King of the Fallen

n i n e // book fort

^cookies I made for Valentine's Day and thought I'd show you all bc all my beautiful amazing and supportive readers are my valentines (also bc the boys here are f*cking stupid and don't deserve my love) but mostly bc I love you all ❤️

The library was by far Leah's favorite place in the whole palace.

She could stay in there for days without leaving, since Rhys would send servants in with food at every meal.

Leah found herself alone most often, not by choice. Rhys had suddenly started having to deal with more and more visitors in the throne room.

I'm her free time, Leah decided to finally do what she'd been wanting to do since she first went to the public library at home.

Build a book fort.

The ancient librarians of the royal library would probably hate her for it, but if she really was mated to their King, could they even reprimand her? Certainly Rhys would not allow it.

And if he did, what did she care? She squealed in excitement as she pulled rows of books off the shelves and stacked them high enough that she could sit comfortably in the fort.

She spent the next hour or so, simply building her book empire and putting cushions and pillows in it.

Finally, she grabbed one last book off the shelf, and crawled into her glorious personal paradise.

And so she began to read and forget her sorrows.

-//-

Rhys has finally finished dealing with the pesky ungrateful people who felt the need to bring personal complaints to their king.

He felt a pang in his chest, sadness and regret. He felt bad for having not seen Leah in days. Knowing for a fact, that she must have found something to do, Rhys walked slowly and tiredly to the library.

At first when he entered, everything looked as it should. Books on their shelves, rugs unwrinkled, and curtains drawn.

But, it only took mere seconds for him to notice that half the library books weren't on the shelves.

Oh good grief.

Then a whimper and sniffle reaches his ears. If she got another paper cut, I might just have to Leah-proof the books.

He rounded a corner and found a fort of sorts constructed of books.

Crouching down near the gaping hole the Rhys assumed was for getting in and out, Rhys looked into the fort.

"Leah?" He whispered softly.

He really just wanted to get her to bed so that he could sleep soundly. Heaven knew he wasn't going to sleep alone tonight.

"Rhys?" Leah pulled down the blanket that had been covering her tear stained face.

"Baby, what happened?" Rhys asked, crawling into the fort to be next to her. Somehow, they both managed to fit in the fort.

"Augustus died," Leah sobbed, throwing her arms around her shocked mate.

"Who?" Rhys asked, wrapping his arms around his poor little shaking mate.

"Augustus Waters! He was supposed to outlive Hazel Grace and they were supposed to get a semi-happy ending," she cried.

Oh. Book boys...

"Why don't you forget about Augustus for now, and focus on me?" Rhys suggested, lifting Leah into his lap. "I'm really tired."

She sighed and relaxed against him. "I'm tired too."

"Can you get up?"Rhys asked her.

"No," she said weakly.

"Then there's no harm in sleeping here, I suppose," Rhys offered, leaning back a bit.

As she closed her eyes and leaned against him, she whispered one thing.

"Oh yeah and Babe," Rhys looked at her, shocked by the term of endearment. "Don't knock over my paradise."

And so he did his best to leave her paradise intact.

A/n: it's 2am and I have school tomorrow... fml

But it's ok bc I finally updated!! Woohoo!!