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“And I can assure my people we could have no greater ally than Princess Seraphina on the throne,” Aodin said, his tone quite grave. I didn’t miss the look the two sent each other, and wow, was it loaded. Battle had brought them even closer together.
“I propose a compromise,” Yvonne said, surprising me with her mild dissent. “I agree to this four-year probationary period, but after, the people will vote on if they are pleased with their new queen.”
Oh, a vote? How democratic.
“I see no reason to oppose that,” another said—someone I didn’t recognize. “The unrest from completely eliminating the DeLune line would be quite troublesome.”
“Four years of watching the admired crown prince train his successor will help with the transition.”
Could it be so easy? I hardly dared to hope, and yet that was exactly how it seemed.
“So, that’s it, then?” Seraphina said, sounding overwhelmed. Not that I could blame her. What we’d suggested made tons of sense to me, but it was something she’d never imagined for herself. She had spent much of her life being shunned by her own family just for being a latent wolf. “Kai and I rule together for four years, and then… I’m queen?”
I nodded, as did Kai, then Darla, then, one by one, several more of the council we’d assembled.
“You’ve more than proven yourself, sister,” Kai said, looking at his younger sibling with so much warmth. I wasn’t going to lie, it made me genuinely happy how he’d gotten to reconnect with Seraphina. She really was a joy in every way and oh so kind. I would like to get close to her to now that it was an option for me.
Not for the first time, my mind went spiraling down a path of trying to imagine what my life was like now that I didn’t have to worry about endangering everyone with my mere presence. It truly was an entirely different existence, and I was having a hard time imagining it. What was I going to do with all the energy that usually went into my existential dread and constant guilt?
“You love the capital, and unlike me, you’ve never left it. The people love you, especially after everything my father did, and you’re not a usurper, which many will view me as. Besides,” he said, bowing to her, and I felt the rush through the room at the action. “Maybe it’s time for a royal who isn’t an alpha.”
“I cast my vote for Princess Seraphina to rule jointly with Prince Nikolai, heir apparent, for four years until she is able to take over the throne herself with whatever king consort at her side she chooses.” Darla said, her voice firm.
One by one, the council voted around the table. I was somewhere near the middle, and naturally, I endorsed the young woman. If anyone could lead Camdaria into peace, it would be Seraphina. She had the heart, the mind, and the strength for it. Even if some vestige of the Shrouded Shriek managed to survive, he would never be able to infect her like he had King Nathaniel or his father before him.
“The War Council of Camdaria has spoken,” Kai said gravely once every vote was cast. It wasn’t unanimous, but it was clear what the results were. “Princess Seraphina, do you accept their verdict?”
The young woman drew herself up to her full height and, goodness, I was so proud of her. “I do.”
And just like that, Camdaria had a new queen.
Chapter 26
Ayla
I hummed to myself as I dug into the soft earth, uprooting the beautiful marshmallow plant I’d been tending to all spring and summer. With our location far enough away from the capital, it was warm enough that it never really froze even during the harshest of winters, but I still found myself going through the familiar motions of putting my garden to rest.
Not entirely, of course. I had plenty of cold weather plants that would continue on, but enough needed to be uprooted that it was a task that took me a couple of days, and I needed to be occupied, otherwise I might chew through the walls of my own cabin.
I supposed cabin wasn’t really the right word anymore. While my forest-surrounded home might have started off like that, it’d long since grown in the three years since I’d first arrived. Whether by my hand, or by Kai’s when he could visit, or even Oren, Mad Dog, and Darla, there was always some project or another going on until I’d ended up with quite a lovely home. If someone had told me while I was in the thick of trying to figure out my curse that I would one day have a beautiful domicile and a sprawling garden to spend peaceful days in, I would have assumed they were most definitely inebriated.
But somehow, despite everything that’d happened since my rather fateful birth, that was exactly the road my life had taken. Some would be shocked and even appalled that I’d given up my chance to be queen, but that just wasn’t me. I had royalty in my blood, but healing was in my soul, and I was finally getting to live a life that was more about helping people than hurting them.
I couldn’t ask for anything more.
Well, that wasn’t quite true. I did miss Kai terribly, especially after three years of spending a majority of our time apart.
It wasn’t like we never saw each other. After dealing with my curse separating us for so long, we were never willing to go back to that. It had taken a while to get used to being completely uncursed. At first, I had worried that the spell I had placed on myself would run amok without the Shriek's energy to feed it, but without the main food source it had been created for, it faded away into a faint echo. It was a scar across my magic that was a reminder when I poked at it, but otherwise it didn't affect me.
I went to the capital every three months for a week, and Kai would travel to our home every six months, also for a week, with most holidays spent with all of our extended circle in the castle. Was it ideal? No. But it allowed us to reconnect before our absences grew too painful.
Besides, if I really were that desperate, I knew I could pop in at any time. Not only would my mate be happy to see me, so would Seraphina and much of the palace. Not everyone, of course. There were still some splinters who clung to the old ways the Shrouded Shriek had worked so hard to build, but they were exceedingly rare.
But I’d become spoiled by my time out of the capital and preferred to stay in my peaceful woods. No monsters. No curses. Just the occasional messenger who’d pop up to ask me to travel to a local town to heal an especially heinous injury or illness.
Not that people knew where I actually lived. That was knowledge that belonged to a select few. Instead, with the help of Yvonne, I’d set up little golems in most of the towns within a day’s ride of my woods that citizens could interact with, that would then turn into little ceramic balls which would rush right to my cabin. If someone tried to follow them, they would stop right where they were until they were left alone again.
Was it foolproof? No. I was sure there were ways someone really determined could use them to track me down, but I figured someone that dead set on a meeting would find me anyway, and my little golems helped the local populace while also giving me my privacy.
