A Muse Her

Chapter 24

Maia stirred awake, blinking a few times as she looked up at Mateo speaking in a hushed and irritated tone on his phone.

"I haven't decided anything yet and I haven't talked to Maia about it. I'll speak to you when we get there, father," Mateo said, tightening his grip around her waist. "Yes, I know, but it's her choice too. I'll speak to you soon." He sighed, hanging up and looking down at her with a pained look in his brown eyes. "I'm sorry I woke you."

"It's alright," she said, sitting up beside him. "Is everything okay?"

"Not really," he said, dragging a hand over his face. "The situation with my brother is worse than I thought and I'm not going to have a choice about becoming king."

"Wait. What?" Maia frowned. "Why don't you have a choice now? I thought your father's announcement was just a show to get your brother's act together."

"That's what I thought too, but this stunt wasn't a scare tactic. My brother has been making some dangerous decisions that will affect the livelihood of our people and he's got a strong following in the council that are supporting him."

Maia nodded. "And you're the only one who can challenge him for the crown to stop whatever it is he's done or is about to do, right?"

"Yes," Mateo said, clenching his hand into a fist. "Jorien is going to sell out Oost den Burg and make it a tax haven and a global arms dealer for anyone who's willing to pay for weapons."

"I'm not an economics expert, but making deals like that sounds like an invitation for the world's shadiest people to do business with your country."

Mateo smirked. "Economics and finance is my expertise and that's exactly what it is. Countries that do things like this are praised by the uber rich, but the average person wouldn't be able to survive under those conditions," he said, shaking his head. "I worked very hard to make sure everyone in Oost den Burg had a basic quality of life. That was my job and my duty as Prince."

Maia nodded, threading her fingers through his. "And now you feel like you have to be king to protect them."

"Yes," Mateo said, curling his fingers around hers. "But I wanted to talk to you about it before I give my father an answer."

Maia tilted her head to the side and frowned. "You don't need me to weigh in on this. I know you don't take your duties for anything lightly. Oost den Burg is your home and becoming king to protect it is something you need to do regardless of what I think."

"But I don't want to lose you. Our relationship is so new and this isn't what you agreed to," he said, bringing her hand to his lips. "I don't want my duty to my people to get in the way of what we've started."

"It's not going to get in the way." A smile tugged at Maia's lips as she shook her head. "I don't care if you're a prince or a king, I want to be here and I want to be with you."

"But this is serious, Maia," Mateo said, pressing his forehead against hers with worry plaguing his brown depths. "If I challenge Jorien for the crown, he's going to do whatever he can to stop me. He's already been speaking with Sven and I'm sure he's spoken to his supporters in the council about his concerns with our engagement."

"I'm sure he has, but it doesn't change anything. We already knew Sven was going to spread lies and make this difficult for us," she said, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "I promised to tell you if things get too much for me to handle and until I tell you that, I'm not going anywhere. You don't have to challenge Jorien on your own."

"I feel like I'm asking too much of you." He sighed. "I was only supposed to be your muse."

"Yeah." Maia chuckled softly. "And we weren't supposed to catch feelings for each other, but here we are."