Leo pulled me into his side, and I leaned against him, thankful for the quiet, steady reprieve with my family.
Another knock on the door had all four of us turning. A middle-aged woman in a wheelchair being pushed by a servant appeared in the doorway.
The servant cleared his throat. “Isabella Grimaldi, the Dowager Queen Mother, would like to see you, Your Majesty.”
My eyebrows flew up.Galen’s mother.
I hadn’t met her yet, since she hadn’t been feeling well when we were last here. I took in her golden-brown skin, her graying hairflowing in brittle waves down her shoulders, her thin, sunken cheeks. Her hazel eyes were so hooded, she could barely meet my gaze when I stood before her.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Your Grace,” I said, bowing low.
She opened her mouth to speak, but a hacking cough came out instead. With shaking arms, she raised a yellow, bloodied rag to her lips, her shoulders bobbing with each cough. She waved her other hand in the air while clearing her throat, and the servant rushed forward with a small silver box.
“For you,” Isabella Grimaldi rasped. It looked like it took all her energy just to get those two words out. The servant opened the box to reveal a strand of pearls and matching earrings, with a single diamond on each.
“Your Grace, they’re beautiful,” I murmured, fingering the pearls.
Another coughing fit overtook her. My heart sank as I thought about how it must feel for Galen to have watched his father and now his mother succumb to such a terrible disease. When she looked back up at me, I saw a haze covering her tired eyes. She swallowed thickly and pointed to her throat, then the jewels, then to me. She wanted me to wear them.
I nodded. “It would be an honor. Thank you, Your Grace.”
Her thin lips split into a faint smile, and she reached out to take my hand. “Thank you,” she choked out. “For…for saving him.”
I bit down on my bottom lip and nodded before taking the box from the servant. Isabella slumped back in her wheelchair, and he pushed her out of the room.
Rose stared at their retreating figures with a puzzled expression on her face. “What kind of illness did Galen say she had?”
“He didn’t specify,” I said with a shrug. “Just that the same one eventually took his father’s life. Some lung disease, maybe.”
Her brow furrowed, and Leo grazed her arm with his finger. “What are you thinking, little wolf?”
“I don’t know,” Rose responded slowly, toying with the pouch of herbs she always kept strapped to her. “But I want to go seeabout something. I’ll meet you at the wedding, okay?” She kissed Leo and gave me another hug before starting off after Isabella.
“Rissa, there’s something I want to give you too,” my mother said as she crossed to the door and shut it softly. She held a book in her hands—the same book she’d had in the Mid Territory the night of the Harvest Festival, with a letter sticking out the top. I gave her a quizzical look when she pulled it out and ran her fingers over the worn edges.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“It’s a letter. From your father,” she added, and my eyes widened. She took my hands and placed the envelope in them, giving me a squeeze as her eyes lined with silver. My mother so rarely cried—a product of everything she’d been through, everything she was “supposed” to be as a former empress. But there was a slight tremble of her hands, a shake in her voice. “He wrote this for you when you were born. I had always thought he would be the one to give it to you when he felt the time was right, but the Fates had other plans.”
The paper was wrinkled and faded by time, with the edges curling in on themselves. I slowly opened the flap to pull out the yellowed pages inside.
“Bad timing. You should’ve given this to mebeforemy makeup was on, Mother,” I joked through the lump forming in my throat.
She cupped my cheek and gave me a small smile. “We’ll give you some time alone. I love you, sweet girl. Your father would be so proud of you.”
“I’m just glad you’re here,” I whispered when she pulled me in for a hug.
As she backed away, Leo took her place. His tail flicked out from beneath its hiding spot under his thick cloak and curled anxiously around his ankle.
“I know this probably isn’t how you imagined this day would go,” he started. “But I was wondering if you’d let me walk you down the aisle?”
Tears stung at the backs of my eyes. “Emperor’s tits,bothof youcould have done this earlier,” I said, hurriedly swiping at my cheeks. I scrunched my nose to hold back the wave of tears and sniffed, then tugged at my brother’s neck to bring him down to me.
“I’d love that, little brother,” I murmured.
He cleared his throat and released me, nodding as he met my mother at the door to my suite. “We’ll see you down there,” he said.
Once they had both gone, I tossed myself into the vanity chair. I took a deep breath and fingered the folded letter, feeling each crease in the thin parchment. When I opened it, my eyes scanned the words and instantly recognized my father’s cramped scrawl.
