When The Stars Align

chapter thirteen | political decisions

She's straight to the point, and I can't tell if the king is aware or not. His face remains blank.

She takes something out of her briefcase again, a small circular patch with a needle in the middle. "You know what this is, right?"

It takes me a second, but I nod. "The newly developed IV drip patches, yeah." Free of tubes so patients don't mess anything up, and could be controlled by doctors at the hospital. "But I don't think I need one. I'm fine. I'm not sick."

She lets out a small laugh. "If you say so, but your sister tells me that you've been throwing up non stop for the last couple hours, and overnight. I'm going to put this on you, if you don't mind. We'll be monitoring it for a couple hours, maybe days. Alright?"

She speaks to me like I'm a little kid, five years old. I nod, and she sticks the patch onto my arm, securing it with bandages. It's awkward with the king and Atticus in there, watching, but they don't do anything else. The king was probably waiting for the doctor to leave before continuing to talk.

The doctor finally leaves the room, closing the door behind her. The king takes a seat on the sofa across from my bed, while Atticus joins me on the bed. I half expected for him to go home at this point, but know, he's still at my place.

The king opens his mouth to speak. "Okay, first of all, I'm going to need the two of you to talk to me like I'm not a king, okay?" I note that he doesn't use the. He's not the king, but he is a king.

Maybe it was time to give the royal a listen.

I look to Atticus, confirming our thoughts. "Sure, whatever Your-" I stop myself, finding the words. "Do you want us to just call you Pheon?"

"Vera, you called me Pheon when you were eight, I'm sure you can return to that habit," the king said. Sometimes it's weird to wrap my head around the fact that the king was actually my brother-in-law. He's been my enemy for so many years.

"Okay, whatever, continue," I said. "Tell us what you want to know. We'll answer as best we can."

"As best as we can?" Atticus repeated. "We can tell him everything, Vera."

"And have him use the information against us? Yeah, right."

"For what? We aren't planning anything, Vera, and I'm sure if you were, you wouldn't be lying in bed all day. I know you, and when you think, you need to move."

I growled. "That is not true." I didn't have too much space to move at the assassins' base. I had to keep my thoughts to myself, my feet planted to the ground.

"Guys," Pheon cuts in, stopping our argument. "You want to here what my thoughts are on this? On the history of our kingdom? Because you have some strong assumptions, and I guess I haven't helped to change that view."

"Are you suggesting that you aren't the enemy, you theif," I scowled, getting up form my bed. That was my mistake right there, my head spinning. Pheon guided me back into a sitting position.

"Vera, I know I'm not your favourite person at the moment." The king puts his hands on my shoulder, looking at me straight in the eyes. "But I've been told the story of how my ancestors took the kingdom multiple times, and always thought it was wrong. There's always something off about it. And I'm asking you your side of the story, because I'm willing to help you, Vera."

I have no words. I'm stunned. There has be a lie in his words, but I can't detect any.

"Okay," I say simply, remembering to breathe. "Okay, what do you want to know."

He reverts back to his seat. "What was told through my family was that all the other bloodlines were murdered in the war, killed at Gavin Alderigde's blade. The rulers fell."

"But the heirs lived on," Atticus said, playing with his fingers. "They killed the adults. The kings and queens. They stabbed a pregnant Amelia Covington-" Atticus glanced at me. He knew right away that my cover was a lie, because he knew the stories. "- but the kings and queens had daughters and sons."

"They found Amelia Covington's body, though," the king said. "We took her body and burned it as a sign of a new beginning." His eyes are sad as he said that. "We weren't sure about the other linages, but yours, Vera, my ancestors were sure."

"She was thirty-three weeks pregnant at the time of the battle of Alynthi," I recalled from the stories my mother told me. "But she wasn't pregnant when you found the body."

"The other heirs helped to cut the baby out of her dying body and raised her together," Atticus continued. "They went into hiding from you family, only a close group of people knowing that they lived."

I bit my lip. "You know, the rule that a noble lord or lady can't be pronounced dead unless there's a body? That came from what happened to the kids. They were assumed dead, but they weren't."

"It's easy to get rid of a last name, not a bloodline," Atticus said. "Because at some point, the girls get married."

"And it's already culture for them to take their husbands name. It was only a couple generations until the Covington line was gone, but the history was shared from generation to generation."

"Even if history books kept the truth out, our ancestors made sure we didn't know the lies."

"History was written by winners, anyway," I said, looking down. "Is that enough information for you?" I asked the king. "Your family tracked ours horribly. I'm pretty sure my parents had a entire book of our family history." If only I could find it, maybe I could also locate the amulet of Noatra.

The king didn't have anything to say right away. "Vera, you don't want to be queen, do you?"

I raised an eyebrow. "You listened in on our conversation."

"Vera, just answer me."

"No," I say firmly. "No I don't. But I don't want the kingdom to crumble, because that already happened before and the kingdom went to a riot and that wasn't particularly fun, I doubt." I almost forgot about the rioting happening outside the gates right now. "We don't know what's going to happen."

"Sometimes we should just let history take its course, shouldn't we, Vera?" the king asked me. "I'm sure, whatever happens, we'll make it out fine. Again, I might not be your favourite person, but I'm here to help you, Vera. Atticus, you too."

I looked to Atticus. "You think so, too?"

"Vera, you're one of the strongest girls I know. If anyone can, it's you. What's the worst that could happen, Vera? We're just missing a few amulets, but those were indestructible, too. We could probably find them."

That's the issue here, but the two don't realise it.

I'm kind of surprised the king hasn't asked me who I think is the actual enemy. Because I know exactly who we should be looking out for.

And they're already two amulets ahead of us.