Chap 22
The king waved away the attendants as he entered his rooms.
Penny barely had time to look around before he set her gently on her feet.
Then he immediately began loosening the laces of her gown.
"Her sleeping things are in that wardrobe."
He pointed toward a carved cabinet.
Wade obeyed automatically.
Mostly because he was still trying to understand what was happening.
"Tell me what happened."
The king's voice was soft.
The question was for Wade.
"She is homesick."
Wade pulled a thin silk sleeping shift from the wardrobe and handed it over.
"Your Majesty."
The fire crackled softly in the hearth.
Penny sat staring into it.
Looking embarrassed now that the tears had stopped.
The king guided her into a chair beside the flames.
Then began removing his own formal coat.
Wade blinked.
"Do I sleep in here too?"
The king looked at him as though he had suddenly grown a second head.
"No."
"Ah."
Wade pointed toward the door.
"So should I leave?"
"Not yet."
The king's gaze never left Penny.
"I need your services a little longer."
That sentence did absolutely nothing to answer Wade's questions.
The king crossed the room.
Lifted Penny effortlessly.
Then carried her to the enormous bed.
Wade's eyes narrowed.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
The king sat beside her.
"Ask her what I can do."
Wade looked at Penny.
Then deliberately ignored the king's question.
"Are you alright?"
He had switched to the language of the ocean.
"Do you want me to stay?"
Penny offered a small smile.
"I am sorry."
Her voice was quiet.
"I am being silly. I'll be fine."
Wade stared at her.
Then slowly turned toward the king.
"She says I look uncomfortable."
Penny immediately looked alarmed.
"And she believes I should lie down too."
Penny buried her face in her hands.
The king nodded thoughtfully.
"Yes. Of course."
The king pulled her toward the middle of the bed.
Making room.
Wade climbed onto the mattress.
Fluffed the pillow.
Then stretched out comfortably.
"Oh."
He settled deeper.
"I could get used to this."
The king didn't understand the words in Oceanic.
His attention remained fixed entirely on Penny.
Wade watched that.
Watched the way the king's hand rested lightly against her shoulder.
Watched the way Penny unconsciously leaned toward him.
Watched the way the king looked at her when he thought nobody was paying attention.
Then Wade frowned.
Because he was beginning to suspect the king wasn't treating Penny like a flower at all.
The king's fingers lifted to the crimson ribbon around Penny's throat.
Carefully he untied the bow.
The silk slid free.
He wrapped the ribbon around his hand once.
Almost unconsciously.
Then set it upon the bedside table.
Wade watched the entire thing.
His eyes narrowed.
"There."
He pointed.
"What is that?"
Penny glanced toward the ribbon.
"Oh."
Her voice softened.
"He put it on me the night he bought me."
Wade's expression immediately soured.
"The sentence somehow got worse."
Penny ignored him.
"Then the first night he used to wrap it around our hands."
Wade stopped smiling.
"He what?"
Penny pointed.
"Like that."
She mimed the motion.
"He would talk and talk and talk."
A small shrug.
"I couldn't understand anything."
Wade slowly looked toward the king.
Then back toward the ribbon.
Then back toward the king.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
The king remained silent.
Watching.
Waiting.
"So you have no idea what he was saying?"
Penny shook her head.
"None."
The king closed his eyes briefly.
The look that crossed his face made Wade suddenly very interested in the fireplace.
Because that looked suspiciously like regret.
Wade pointed toward the ribbon.
"She's asking what it meant."
The king's gaze settled on Penny.
Then shifted to Wade.
For the first time that evening the warmth disappeared from his expression.
Not anger.
Assessment.
Calculation.
"Before I answer that."
His voice was quiet.
"You swear what is said in this room remains here."
Wade immediately sat up straighter.
"Your Majesty, I swear on all things holy, unholy, and my mother's switch."
A pause.
"Especially my mother's switch."
The king stared.
"You are an odd man."
"So I've been told."
The king laughed softly.
Then the laughter faded.
His eyes returned to the ribbon.
"It began fifty years ago."
The room grew quieter.
"I made a terrible mistake."
Even Penny looked up.
Because there was something in his voice she had never heard before.
The king looked not at Wade.
Not at the fire.
Not even at the ribbon.
"I married the wrong woman."
The fire crackled softly.
Neither Penny nor Wade interrupted.
"There were two women carrying my sons."
The king's gaze drifted toward the flames.
"One died."
His jaw tightened.
"Murdered."
The room went silent.
"The other seemed just as heartbroken as I was."
A bitter smile touched his lips.
"She comforted me."
The smile vanished.
"I married her after Sebastian was born."
Wade shifted slightly on the bed.
"And then?"
The king laughed.
