Chapter 107 James #2
True to form, she said, “We’re alive. Our hearts beat in our chests, whereas all those who tried to hurt those we care about are in the grave or in the stomachs of Ithicanian sharks.
From Valcotta all the way north to Cardiff, we are bound by blood shared and by blood spilled on one another’s behalf, which is stronger than signatures on paper.
We need to relish this moment for as long as it lasts, because eventually, new villains will rise. ”
Ahnna wasn’t wrong, especially in Harendell where greed and the desire for power seemed to run deeper than in other nations.
The war had ended with Harendell’s surrender in the face of a united force greater than had ever been seen in recorded history, but in truth, the people had been happy to finally abandon the ambitions of too many rulers with a taste for more.
A taste that was only ever satisfied by stepping on the backs of soldiers and civilians, their lives nothing but numbers on a list of casualties deemed acceptable next to the accounts of profit set beside them.
James believed that was why they’d been so swift to accept his return—because he and Ahnna brought both the promise of peace and the willingness to defend those who were so often stepped upon.
The story of Ahnna diving into shark-infested waters to save Harendell’s infant king had spread through the nation like wildfire, and her name had become synonymous with a different sort of rule than Harendell was used to, but one they were desperate to keep.
Which was what they needed to talk about.
“Virginia wants me to make a statement.” He kept his eyes on the view out the window, taking in the river valley. “To declare my parents’ marriage and my legitimacy, and then to claim the throne.”
Ahnna leaned her shoulder against his, still tickling the baby’s feet, the child’s content noises so at odds with the heaviness weighing upon him.
“You are a constant in the eyes of the people, James. I know you don’t always see it, but they trust you to do right by them in a way they trust few others. They will support you.”
“And you.”
She made a soft humming sound, then bent to kiss the baby’s forehead. “I think they understand that I’ll fight to defend them, and that means something. They want a ruler who will protect them.”
Ahnna had been the people’s princess in Ithicana—beloved because she never put anyone above them, least of all herself. She’d be the people’s queen in Harendell, of that James had no doubt.
Destined to rule and to rule well.
“Do you want to hold him?”
James glanced at her, then away again. “I don’t know anything about holding babies.”
“It’s not hard. Just don’t drop him.”
Before he could answer one way or another, Ahnna scooped up his nephew and deposited him in James’s arms.
Every part of him went rigid, and seeming to sense it, the baby began to cry. “Ahnna…”
Her hand curved around his face, forcing James to look at her. “I know it hurts,” she said. “But we are all he has now. We are all that stands between him and a very hard world. He’s ours, and we are his.”
James stared into her beautiful hazel eyes. “It’s not fair to ask you to raise the son of people who tried to murder you. He’s not your blood. He’s—”
“What does blood have to do with anything?” Ahnna tilted her head, hazel eyes thoughtful.
“I chose you for no reason other than that you were all my heart wanted. I choose Oliver because my heart tells me that is what it wants me to do. To be bound by love is a far more powerful force than anything that flows through our veins—you and I are testament to that.”
His throat felt tight, emotions threatening to drown him, not the least of which was fear.
Yet James made himself look down at his nephew.
The moment he did, Oliver stopped crying.
Amber eyes framed with dark lashes stared up at him with the trust that only comes with innocence.
“Ahnna, if I claim the throne, he will suffer for it. So will Ginny, though she says she doesn’t care. ”
His wife didn’t answer, only stroked her fingers through his hair, and James knew that she was waiting for him to voice the fear in his heart.
He swallowed hard. “If I claim the throne, it comes at the cost of William’s legacy, which is…
already fraught. The truth will paint my brother not just with the criticism he earned but as a false king.
A pretender to the crown. A bastard. And as much as it should not, that legacy will cling to Oliver like a stain, and there will be nothing he can do to escape it. I know, because I’ve lived it.”
James drew in a ragged breath. “He deserves better than that. I want him to have better than that.” He lifted his face to look at her. “But I also want Harendell to have you.”
“I know.” She leaned forward and kissed him. “I think it also deserves to have you.”
She reached beneath one of the chaise cushions and extracted a large, leather-bound book that James recognized from the law library. Ahnna opened it to a marked page, then took Oliver from him. “Read, James. And then choose.”
James picked up the book, taking in the laws surrounding the coronation of a child, who could not rule on his own until the age of majority.
Until such time, a regent would rule in his stead with all the authority of the crown.
His eyes moved over who should be named to the regency, and then he slowly closed the book.
Caly had cast the bones and seen his future, and in it, she’d seen that Ahnna would never be queen.
Not that she would never rule.
James pulled his wife and child into his arms, the future he wanted as certain in his heart as the stars in the skies. “I choose this life.”
Ahnna smiled, her eyes liquid bright. “And we will show no mercy to anyone who tries to take it from us.”