Don't Want to be Queen | ONC 2023 (Complete)

Nine | Antonio

"Is this your way of telling me you two have decided to flaunt the rules of this experience, go behind your families' backs and run off together into the sunset?" I ask the very unkempt Erica and Enzo who have just invaded my room despite the no-fly order the palace guards have inflicted this evening. "If this is your way of asking me to stand up for you, I absolutely accept."

Enzo chuckles lightly, hesitant and nervous, but Erica is all business, steely face shining with a smile so plastered on I'm surprised it seems so natural. Trained since birth. It's given us both the time to get very good at what we do.

"I'm here to explain a situation to you and make a last ditch attempt to save my country, my sister, and myself," she says, stopping a few feet in front of me and resting her hand on her hip. "But I'm sure we can find a solution that works for everyone."

"What role do I have in saving your country, your sister, or yourself?" I ask, prickles travelling up the back of my neck as I do. There's probably only one way this can go.

"We aren't going to ask you to abandon your, umm, great aunt Gertie," Enzo says, shifting his gaze to Erica's confused eyes. "But we need to explain everything. That's all we're asking. You don't need to say yes, you just have to listen. Then you can decide."

"I know you have your own family and nation to consider as well, and I have no intention of cutting you off from your counsel, but I need to ask. Please let us explain the situation, and the proposition, before you shoot it down."

The two of them hold their breath, moving in sync as though something has shifted there, the gravitational pull of a new relationship bringing brightness to them the same way the tension of an old one is haunting my waking moments.

"As a friend," Enzo pleads. "Just give us a chance."

"I'm going to hate it."

"And if you do, that's that. No one's going to think anymore of it."

"I'd hardly be in a position for blaming you for following your heart in the face of everything else," Enzo says, eyes flitting involuntarily to the shy smile growing on Erica's pink face.

"And is that what this has to do with, then?" I ask them, certain we are about to be privy to a marriage proposal of a kind. "Are you here to ask me to marry you?"

"Goodness no! Not me!" Erica laughs, but it's hollow. "I'm just here to discuss politics and international relations and the like. You know? A normal evening among princes."

"As you wish." I sweep my hand across the room. "If we are standing on ceremony, please be seated. Can I offer you any refreshments?"

"In my own palace?" Erica asks, plopping down very indelicately onto my tallest couch. "Yes, please, actually. Can you get Cook to bring you some tiramisu? Father never lets them send any up to my room or Gemma's, so I have to sneak down whenever I want some. But I bet he'd send them here."

"I suspect you are correct," I agree. "As I am a guest. With absolutely no reason to have a half-clad pair of foreign persons in my rooms at this hour."

Enzo swallows hard. "Are we going to be in trouble?" He looks back over his shoulder like he's certain the guards outside the door have heard everything and are about to have him forcibly removed from the palace.

I wouldn't put that past the king either, if I'm being honest.

"Guards are mine." I tip my head to the door. "You have nothing to worry about."

His nod grows more vigorous as his head wraps around how different my experience is from his own, no doubt. No matter how much we talk, he doesn't seem to grasp how very different palace life is from his influencer experience.