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“We could split up,” Asher said in a hushed voice. It felt like the kind of place you spoke only in soft voices or in whispers. Brandon went to a candelabra nearby and took down lit tapers for all of us. I wondered what poor acolyte kept these burning all night long, but I was glad of it so Rory wouldn’t be in the dark.
I nodded at Asher’s suggestion, and each of us took a separate aisle to search for Rory. As I walked down the aisle I’d chosen, I began to feel sick again. How would he look, my beautiful love, now that his skin was cold and stiff and gray, and his gorgeous green eyes were shuttered forever? How could I look on him and then close the lid again, knowing his face would never again see the light of day? I began to tremble in anticipation—and terrible dread.
Then from the aisle beside mine, Brandon called out, “He’s here, I think.”
I crossed to him quickly, and then stood frozen with fear. His name was written on a card and placed on top of the plain, stone lid. Perhaps they planned on carving his name later on that day.
Prince Rory, of Igella,the card read…son of King Elam and the warlock Vesper.
I reached out my hand to push off the top, and then drew it back. I couldn’t do it. I’d said I wanted to look on him to make this real, but I didn’t think I could stand to look on his dead face. It would be better to remember him the way he was, wouldn’t it? Even that memory alone might prove fatal. I thought that actually seeing him dead would kill me on the spot.
I almost turned and walked away, but then from inside the sarcophagus, I heard a woman’s faint voice, singing.
Alas my love you do me wrong
To cast me off discourteously;
And I have loved you, oh so long
Delighting in your company
Sung to the tune of “Greensleeves,” the lovely old song of lost love, it was sung in the clear, high voice of a young girl. It was Vesper’s song—one of the ones the guards claimed her ghost sung to her lover late at night in his tomb. It must be coming from the watch fob with her portrait painted on the front. The one I’d given to Rory and he kept in his pocket.
“Help me get this lid off,” I cried, and all of us pushed and pulled on the heavy stone, trying to dislodge it and move it aside. I shoved with all my might, thanking the gods that the priests hadn’t yet gotten around to using mortar. The heavy stone slid off into the floor and broke in half.
I gazed down at him, listening to the old song and marveling at his face, which still had some color in the cheeks. He looked as if he were sleeping. I could almost think I could see his chest moving up and down. I couldn’t stop myself from bending over and brushing his lips with mine, even if this were to be the last time.
He opened his eyes and blinked up at me, putting up a hand to rub his face. Still half asleep, he gave me a sweet smile. “Lex,” he whispered. “I knew you’d come for me.”
Epilogue
Rory
Everyone was so amazed when I woke up after spending two days in that stone sarcophagus, but I was none the worse for wear. I admit to being terribly thirsty, but once Lex and his cousins gave me water and carried me outside in the sweet, fresh air, I recovered remarkably fast, I guess. Anyway, they all seemed to be shocked.
They took me out of there quickly, with Lex insisting on holding me in front of him on his horse all the way, like he’d done the first night he took me out of my father’s castle. I turned to face him, as I had back then, and he kissed me and hugged me all the way home. He insisted on telling me over and over again how much he loved me.
I have to say it was an enjoyable ride.
When we got home, there was a doctor there who also seemed to be totally shocked and amazed when I showed up and he checked me and my unborn baby over carefully, finally pronouncing us both fine and in excellent condition, considering.
As for my time in the sarcophagus, I didn’t remember much of it. I only remembered my dreams, which were comforting more than anything else. I felt a benevolent presence all around me, one that even sang me lullabies in the dark—or maybe I just imagined that part of it.
Lex insisted on leaving as soon as we could, so once the doctor said I was okay to travel, we left and went back to Igella, taking some of our things with us but leaving much behind, with instructions to the servants to pack it all up and send it to us. Wyatt, Brandon and Asher came with us, even though Lex made it clear he wasn’t coming back to Morovia.
He was furious with the queen, and a lot of that rage spilled over onto his brother. The only thing that might have made him forgive King Harrison was if his brother would put the bitch aside, and he told me that Harrison would probably never do that.
“He needs access to those ports, and she can give him that. And that’s more important to him than anything else, I presume. Even me. Or his honor.”
Lex brought Sunshine along with us too, although he wouldn’t allow me to ride him. Still, I got to pet his head and gave him an apple to eat when we stopped for a rest that afternoon. We spent the night at an inn along the way, and very late the next day, we arrived back at the royal castle.
Over the next few weeks, as I recovered from what Lex called “my terrible ordeal,” I got to plan my coronation, and Lex’s official one too, as my Regent. Everything was so much nicer with my stepmother and my half-sister no longer in residence. Even the servants acted differently as did the lords and ladies of court. II suppose they didn’t dare do otherwise, with my Alphas all glaring at them. I didn’t change my room, however. I let Lex bring in new appointments, like drapes and rugs and new furniture, including a bigger bed, but for now, I didn’t want to stay in my father and stepmother’s former chamber.
Lex was still angry at most of the court for their bad treatment of me. He told them to eat at home from now on and come to court only when they were called for, but he was hot headed and short tempered, and I could usually talk him down from his towering rage. All I had to do was clutch my stomach and groan, and he became solicitous and sweet again. He told me every day how much he loved me, because he said he once thought he might not ever get the chance, and he needed to make up for lost time. I loved to hear him say those words.
The baby came on a warm Sunday morning a few months after my coronation. It was a girl, and we named her after both our mothers, Princess Vesper Diana. A beautiful little girl with my green eyes and Lex’s brown hair, she was also sweet natured and slept through the night by the time she was only six weeks of age.
She had three handsome godfathers who would no doubt ensure that she’d be terribly spoiled.
