The King's War

2. The Honeymoon

AVERY

It looked to be a bad habit of Melanie Caldwell's to show up at my house with terrible news. If she ever did it again, I should just close the door. 

Well, the bubble had burst. The honeymoon was over. Nate will have to go back to being king, and I'd have to stop pretending he wasn't.

But oh, how I loved pretending. This vacation of ours was truly magical, partly because I fell in love with Nantucket the second I stepped foot there. I loved this beachfront cottage with its thatched siding, the crisp salty air, the quiet hum of the ocean at nighttime...

But really, I loved having Nate to myself most of all. He was so different without his stiff designer suits and kingly posturing. In those blissful moments when he'd fail miserably at cooking, or when he'd stroke my hair while I dozed off during a movie, I'd get a glimpse of what our life could be without his title. I knew all along that this private paradise couldn't last forever, but I wanted to prolong it for as long as possible.

Well, now we'll both have to pack up and leave for Rosethorne Hall. Nate, back to his work. And me? Well, I wasn't sure. His reappearance in my life scattered all of my plans. When I left the competition I'd had some vague idea of using my earnings to go to college in the spring, but now that Nate and I were together, I didn't want to leave him. But with him busy with his royal duties, what was I supposed to do?

I didn't envy Nate the job of trying to put the world back in order after King Sheridan's demise. A vampire king being murdered was completely unheard of. He must be scared the same would happen to him. The rebels have probably grown bolder after learning about this. If one king can fall, why not another?

Although, from what Nate told me, witches and rebels were not allies. Yeah, witches being just as real as vampires threw me for a loop. After Melanie dropped that little bomb in my lap, Nate explained that the two species had a kind of truce. Witches stayed out of vampires' affairs, and vampires left them be and kept their existence a secret. Well, that truce sure looked to be on shaky ground now that one of them killed a vampire.

As I wandered into the kitchen where Nate had retreated after Melanie left, I remembered that we wouldn't get the chance to go whale watching like he promised. I tried to bury my disappointment by reminding myself that we could always go another time, once Nate was free again. But how long would that take?

Nate paced around the kitchen. I noticed a half empty glsss of red wine sitting on the counter next to an uncorked bottle and wondered whether he'd poured it before or after Melanie arrived. I crossed my arms and leaned agains the frame of the doorway, unsure of whether to comfort him or give him space.

"Are you all right?" I asked.

He looked up at me, his blue-green eyes troubled. It would appear the answer was no. I wondered if he was close to the dead Southern king, so I probed my memories for any previous mentions of him. I recalled a disdainful comment he'd made aboard the Empress, after Sabine Ambrose bragged about her trip to the South.

Sabine Ambrose. Now that was a name I didn't want to remember. Still, I couldn't help but wonder what the girl was doing now that she'd lost the very thing she fought so ruthlessly to attain. Wallowing in misery, if there was any justice in the world.

"Funny," Nate began. "A man is dead. Murdered. Yet I can't help but resent him for having the temerity to perish at such an inconvenient time and cutting short my time with you. Does that make me a bad person?"

"A little," I admitted. "I take it you weren't close."

Nate laughed drily. "Hardly. During the war, I valued his partnership, but I never liked him as a person. He was arrogant, greedy, ruthless. I'm not surprised those qualities led to his downfall."