Selene

40 | Coronation

Kai was having an out of body experience.

He was present, smiling and shaking hands and laughing at the jokes of all the Earthen leaders who congratulated him. He complimented them and thanked them for coming. He stole conversations with Torin, he smiled and nodded at the press pointing cameras at his face. But all the while, he was detached, his nerves fraying and his eyes scanning the mingling crowds for Selene.

There was a strange smell of rose petals and the hospital wing. Kai was endless charisma, knotted up inside his chest was boundless nerves, and all he could think was don't mess this up, don't mess this up.

Then he saw Selene, floating through the crowd with Bement and Winter at her heels, blending perfectly in with the crowds and standing as far apart from them as possible as far as Kai was concerned. Curious passerby and loiterers stared. Kai didn't doubt that they recognized her.

His chest was overcome with a bout of butterflies. She looked beautiful.

Not just regular Selene beautiful. She looked ship-launching, head-turning beautiful. Kai's knees started to feel like jelly, and it took all his willpower to look away and stand up straight. Torin tapped his shoulder, and as the last few stragglers found their ways to their seats, Kai stepped up to the platform at the head of the room. He watched as Selene took her seat at the front row delicately, her thaumaturges flanking either side of her. She looked uneasy, almost uncomfortable with them sitting so close.

Selene's gaze flicked up to Kai's eye, and he looked away hastily. He felt as if he looked at her a moment too long and his face would turn into a blushing mess.

Kai knelt reverently on the silk platform, closing his eyes and releasing a deep breath. In. Out. In. Out.

A crescendo of drums thundered about the room, and Kai's coronation began.

He'd rehearsed for this so many times, he knew almost every footstep by heart. His head held high, he tried not to pay attention to the procession of people. Their faces. He would break the solemnity if he smiled or tore his respectful gaze from the floor. One by one, the heavy coolness of necklaces and medallions plunked down around his neck, sagging his shoulders deeper and deeper. A different responsibility. A different duty to serve his people. Gifts of longevity, of peace, of respect. Kai could feel their weight over his heart as he knelt, never breaking the vigil even as the last medallion was dropped onto his chest.

Kai raised his eyes to watch Prime Minister Bromstad step forward, holding a yellowed scroll. Clearing his throat, he opened it. Kai was clear of thoughts and thrumming with nervousness as he started to repeat the vows of Imperial service, the vows to bind him to his people and his country. The vows that would hold him accountable and responsible for their pain and suffering. The vows that would hold him to the effort to heal them.

As Kai finished reciting the last pledge, he stood and turned to face the crowd before him, the tension holding itself tight over his chest and leaving his heart pounding.

"I hereby proclaim you Emperor Kaito of the Eastern Commonwealth," Bromstad announced for the whole world to see. "Long live his Imperial Majesty."

The world rang and echoed with the shout of the room. "Long live the emperor."

Kai had never felt higher in the clouds and deeper in the ground than he felt at that moment. Because he knew he was now emperor, and he was now the servant of the Commonwealth in a way he never was as prince.

But in the process, he was burying his father, once and for all.

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a/n: I had to refer back to Cinder to help me write this one! It would be quite devious to butcher the coronation.