Page 20

C HAPTER 20

I’m the first domino; once I fall, the others quickly follow. In a matter of minutes, Naomi, Brooke, and Henry agree to trek across the island with Theo and me in search of help. When Victoria sees that her options are to come with us or stay behind with Reggie and Winston, she grudgingly relents.

Theo’s shoulders relax for the first time since the crash. He makes eye contact with me across the group. Thank you, he mouths, and my chest feels tight. Like deciding to leave Heathrow on the eve of the apocalypse and meeting Theo in a pub, it feels like nothing else was ever an option.

I turn to Naomi. “Will you be able to hike with your injury?”

“I’m not worried; it’s just a few blisters.” She stands for the first time all morning and instantly doubles over in pain. With a hand braced on her knee, she looks up at me with a wince that she pretends is a smile. “The blisters heard me, and they laughed. I can’t come.”

“No! Are you sure?”

“I can’t even put weight on my foot. I’ll never make it.”

“But I don’t want to go without you.”

“Ironic, because I won’t let you stay. I’m trusting you to get us rescued.” She hugs me tightly and we promise to see each other soon.

Before I have a chance to catch my breath, my sister, three royals, my rescue dog, and I walk into the foggy forest with the ocean at our backs and a mountain that is “technically a volcano” in front of us.

A recipe for success.

“We’ll take the direct path, straight through the middle of the island,” Theo explains as we move through the dense trees. Vegetation swallows us and blocks out the rest of the world; the ocean waves are soon muted and sunlight filters weakly through the leaves. I swat a mosquito off my elbow.

“It’d be easier to walk along the coast. Less chance of getting lost,” Henry says.

“This is faster. We have no idea how long the coast is,” Theo argues.

Henry puts his hand out to stop Theo. “You want to climb over a volcano? Really? ”

We form a small circle, and I can see Theo is getting frustrated again. The tension between the brothers has been thick since last night, and I have a feeling Henry is trying to get a rise out of him. Theo’s right. If we’re taking the risk to make this journey, we may as well do it the quickest way possible.

Theo points toward the north shore. “The crater is off center. We’re going up and over the base. It’s the fastest way.”

Henry crosses his arms. “I disagree.”

Theo’s jaw tics.

“C’mon, Your Majesty, pull rank on me. You know you want to,” Henry says.

“Get over yourselves and stop fighting,” Victoria snaps. “Let’s vote on it.”

“The democratic way!” Brooke smiles sarcastically at the royals.

“Brilliant,” Theo says dryly. “All in favor of traveling as the crow flies?”

Theo, Brooke, Victoria, and I raise our hands. Comet barks in agreement.

“Well, that’s hardly fair.” Henry gestures to me. “Wren was going to agree with you regardless.”

“I’m agreeing with him because he’s right about the distance, and because this path gives us easy access to fresh water.”

“You lost even without the wife vote. Deal with it,” Victoria tells Henry. She looks between the brothers. “No more whinging from you two, understand?”

They both look chagrined as they nod.

I raise my hand. “Just to clarify, I’m not actually his wife.”

“Probably for the best. Given that we wouldn’t have been on that plane if it weren’t for you, the press will blame you for all of this,” Victoria says.

“Enough. I tricked her into marrying me. It’s my fault. Now let’s go,” Theo says, the mention of our marriage sending little electric prickles down my spine. It’s taken a heroic effort on my part not to broach this particular subject, but I’m not going to miss the opportunity now that I have it.

I let the others take the lead and fall into place next to Theo. “Speaking of our wedding…” He visibly flinches, and I pivot to the least awkward question I can think of. “Do you have any idea who mailed me our marriage certificate?”

“Eleni?” he suggests. Eleni was the daughter of the Greek family we stayed with, and one of only three people in attendance at our midnight wedding.

“I think so, too. Do you think she knew you were the prince the whole time we were in Greece?”

Theo holds back the branch of a fern to let me walk around without getting smacked in the face. “I hope not. It’s bloody embarrassing to think that I was running around pretending to be Blaze Danger if everyone knew who I was.”

“Maybe she had no idea until she saw the marriage certificate with your name on it.”

“That must have been a proper shock.”

I stop him with my hand on his chest and block his path. He has a dusting of facial hair on his cheeks, highlighting how hollow they’ve gotten in the past few months. Now that I’ve had a couple of days to desensitize myself to his face, I also notice purple shadows under his eyes. “You think it was a shock for her ?”

He winces. “That was a stupid thing to say.”

I look ahead and realize we’ve widened the gap between ourselves and the rest of the group. The distance makes me feel bold. “Were you ever planning to tell me that you signed your real name, or were you going to pretend it never happened?”

He blows out a breath. “It was the first thing I thought about when the comet was destroyed. I felt like the biggest arsehole on the planet. And then my mum died, and I was gutted. Couldn’t think about anything else. Didn’t get out of bed for a long time.” His voice strains, and it makes my heart ache.

“Penny did her best to be there for me, but she’s busy with the little ones, especially since Mum passed. She’s literally all they have now. Eventually Graves kicked me in the arse and told me that I had to start making public appearances, do my first royal tour, and prove that the monarchy is still strong de spite being led by a depressed teenager who doesn’t want the job.” He half laughs and half groans as he drags his hands over his face. “As much as I hated him, forcing me into action did help. I had no choice but to do the job.”

I feel a small sting of jealousy; Theo and I both spent the summer spiraling in an existential crisis, and I can’t help but be envious that he didn’t have to sort through a mile-long course catalogue and more than 116 different undergraduate degree programs to find his way out. I know he feels stifled by the lack of options, but I feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of them. It’d be kind of nice for fate to step in, block off all other paths, and point me in the direction of destiny.

