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Thorne

R eaux Mansion was a short carriage ride north from the palace.

Mother and I arrived to a dark and quiet house.

Marigold was fast asleep at this hour, with her nanny keeping careful watch over her on nights like this when Mother and I had obligations elsewhere.

The urge to go check on her was always poking at the back of my mind, but I didn’t want to disturb her.

She needed her rest before the trip tomorrow.

Bringing Marigold along on the tour wasn’t my first choice, but neither was leaving her for four weeks.

I had never been away from her for that long.

Galen suggested she accompany us, and she begged me for days to let her come on an “adventure.” When she roped my mother into agreeing with it, it was suddenly three against one.

She was so excited, it was hard not to give in. She’d been planning her outfits with her nanny’s help, picking which stuffed animals to bring along, painting pictures of what she hoped to see. With Mother and her nanny coming to watch her when I couldn’t, I was confident the trip would go smoothly.

I truly didn’t know what I would’ve done these past four years without Iris had I not had my own mother and the staff here to help take care of Marigold.

And even in the short time before that, when Iris’s heart disease worsened and my attention was torn between tending to her, raising our daughter, and learning how to carry on the title of Regent Lord of the North Territory in my father’s sudden absence.

My mother could be…standoffish, but she loved that little girl more than life. And I owed her a debt I could never repay for the way she stepped in during a time when I was broken beyond repair.

Nobody was equipped to deal with losing the love of their life. Nobody was prepared to watch them suffer day after day, to see the fatigue and weakness and surrender grow painfully evident in their eyes. To know there was no hope.

To wake up and realize you had to be the one to move on. You had to be the strong one for those left behind.

In those days, I didn’t know if I would ever be strong again.

Sometimes I still didn’t know if I could be.

I had lost a vital piece of myself. The world had lost its color, its light and hope, leaving everything in shadows.

But watching Mother pick herself back up when my father abandoned her after decades of a life together gave me the fortitude to keep going—if not for myself, then for my daughter.

For the people in this territory who relied on me.

Now, the three of us were all each other had. Mother and I didn’t always see eye to eye on everything, but we’d been through too much for small disagreements to make me turn my back on her the way my father had four years ago.

“Galen doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing with that girl, does he?” Mother asked with a derisive laugh as she swept across the entrance hall.

Even when she made it particularly difficult to get along with her.

“She’s more than ‘that girl,’ Mother,” I drawled, hiding my frustration. “Don’t underestimate her. There’s a reason she’s their empress.” Multiple reasons, from what today showed me of the feisty, enigmatic woman.

Mother unclasped the large ruby necklace at the back of her neck. “Yes, yes. Be that as it may, she certainly won’t be our queen, if we have anything to do with it. But with the way things are going, Silenus and Penworth may take care of that for us. And Galen isn’t doing a thing about it.”

My hands clenched at my sides. Of course he wasn’t.

He’d known some of his people were unhappy about Clarissa’s arrival and the engagement, and he’d done nothing .

Simply brushed it off as a problem that would eventually work itself out, as he always did.

It was like he didn’t even care what his kingdom wanted or needed, didn’t care about the whispers of rebellion that reached our ears.

I knew it wasn’t from a place of malice, but apathy could sometimes be worse.

My mother, however, was practically giddy over his indolence.

“Please, Mother, do try and hide your excitement,” I said dryly.

She tilted her head and looked at me, arching an eyebrow.

“Oh, come now, Thorne. I know he’s your best friend.

And you know I love him dearly.” She walked toward me and took my hands, soothing out my tight grip.

“I would never want anything bad to happen to him. But do you truly think he’s the best leader for this kingdom? ”

I looked away, unable to meet her blue eyes. It didn’t matter—she knew my answer anyway.

He was my best friend. My closest companion, the man I’d walked with through youth and into adulthood and its weighted expectations. He was funny and impulsive and generous with those he loved. The way my daughter’s eyes lit up whenever she saw her “Uncle Galen” always made me smile.

But those qualities did not make him a good king.

He was lazy. He was overwhelmed. He was a young man whose spirit was meant for another life and was instead forced into being the heir of Mysthelm. And no matter what guidance I tried to provide, no matter what counsel his other advisors gave him, nothing got through to him.

Our people suffered for it—that much was evident just this morning with the unexpected storm. The northern port and surrounding communities should have had the infrastructure to withstand it, if they’d received the funding from their many, many requests to the crown.

The South and Island Territories had both undergone severe floods and fires recently, and had been left to their own devices to recover.

The Mid Territory had been fighting a deadly blight for months.

Even now, with two of the regent families baring their teeth at the idea of Clarissa Aris invading their home, Galen did nothing to appease them. Nothing to acknowledge them.

Sometimes that was all people needed. To simply be heard. When their king couldn’t even manage that, I wasn’t sure what kind of future our kingdom faced.

Mother’s hands came up to my face, pinching my cheeks the way she used to get my attention. “Think of how much better off our people would be with someone else on the throne.”

“What, someone like you? Like me ?” I asked, but my tone held no bite. I knew where this conversation was going. We’d had it many times before, always leading to the same place.

She shrugged and dropped her hands. “The Reaux family is as good an option as any. We are a strong bloodline, and we’ve served the crown well throughout the generations.”

“I’ve never wanted to be a king, Mother. You know that,” I said with a sigh as I turned away from her.

“You don’t know what you want,” she responded dismissively.

“You haven’t been given the chance, what with your father grooming you all those years, and then Iris coming along and…

” She trailed off when I shot her a dark look.

Taking a deep breath, she said, “Your life has never quite been your own. I know I’m partially to blame for that, but you know all I want is what’s best for you, Marigold, and our people.

” She placed a hand on my upper arm and squeezed, offering a smile.

I rubbed a hand along my beard, the roughness against my fingertips helping to ground me. “I don’t want to hurt him, Mother. We’re some of the only people he has left.”

“I know, dear,” she crooned. “We won’t. Leave everything to me. You simply focus on ensuring he doesn’t marry that empress, yes?”

This had become Mother’s plan when Galen announced he was bringing Clarissa overseas.

Galen was convinced an alliance would ultimately make him stronger.

And that was something my mother didn’t want.

Once he had the might of the Veridian Empire at his back, it would be infinitely more difficult to get him to step down.

Mother’s goal was simple: keep Galen weak by forcing all his allies, including the empress, away. Make him see that the best option would be to release his crown—a title he hadn’t wanted to begin with.

Only eight months into his reign and he’d already proven to be an ineffective ruler.

It wouldn’t take much to push him over the edge into abdication—or worse, for the people to take matters into their own hands.

The faintest rumors of an uprising had begun to circulate, and that was the last thing I wanted.

That was why a peaceful removal was our best hope.

But if the anomaly Clarissa and her crew discovered this morning was any indication…I feared our problems were becoming worse than we’d thought.

I didn’t know what the right thing was anymore.

Were we doing the kingdom a favor by getting Galen off the throne?

I’d always urged him to put the people first, and he continued to refuse.

Mother was right—we couldn’t hope to survive with the Grimaldis still in control, as much as I loved my friend.

Maybe this empress wasn’t the answer, as Galen was so convinced. Maybe…maybe this was the answer. Maybe his removal would finally stop the disasters plaguing this land and give us a chance to start fresh.

As long as he would be safe. That mattered to me as much as the future of Mysthelm. He would learn to forgive me with time.

“Yes, Mother.” I pulled myself from her grasp and turned toward mine and Marigold’s wing of the mansion. “I’ll do what you need me to do.”