22 #2
“The tiger teams have already reinterviewed everyone with Michele, the resource management specialist. The royal family was thrilled you allowed them to bring some of their own staff and chefs. I said the allowance was fine among allies. They had no idea we just didn’t have the staff there.
They took it as—they’re grateful. Really grateful.
“And the tigers said—trolls aren’t greedy by nature.
They want to be comforted and comfortable when their palace is basically gone.
They won’t forget the favor.” She snorted.
“I saw one of the princes helping the crews because he had energy to get out. He didn’t know anything about construction, but he said carrying things was nice. ”
“They saw a lot with that war. I feel bad for them,” I admitted.
“Princess Adelheid was always really nice to me. She was one of the first people I met when I was first sent off. I might be small for a dragon, but I’m still bigger than most shifters, and she is too as a troll.
Plus, people are so weird to her because of her twin and not knowing who the real heir is. ”
“That would drive me fucking nuts, but it’s not for other people to judge,” Maple grumbled.
“I look forward to meeting her. They were all lovely.” She kissed my hair.
“No matter why you were sent away, you thrived, Sagan. All the connections and friends you made mattered. They will help you now—have helped you. You were meant to be queen. Fuck Rhys and Amelia.”
I decided to admit something I kept in my heart.
“I used to wish you were my mother. That you would take me away and we would live with Belinda. Just the four of us. Darren and Fraser too. Living where I spent summers with Belinda. I wanted you both to be my mothers and them to be my fathers.” I chuckled.
“I heard someone at school had two mothers so…”
“Always be greedy like that. You deserve it after all you’ve been through.” She let out a shaky breath. “All you’ll go through.”
I nodded, knowing I was definitely going to go through more than I already had. There was no way around that.
“How much extra meat did you get from the deal you brokered between Tjark and Fornax?” she asked when we were quiet a bit.
“Gobs,” I admitted. “And Prince Ryu was so grateful to handle it that the amount extra he paid was ridiculous. They really want me to host a peace summit next month. I don’t know if that’s too much too fast for Thovudin.”
“What does your heart tell you, my darling niece?”
I sighed. “Fuck what they’re ready for and people are dying in a war that neither royal family wants to be in and is ready to end.”
She kissed my hair again. “Then be the queen and do what’s right. People will see your intentions.”
“Fine, once I have the briefing room,” I grumbled. “I’m not making any more huge announcements outside with fucking posterboards again like a dipshit.”
She laughed. She laughed and laughed and it was a good sound after talking about so many serious and hard topics.
“Do you miss it? School?” she asked after a few moments. She seemed to understand my hesitation. “What would you be doing if you were there? Just on a regular Saturday night?”
I smiled and switched to the language of the foxes.
“I’d be in class learning a new language or working on one they didn’t know I spoke.
In between preparing for whatever speaking engagement they signed me up for without even asking me about first and controlling my life in every way.
I’d sit with people and not be myself but also be more free. ”
“Very pretty,” she whispered. “I still can’t get over you know so many languages. What is it?”
“What the foxes in Kenley speak,” I answered, and then told her what I’d said. “It is really pretty. One of my favorites. Everything they say, every move they make and how they behave is so elegant. I’m smaller for a dragon and they made me feel extra huge and ungraceful.”
She sat with that a moment. “You don’t glide like some women, but you walk with an authority—it’s not a march, but—it’s amazing. I know you don’t feel confident, but you are. It’s like something that your dragons give you somehow. I saw it from when you were young.”
“Like a strut?” I asked.
“No, that’s more cocky,” she muttered. “I don’t know.
” She chuckled and shook her head. “It’s like you always knew you are needed.
It always made me think of what I read when I was younger about keystone species.
How everything adapts to them and they make the whole ecosystem fail or thrive. I always felt that way about you.”
“I’m a keystone species?” I frowned as I looked at her, not really understanding how that made sense.
She snorted and stood, beaming at me. “Sagan, Thovudin is doing better in three months with you in charge than decades with Rhys as king. I know it’s been painful—fuck, it’s been painful, but you got out the elders.
In weeks. Yeah, you’re a keystone species and we’re going to thrive with you here now. ”
That was maybe one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to me which was why I hugged her with all I had.
“Fine, you can have the rest of my treats.”
She laughed. “That was really all I wanted.”
Liar. We both knew it, but it was funny.
And evidently it was the talk we both needed too because we were lighter as we went inside. I knew I slept better as well, ready for the next drama to come… Because there would always be more drama around the corner.
Always.