“Oh, that sounds splendid. Anyone else want to join in?”
Everyone agreed eating out was a fine idea. I loved how every single person in this room knew precisely where James was and yet no one even raised a question about it. James, you really do inspire loyalty.
The moment they left, the door shut behind them, I looked between my legs again. “Dearest? Why don’t you take a nap while they’re gone?”
He looked blearily up at me. With the way his head nodded, he was on the brink of sleep already. “Is everyone gone?”
“Everyone but us. Hmm? Stretch out a little and sleep.”
“You’ll be here?”
“Right here. Would it make you more comfortable if I lay down with you?”
He pondered that for a second before nodding.
“All right.” I took my chair pillow with me to the floor, using it to cushion my head, and pushed the chair completely out of the way. James scooted out enough to snuggle against my chest, taking the crocheted blanket I used in the winters with him. The very second he got situated, he was out like a light.
I swear to you, I was like a comfort item for this man. The moment he had me within his arms, he slept like the dead.
I stroked his hair back from his face, enjoying the silky texture against my fingers, and wished I could do something. Anything. For all James praised my intelligence, I couldn’t see a way out of this predicament right now. Shy of leaving the country entirely, which it might come down to.
Not being the least bit tired, I couldn’t begin to nap, but I wasn’t going to move as long as James slept. His green notebook caught my eye and I lifted it, arranging my arms carefully so I could read it while not disturbing him.
A lot of his notes were doomsday plans for when things went sideways, which meant his mind had gone to a very dark place indeed. I really had to get him to tell me more about Valentina. Everything I knew about her revolved around the havoc she had wreaked in the kingdom and how James had only gotten four hours of sleep a night because of her. He was responding like a domestic violence survivor being forced to share space with his abuser. Which made me quite homicidal in turn.
I skipped back a few more pages, hoping for new information. Half of these plans weren’t even viable (I blamed the lack of sleep) so they could be ignored. Had he learned anything before I’d joined him here? Surely one of his spies had met with him.
Ah-ha, here was the page I was looking for. He had met with both Tremon and Ramsey.
Tremon wasn’t sure how Victor and Valentina met, and he suspected Victor was in touch with Valentina somehow, although he could find no prior correspondence to prove it. Surely they’d met before Victor boarded the boat somehow? The man had only been gone a month, after all—too short of a time to arrange any kind of engagement, no matter how informal. Proving it might be tricky. Victor could be clever when he tried, he just normally didn’t put much effort into anything.
I flipped the page and discovered James’s notes on Ramsey’s visit. I felt like crying or swearing, maybe both, upon reading hisintel. So they really had planned to make James crown prince, despite everything?
And—motherfucker. They really were thinking of transferring the engagement with Valentina over to James.
While I’d suspected, I didn’t like having it confirmed. I didn’t like it one bit.
I would ask how they could do this, but I unfortunately knew the answer. The king and queen were entirely selfish people who thought of their children as political pawns. Even the promises they’d made to James—in writing, no less—meant nothing to them if they could have their way in the end. I hugged him tighter, fully understanding why he’d spiraled so badly. Of course he would, facing this same possibility that had almost mentally destroyed him the first go-around.
Reading his notes, knowing what he faced, made me torn. I still wanted James to be king. I knew he would excel at it. This country might not survive the future if hewasn’tking, but…
If he became king, would it mean marrying Valentina again? Did those two things come hand in hand? Was it fate, set in stone no matter what he did? Was there nothing I could do to counter it, to overturn the events somehow? What was I missing? What had I overlooked to correct this crooked path?
Surely there must besomethingI could do, if Vuheia herself had told me to protect James.
I’d promised James I’d stay by his side no matter what happened, and I meant it. But I didn’t actually want to watch him marry someone else. Seeing him get married, even if only for politics, would be incredibly painful. My heart would break.
I also struggled to justify the marriage. Valentina terrified James like nothing else. He already didn’t want to be king, but forcing him into the role and marrying him to that she-demon at the same time just to avoid the pitfalls of the future… It was so hard to justify any of it. Even in my head.
My personal feelings aside—which were hella conflicted—I knew the right political answer. James becoming king and marrying a daughter from our ally, whom we shared a border with, would be the right political move.
But at what cost to the man himself?
Fifty-seven
James
I gradually woke up, cuddled against a warm chest I knew well, and wanted nothing more than to burrow in deeper. Somehow. Not quite sure how, to be honest, as my nose was almost squashed into his chest already.
