so many changes lately.” Focusing on her hands instead of looking into his eyes, she felt ill at ease being this close to him having never thought of Axel this way. He’d always been a friend and brother-in-law.
“What’s holding you back from agreeing to marry me?”
“I don’t love you.”
“And I don’t love you. But that doesn’t mean we’re not perfect for each other. In time, we can learn to love one another.” He eyed her. “This isn’t because of Prince Evander, is it?”
Panic crept in. “What do you mean?”
“It’s obvious you have feelings for the man, but you know you can never be with him, right? He’s from Avoni. A Lynk queen from Bakley can’t rule Lynk and marry someone from Avoni. You have to see that. You must marry someone from Lynk.”
What he said made sense.
A knock resounded on the door. “Your Majesty,” Drew called out. “The healer is here.”
“Come in.”
The healer entered, Drew right behind him.
“I’m fine,” Axel said. “You don’t need to examine me.”
“Poisons can be tricky,” the healer said. “Sometimes they take hours to work. If there’s an antidote, I need to administer it before the poison kills you.”
“Axel, please let him look you over,” Sabine said. With the recent assassinations, each body had been found in the morning. Maybe they’d been poisoned at supper then died a few hours later in their sleep.
The healer approached him, looking in his eyes, mouth, and ears before listening to his heartbeat. “You appear healthy,” the healer said as he started to pack his bag. “No signs of being poisoned.” Suddenly, he went still, his eyes widening.
“What’s wrong?” Sabine demanded.
The healer stood and took a step back, away from Axel. “I was told the poison found on your plate was a yellow powder?”
“Yes, that is correct.” Sabine set her glass on the low table and stood, facing the healer.
The healer’s eyes darted to Axel before settling back on Sabine. “There is a yellow residue on the prince’s sleeve and a bit on his pants.”
The room suddenly seemed very quiet. Sabine looked at Axel wondering if he’d poisoned her dessert or if he had gotten the poison on his clothes from his own plate. “Did you try to kill me?” They were friends, not enemies. However, something deep inside of her knew the truth.
Axel rolled his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. Why would I ask you to marry me if I wanted you dead?”
A deep foreboding filled her as everything began to make sense. It felt as if her heart would burst out of her chest. He probably only asked her to marry him because his attempt to kill her had failed. “You want to rule Lynk.” The realization shocked her since he’d always appeared so aloof.
Axel pushed to his feet, running his hand through his hair as he inched closer to Sabine.
“I need you to move away from the queen,” Drew said, withdrawing his sword.
“I didn’t try to kill her. I like the queen and don’t want her dead.”
“Then why do you have poison on you?” Sabine asked.
“The healer is lying,” Axel said.
“I can obtain a sample of the yellow substance and test it,” the healer offered.
Something flashed across Axel’s face. In the blink of an eye, he lunged for Sabine.
Without thinking, she withdrew her dagger, nicking his thigh as she stepped away from him, out of reach.
“Not enough to do damage,” Axel said, a sly smile spreading across his face.
“The dagger was poisoned,” she informed him.
Drew had managed to move up behind Axel. His sword now pointed at the prince’s neck.
Axel crumbled to the floor, unconscious.
“You almost gave me a heart attack,” Drew said. “Next time, you can trust that I will handle the threat.” He knelt next to Axel, feeling his pulse in his neck.
She shrugged. “I didn’t think. I just acted.” She slid the dagger back in its sheath. “Thanks for that weapon.”
“I’d say I’m glad it came in handy, but I’m still shaken by watching you defend yourself.”
She smiled, thrilled she’d saved herself for a change. “What are we going to do with Axel?”
“He’s going to be taken to the dungeon.” Drew stood. “As is Prince Anton.”
“Did Anton have anything to do with what happened?” The thought that Anton could have been working against her as well was almost too much to bear.
“Prince Axel just tried to assassinate you,” Drew said. “The healer here is a witness. That means Prince Anton will be punished accordingly.”
Guilt filled her. If Anton was innocent, she didn’t want him to suffer the same fate as Axel. It didn’t seem fair. However, the law was the law.
Sabine stood in the dungeon before Axel’s cell.
When she’d been in Avoni, hunted by Ex, she’d known true fear.
The assassin had been unrelenting and lethal.
When an assassin had tried killing her at the seamstress’s room all those weeks ago, the attempt had been sloppy.
Sabine remembered Lottie discussing it with the assassin that night in the Avoni delegation’s suite.
He’d said the situation hadn’t been handled as he would have liked.
When Sabine brought it up to Evander, Evander had said there was no way that it had been an Avoni assassin who’d tried killing her at the seamstress’s.
What happened last night at supper reminded her of that. Sloppy. She knew it wasn’t someone from Avoni. If it had been, she’d be dead. Given that poison had been found on Axel’s sleeve, she had a feeling he was the one who’d tried killing her in that seamstress’s room.
Axel sat on his cot as if he had all the time in the world. As if he wasn’t in a dungeon.
“Why?” she asked.
“You’re going to have to be a bit more specific,” he said.
“Why did you try to kill me? Twice.”
He smiled. “You finally figured it out.” He stood.