Or at least tell me whether or not I’ll ever actually need that 8:00 A.M. psych class.

“You really did look happy in Canada,” I tell him.

He barks out a laugh. “That’s ’cause I was drunk. I’ve been at least a little bit drunk in every appearance since her death.”

“ That’s why you looked so happy in all those pictures?”

He arches an eyebrow. “You were looking at my pictures?”

I scowl at him. “I was looking at Comet. ”

His lip twitches. “You’re a bloody awful liar, Wheeler.”

I put a hand on my hip. “And you never looked me up online?”

“What is it you Americans say? ‘I plead the fifth’? Although…” His eyes fill with mischief. “I have always wanted to spend an American Fourth of July on the beach, eating hamburgers and waving sparklers, the full monty.”

I squint at him. “Are you drunk now ?”

He laughs. “No. But I was self-medicating for most of the summer. It was the only way I could deal with what I did to Mum. I couldn’t face any of my choices. Couldn’t even call you.”

I blink, confused. “Theo, your mom had a heart defect. Her death had nothing to do with you.”

He sighs heavily. “And my dad died of ‘natural causes.’”

“You don’t believe the story about your mom?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know. I think it’s awfully convenient that her heart attack happened days after I ran away.”

“Sometimes terrible things just happen, and there’s no reason for it.”

“I’d like to believe that, but my disappearance put so much stress on her.”

My heart tugs me toward him. I press my hands on his shoulders until he’s sitting on a mossy log. We’re shrouded in a swirl of dense mist that blocks out the sounds of the forest. “There were a lot of stressful things happening. I don’t know if you remember, but there was this whole thing with a comet.” I wave my hands like it’s no big deal. My joke earns me half of a reluctant smile. I’ll take it. “I know you have a healthy ego, but in the case of Missing Prince v. World-Ending Asteroid, I think you’re coming in second place, Theo.”

“Ouch.” He covers his heart like I’ve shot him.

“I’m serious. She didn’t have a heart attack because you ran away. She had a heart attack because she had an untreated medical issue, and maybe because the world was about to end.” After she died, I spent many a sleepless night reading about her sudden death and hoping that Theo was okay.

He mulls this over. “What you’re saying is… I always came in second place.”

“No!” I have a mini internal panic attack.

He laughs. “Yes, you are. And you’re right. Mum’s allegiance to the country always came before me.”

“That’s not what I meant!” I try to backtrack, but Theo’s not having any of it.

He stands and paces the forest floor, the thick moss deadening the sounds of his footsteps, his face locked in concentration like he’s fitting the puzzle pieces of his life together. Finally, his expression clears. “Shite, Wheeler. I never thought I’d be so relieved by the knowledge that my mother loved the country more than she loved me, but I am. Thank you.”

I narrow my eyes, suspicious of how well he’s taking this. “I don’t know if I feel terrible for you or happy for you.”

“Please don’t feel sorry for the sad rich king.” He sticks out a hand and pulls me to my feet. “I think I just needed to hear someone say it wasn’t my fault.”

“Look at me,” I say, even though our eyes are already locked together. He tugs me into him, and I bump against his chest.

The air is wet with fog, and it’s suddenly hard to breathe as Theo’s eyes burn into mine. “I’m looking,” he says, his gaze dipping to my lips, and then lower.

“It’s not your fault, and I’m sorry no one else told you that.”

His fingers brush against my sternum and pause there, feeling the outline of his ring under my shirt. I hold my breath, on the precipice between wanting him to ask and hoping he doesn’t. “And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you we were married.”

My response sticks in my throat. “You should be apologizing for secretly marrying me in the first place.”

“I only give apologies I mean,” he says with a wink that leaves me utterly speechless. I blink at him in shock—and that’s when it hits.

A picture I posted after the Fourth of July. Me on the beach in Chicago, a hamburger in one hand, a sparkler in the other. Posted to my stories, only available for twenty-four short hours.

My jaw drops as I stare at Theo. I’m trying to process this revelation, but I don’t know how to reconcile it with what I overheard him telling his press secretary.

All I know for sure is that I wasn’t the only one who spent my summer looking at pictures on the internet.

“I can’t hear them anymore,” he says suddenly. His eyes sweep the forest as we strain to hear footsteps or Comet’s barking or Brooke and Henry’s chatter.

Nothing.

“We should go.” He turns away, but I grab his hand and hold him in place.

“Not yet.”

A wicked grin spreads across his face as his eyes dance in the mist. “Something else on your mind, Wheeler?” His eyes fall once again to my lips, and I’m close enough that my mouth tingles in response.

“I heard you tell the press secretary that he doesn’t need to worry about me because I’m not important,” I say in a breathless rush.

“Shite.” His eyes widen in understanding. “So that’s why you were mad at me on the plane.”

“Can you blame me? I drove all the way to Canada to talk to you, and you told Graves that I’m ‘just a girl.’”

He shakes his head. “Wren, no. Just, no. I’m so sorry you heard that, because it’s not even close to being true.”

“Then why would you say it?”

He blows out a heavy breath. “The last thing I want is for the Firm to know how important you are to me.”

A jolt of hope hits me straight in the chest. “Why?”

“If they get wind of the fact that I… that I’m…” He seems unable to find the words he needs. He swallows heavily and closes his eyes. “If they know that I care about you, they’ll ruin everything.”

I narrow my eyes, unsure what to do with this information. He cares about me. Well, okay. I care about my grandma, and pet adoption, and whether or not I’m having a good hair day. Or he cares about me, and that’s why I could have sworn we were just about to kiss.

“So, what does that mean for us? I have to spend the rest of my life pretending not to know you?”

Theo’s face falls, and before he can answer, a shriek pierces the muffled silence.