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Apparently, I was planning on doing things to hurt myself, so I didn’t need to allow anyone else to add to it.
Idiot.
I blinked back tears and kept them at bay until Kristof crawled into bed with me later. I wanted to pretend it didn’t happen, but he didn’t let me hide, giving me a soft kiss and holding me close.
“What can I do, my wife?” he whispered.
“Nothing.” I shook my head when he objected, running my fingers over his cheek and smiling. “You’re already doing it, my love. You never make me regret loving you.” I nodded when shock flashed in his eyes. “You’re the one person I don’t regret giving my love to, Kristof. We had a rocky start, but no matter what, we both were on the same team.
“Even when we’ve hit bumps, you made sure that it’s always us, and no matter what I’m going through, I turn to you. That’s what I’ve always wanted from love, what I never thought could be real in life. As long as you give me that, it’s all I need.” That was a lie. It was all I needed from him, but I was glad he didn’t call me on it.
Instead, he made love to me.
He reminded me that I didn’t want to be a person who played games and lashed out. It was time to not be so open and to harden my heart a bit to protect myself better so I never became cold and unfeeling, but I didn’t want to become cruel like other princesses.
We didn’t always get what we wanted though. I would try my best and that was all I could do.
Right?
11
“I’m going to need you to repeat that,” I whispered the next morning, blinking at Sundar when he interrupted my breakfast with Kristof.
The noble took my shocked reaction in stride, clearly not happy either. “The humans at Fort Knox ordered several battalions sent out to take over whatever settlement helped them last night and get answers by order of the United States government. They left this morning heading towards St. Louis since that was the trajectory of the fighter jets.”
I couldn’t get my mouth to work for a full minute, blinking at Kristof who wasn’t so much shocked as annoyed. “They had their biggest attack from corrupted in years and wouldn’t have made it without our help, would have massive damage to fix from their defenses, and that’s their focus?”
“It would appear so,” he drawled. “Idiots.”
“Do they think we’re not human?” I asked, trying to wrap my mind around the logic.
“Eddie says they don’t know what to think,” Branko said as he joined us with James who I couldn’t even look at. “They’re also fighting because the governors who took over as the US government didn’t officially deem a new president because you can’t without an election and they weren’t in the chain of command. They tend to have the governor of that state be the boss.”
“Given he was the one who came up with the idea to hunker down at Fort Knox, the actual reserve part during the worst of it,” I muttered, having learned this from the Begleys who had stayed there. “He was smart like Chris and found the best place people wouldn’t think to hit and hey, was already a base. Too far from coasts, and far enough from Chicago to have fallout.”
Others nodded, but James took over. “The problem is everyone wants to be the boss now that things have gotten easier from all the corrupted we’ve been killing. Plus, more and more are pissed from dissenters being shot and all the fights breaking out over who stole the booze because of your nobles. So it’s like a powder keg that’s been primed.”
I couldn’t even deny it, and we did that on purpose because they were assholes who shot people who wanted to fucking leave in the apocalypse when there wasn’t a US anymore. But also, it was much easier to take over and get people out when we were ready.
Moon showed up and bowed to me. “They didn’t send their troops to St. Louis just because of the jets. They’re heading for the port as they were told to.”
I figured it out first, chuckling as I sat back in my seat and crossed my arms over my chest. “Clever bitch. Fuck, there’s really nothing worse than an enemy that’s actually fucking smart.”
“Princess?” Branko hedged.
Joi had shown up along with several others and had figured out what was going on. “What is the main goal of Princess Inez’s?”
“To get the threat against her off the board,” Kristof said, but then cleared his throat. “That’s mine really. Her’s is the threat to all of us, so corrupted.”
“Yes, the soldiers of Erebus. Keres went to get more soldiers,” Joi agreed.
I met the ancient vampire’s gaze and saw we were in complete agreement. “But if she couldn’t do that, a second goal would be to get more people off the board who would be on our side. A chance to take out some of our allies.”
“She told them where to find us there or come for us,” Moon worried.
“Here was too far to travel,” I muttered. “It’s clear we have something going on in St. Louis and were raiding under them. That would make us look the enemy.”
“And possibly help Keres see who might default on your alliances,” Joi added. “It’s all well and good to say they will stand and help or fight with you, but when a tank rolls on their people and shoots large bullets, most would run. Fine, the ones raiding aren’t their fighters, but some won’t send the help and would tell you to go use your own big guns.”
