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CHAPTER 22
Alrick
Could she feel how much I trembled? I wanted to be nothing but strong for her. The way she’d looked at me at the campsite, begging me for help, had depleted all my pride and hope. Now, I could barely stand from my own disgust.
I should have taken her hand and told them all that she was mine. But Frida's words had turned me to rock. I couldn’t move. My mind kept repeating the same three words in my head over and over again.
Queen of Ashes.
As much as it tore me apart, Frida was right. With the Rhine King dead and parts of the Rhine Kingdom at odds with its own queen, none of us rebels would be the match who would save Mina and both of our kingdoms. The damage of the rumors was already done. Even if she sent Gunther away, she might still fail at keeping her crown. Rune would be at odds with Algar, maybe even at war, all while more people would die, and King Louis would, one stone at a time, build a wall around his plans that nobody could bring down again.
Yet the thought of Mina marrying another, and Rune out of all people, filled me with jealousy, sadness, and a blinding rage. For a brief moment, I’d been tempted to kill the monster. Or at least die trying.
“Let’s run away,” Mina cried against my chest.
I held her even tighter. How I’d love that.
“Far away from here,” she added in a shaking voice. “Let them have my kingdom and yours. Let them fight and kill each other. You and I will start somewhere else again. Hidden. Far, far away.”
“They wouldn’t rest until they’d found you and killed you.”
“I don’t care.”
The way she said it. It broke my heart all over again when I realized that, in this moment, she really didn’t care.
“What about all the innocent people who might perish in another war? Or the existing one if we can’t end it. We can’t do that to those people.”
She sniffled and pulled away from me a little. Her silence told me that she agreed.
“Gunther would throw my kingdom back into the Middle Ages.” Her red eyes sought mine. “But how can I marry this man? How could I possible marry him?”
I wasn’t able to answer it. And yet I had to try, for her. “You are the Rhine Queen. You can dictate the terms of this marriage.”
For a moment, she seemed to think about it, then shook her head. “Even so, I could never let him touch me.”
A darkness deep within me took ahold of my insides. “I won’t let him touch or hurt you. Ever.” I pushed away from her and pressed a hand to her cheek. “Do you hear me?”
Mina looked at me. Then she nodded, somewhat satisfied. I pulled her back into my arms.
“It will be a marriage on paper only,” I reassured her. “And in a few years’ time, when your reign is stable and a war far away, you can annul it. Declare it void.”
She took a deep breath, her sobs momentarily subsiding.
“Even if he’s a monster, Rune has never been one to crave riches or power,” I continued. “He hates the aristocracy. If he agrees to this marriage, he will only do so to save the North and to end the war. He will stay quiet in the background, hunt and drink or whatever else he does without a sword in his hands.”
Mina pulled out of my embrace. “Ifhe agrees?” she said. “You think he might decline an offer of marriage?” She sounded stunned.
“Rune is one of the most unusual people I have ever come across. Nobody really knows what he does or doesn't care for. Besides his joy for killing, that is.”
“You think he can be trusted, at least?”
“He is a man of his word.”
“But he’s sworn allegiance to King Algar and is turning on him,” she said.
“As a knight of the North, he is loyal to his kingdom above all. Not the crown itself. Which I suspect might be the only reason why he might agree to it.”
“Might...” she mumbled, then huffed sarcastically. “A few months ago, at this very castle, I fought against a marriage into the North, and now, I might have to beg for one that’s worse than all of the other offers combined.”
