“On his way to campus!”
“He’s on the train?” I’m already backing away from them,toward the nearest crosswalk. I weave around people and someone yells at me to slow down. Finally, I reach the train stop and elbow my way through the crowd, looking under umbrellas and rain ponchos. Every face is a stranger’s, and my heart begins a hummingbird rhythm.
He’s not here.
The platform is crowded with game-day crowds, and I’m quickly swept into the fray and onto the train, stuck between a woman with a stroller and two men loudly arguing over the Cubs’ chances of going all the way this year.
“Are you looking for someone?” The woman with the stroller frowns at me as I crane my neck, still searching. “What do they look like?”
“He’s… tall,” I say unhelpfully.
The train stops and I slip out to transfer back to the Purple Line. I find an empty seat at the back of the car and sit down in sopping-wet clothes. I glance at my reflection in the window. My hair (brown again) is hanging in clumps around my face, and my eyes are wide with shock. I drop my head against the window. This rapid fluctuation between wild excitement and crushing disappointment can’t be good for my heart.
I slump back in my seat as my phone vibrates again with a new message from Naomi.
He’s lost. Says he’s coming back to Wrigley.
“Wait! I need to get off the train!” I yell. A young guy sticks his foot between the closing doors and helps me pry them apart.
“Thank you!” I yell over my shoulder as I spill back onto the platform. The train whooshes away, and I shield my eyes from the drizzle to check when the next one is coming.
TRAIN DELAY.
I wail in frustration. “I’m just trying to get to Wrigley!”
“If you wanted to see me so badly, Wheeler, you could have called.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and for a single, perfect breath, time stops.
Theo is waiting on the opposite platform, wearing a Cubs hat and a grin. Comet is by his side. We stare at each other for a moment that erases four weeks of hurt in one effortless heartbeat.
“Wait there!” we both shout at the same time and start racing down the steps to the street. He’s faster than I am, and before I can breathe, he’s crushing me into a hug that transforms into a kiss as he lifts me up and I wrap my legs around his waist. I taste salt on our lips and realize I’m crying.
I pull back, and he sets my feet on the ground, keeping his arms locked around me. I lean into him, too scared to hope. “How are you here?” I search the street for his royal entourage.
He brushes wet hair out of my face with one hand as the other slips into the back pocket of my jeans. “My plane didn’t crash.”
I’m trembling with anticipation. “You know what I mean.”
“You made me brave enough to imagine a different ending.” He pulls a lighter from his pocket and flips it open. The flame flickers to life as chills race across my skin. “Do you remember what we did the first time we met?” Fire reflects in his eyes.
“We burned my plans for the future.” It felt so symbolic at the time, turning my itinerary to ash.
He pins me under his gaze until I can’t breathe. “And now I’ve burned mine.” He leans in with a whisper, his breathsending shivers across my neck and down my spine. “It’s over, American girl.”
My heart is in my throat and I’m crying again. Even on the nights I let myself hope for our future, I never dreamed of this, because wanting it was too painful. “What do you mean?”
“The minute you left, Victoria begged me to abdicate and let her take the throne. I said no over and over again because I didn’t think it’d be fair to her. But then she came to me with plans and ideas and a way forward. Shewantsit, and I think the country deserves a leader who does. Plus, there’s no denying she’ll be bloody good at it.”
Queen Victoria.It feels right. Say what you will about royalty, if anyone in that family can do it right, it’s her.
“We decided to wait until her eighteenth birthday, but Parliament passed an official declaration of abdication today.”
My eyes blur with tears, and I’m too stunned to speak. Theo holds me until Comet nudges his way through our legs, and I finally find my words again. “What about Comet?” I bend to give him a scratch behind the ears.
“Tor told me to tell you that he still lives at Buckingham, but we’re free to visit him whenever we like.”
My heart squeezes painfully; I don’t know how to deal with all this news at once. It’s too much like my impossible daydreams, too good to be true. “‘We’?”