There wasn't any humor in it.
"Then I became king."
His fingers brushed the ribbon on the bedside table.
"My father finally had his freedom."
"And I inherited a wife."
The words sounded almost tired.
"For years I heard whispers."
He looked toward Penny.
"Flowers talk."
Penny thought, Yes they did.
"At first the rumors were small."
His expression darkened.
"Then they grew."
He swallowed.
"Stories that Kaida never had a best friend."
A pause.
"Stories that the woman I mourned had been murdered."
Wade sat up straighter.
The king's eyes returned to the fire.
"And stories that my wife had done it."
Nobody spoke.
Because there was nothing to say.
"I never proved it."
His voice dropped lower.
"But I stopped trusting her."
The king rubbed a hand over his face.
"Then immortality made everything worse."
Wade frowned.
"How?"
The king looked exhausted.
"Because hunger reveals character."
The answer came immediately.
"Some become kinder."
His eyes flicked briefly toward Penny.
"Some become monsters."
The warmth vanished.
"She fed from flowers."
A pause.
"Again."
Another.
"And again."
The king's jaw tightened.
"I emptied the men's garden to stop her."
Wade blinked.
"You what?"
"I moved them."
The king sighed.
"I locked the gates."
"She found another way."
"The women?" Wade guessed.
The king nodded.
"The women."
The room fell quiet again.
For a long moment only the fire spoke.
Finally the king looked toward Penny.
There was something vulnerable in his eyes now.
Something she had never seen before.
"I became desperate."
His hand found the ribbon again.
Turning it slowly through his fingers.
"So I went below the palace."
Wade frowned.
"Below?"
"The catacombs."
The king's voice softened.
"The kings before me are buried there."
His gaze drifted somewhere far away.
"Ancient kings who grew tired of immortality and returned their magic to the land."
Even Wade stopped joking.
"I asked them how to save my kingdom."
The king smiled.
Small.
Sad.
"They gave me very strange advice."
Penny leaned forward.
For the first time since the story began.
The king looked directly at her.
"They told me to find someone who smelled of sunshine."
His eyes softened.
"And the sea."
The king's fingers found the ribbon again.
Turning it slowly through his hand.
"When I found her, I acted rashly."
A small laugh escaped him.
Not proud.
Not embarrassed.
Just honest.
"I took the ribbon from my own waist and tied it around her throat."
His eyes settled on Penny.
"The only woman I had ever done that for was Kaida."
Penny stared at him.
The king continued.
"She wore hers for less than an hour."
His smile softened.
"Penelope has never taken hers off."
Wade glanced toward Penny's neck.
Then toward the ribbon.
Then back toward the king.
The pieces were beginning to fit together.
And Wade was not certain he liked the picture.
"That first night," the king continued quietly, "I used the ribbon to bind us."
The room grew still.
"As husband and wife."
Wade sat upright.
Penny stopped breathing.
The king looked down at his hands.
"It wasn't complete."
His thumb traced the ribbon.
"Not yet."
His gaze lifted to Penny.
"Then one morning she woke from a dream and kissed me."
Penny's heart dropped into her stomach.
Oh no.
"The old magic accepted the vow."
The king's voice was almost reverent.
"I felt it happen."
The fire cracked.
Nobody moved.
"The bond deepened."
His eyes softened.
"And when I visited the chapel afterward..."
A pause.
"The queen's name had vanished from the marriage stone."
Silence.
Penny felt suddenly very warm.
Very awake.
Very married.
Every moment she'd spent teasing Sebastian.
Every dance with Evander.
The kiss through the gate with Wade.
Even the kisses with Alyrina underwater passing air back and forth.
And even the dreams, the naughty dreams of her and Wade that led to that kiss that sealed her as married to a vampire king.
Every ridiculous choice.
Married.
Beside her, Wade looked as though someone had struck him in the face with a fish.
Slowly he turned toward the king.
Then toward Penny.
Then back toward the king.
"Do you want me to tell her this?"
The king's answer came immediately.
"No."
Wade blinked.
The king's gaze never left Penny.
"No."
Not anger.
Not fear.
Something sadder.
"I want her to choose me."
The room fell quiet again.
"If she learns the truth now,"
His fingers tightened around the ribbon.
"She might stay because she feels responsible."
His eyes lowered.
"For the kingdom."
"For Sebastian."
"For the flowers."
Then he looked at Penny.
Not as a king.
Not even as a husband.
Just as a man hopelessly in love.
"I want her to stay because she wants me."
Wade stared at him.
Then slowly looked toward Penny.
Who was suddenly finding the fireplace incredibly interesting.
Because if Wade had just been hit by a fish,
Penny had been hit by the entire boat.