“Why?” She needed to understand. Drew had found a couple of handwritten notes in Lottie and Axel’s rooms indicating the two had been working and plotting together.
“What do you plan to do with me?” he asked, taking a step closer to the bars that separated them.
“I haven’t decided.”
He smiled again. “My offer is still on the table.”
She rolled her eyes. Like she would marry him after he’d tried killing her. Twice. “Just answer my question. Please.” She added the please hoping to appeal to his ego. Hoping to get him talking. Hoping he’d tell her the truth.
He sighed. “Honestly?”
She nodded.
“Rainer was a self-serving prick who didn’t deserve to be king. Killing you was a way to get rid of him. Lottie was easier to manipulate and manage. I could have more and be more with her on the throne. Pure and simple.”
“Then why last night?” she asked.
“With you gone, the royal throne would have been mine.” He shrugged. “You’re from Bakley. You don’t deserve to rule over Lynk.”
There was something wrong with him. “I feel sorry for you.” She turned to leave.
He chuckled. “No need. I have a plan to get out of here.”
The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Glancing over her shoulder, she sighed. “I feel sorry for you because you neither had nor know what a loving family is.” She left him standing there, calling after her.
Drew joined her. “Your orders, Your Majesty?”
“I’d like to say he is to remain here in the dungeon, but I fear for my life. Even with him locked up.”
“I agree. I’ll take care of it.”
She nodded and stopped before Anton’s cell.
“I heard my brother tried to kill you. Is that true?” He was sitting on the floor, not looking her way.
“Yes.” She folded her arms, watching him.
“Do you know why?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think I’m involved?”
“Honestly, I don’t know.” After extensive searches of his room, nothing had been found to indicate he was involved with Lottie or Axel’s plans.
At that, he looked at her. “Have I given you reason to think I want you dead?”
“When I first came to Lynk, I didn’t like or trust you.” Axel always felt safer to her since Anton kept a wall up between them.
“I didn’t trust or like you either,” he admitted.
“Axel tried killing me. Twice.”
Anton’s shoulders slumped, making him appear defeated.
“Did you know?” As the head of Rainer’s spies, it seemed likely Anton would be aware of what was going on.
“I had my suspicions. But then the Avoni delegation arrived and things got muddled. Complicated. I wasn’t sure. I don’t think I really wanted to know the truth.”
She happened to believe him.
“At first I wasn’t sure of your intentions,” Anton said. “For Lynk and my family.”
“I’ve always wanted peace and what’s best for all kingdoms.” And she’d wanted love. Friendship. Loyalty. She hadn’t found any of that with the Lynk royal family. “So where do we go from here?”
He shook his head. “I guess I’ll suffer the same fate as my brother.”
“Is that what you want?” she asked him, curious. Did he want things like love and a family? He never spoke about it to her.
He shrugged.
“What do you want?”
“No one has ever asked me that,” he admitted.
“Well, I’m asking.”
“I want peace. I’d like to downsize my spying operation. I don’t want to have to marry if I don’t want to. And I’d like not to have to train every day—I don’t enjoy it.”
Sabine laughed. “Anton, I think we can arrange that.”
His brows pulled together. “What are you saying?”
Leaning against the bars, she said, “I wrote to the League. If you die because of your brother’s actions, then Lynk has no one to serve in the League. Therefore, the League has granted you a special pardon. You will not suffer your brother’s fate.”
“I’m not going to be executed for treason?”
“Are you guilty of treason?”
“No.”
“Then you’ve done nothing wrong and do not deserve to be in here.” She turned to Drew. “Let him out.”
Drew unlocked the door.
Anton slowly rose to his feet and came to stand before Sabine. “I can’t believe you wrote to the League on my behalf.”
“I wrote to them about that and one other matter that we need to discuss.”
“Which is?”
She chewed on her thumbnail, trying to figure out how to broach this with him. “I never consummated my marriage with Rainer.”
“No one has to know.”
“I told the League. I asked them what my options are.” She’d known she’d be stripped of the crown and wouldn’t be able to rule. Before she wrote to them, she’d prepared herself for that outcome.
He released a large breath. “This complicates things.”
“It does. The League has decided to pass the Lynk crown to you.”
“But I’m not in line for the throne.”
“Your mother was the queen. You are the legitimate heir.” This was the part she was afraid to bring up.
“I hear you have a woman friend. And a five year old son.” The woman he’d been seeing was a commoner in town.
Anton hadn’t told anyone her child was his.
Sabine had only discovered it when she’d read through Felix’s notes.
He’d been helping Anton funnel money to the woman and child for years.
Anton ran his hands over his face.
“Since you have an heir, your son can take over for you as the League member once he’s of age.”
“I don’t know about this. I never planned on ruling.”
Neither had she. But things happened in life and they had to adapt.
“The League has granted you the royal throne and the right to marry the commoner. You may declare the child your heir. It’s a better option than me ruling.
I’m not from here. And, honestly, I can’t marry someone from Lynk.
You have to understand that. I don’t belong here. ”
Anton took her hand, squeezing it. “I don’t think you understand what all you’ve done for Lynk. You are a true queen.”