There was no reason to show fear.
Everything had been planned down to the hour.
“I understand,” I said to the servant.
I turned around, walked back to my bedchamber, and pulled my heavy dark Royal robe over my shoulders.
I fastened the gold buttons down the front, straightened my cuffs, and walked down the main hallway toward the thick doors of the Great Hall.
Two guards pushed the doors open.
I stepped inside.
The Hall was packed with people/wolves even though we no longer possess our abilities.
Nearly every noble in La Fita stood on the floor.
Landowners from the hills, tax collectors from the docks, and council members from the inner city filled the space from the entrance to the raised dais.
I walked down the long red rug between them.
No one spoke as I passed.
Heads turned to watch me move, but no one smiled.
No one bowed until I walked past their shoulders.
I kept my head high and my eyes fixed on the throne at the end of the room.
I reached the dais, climbed the three stone steps, and turned around to face the crowd.
“To whom do I owe the pleasure of having almost every noble in the city gathered here today?” I asked.
My voice filled the quiet hall.
No one answered right away.
I sat down on the high velvet throne, placing my hands flat on the wooden armrests.
My eyes moved across the crowd until they found Logan, my Chancellor.
He stood near the front, holding a heavy silver tray wrapped in a cloth.
His gray beard was neatly combed, but his face looked pale.
“Logan,” I said.
“What is the meaning of this gathering?”
Logan stepped forward.
His boots made a scraping sound against the stone floor.
“Your Majesty,” Logan said.
“Speak,” I said.
Logan cleared his throat twice.
“A few days ago, we celebrated the Queen’s birthday.”
“Yes,” I said.
“I did”
“When was the last time Your Majesty saw your wife?” Logan asked.
I looked out over the heads of the nobles.
I let my voice sound tired and patient.
“On her birthday,” I said.
“Prior to that day As everyone in this room knows, Josephine was in her final month of pregnancy. The doctors told us she needed rest. She was not supposed to walk the staircases or meet with visitors. I Also saw her in her room the morning of her birthday, spoke with her, and left her to rest because she was going into labor or had? I can’t really remember .”
I leaned back into the cushion of the throne.
“I was actually planning to visit her rooms after I finished my work this morning,” I said.
“I only came down here because I was told the council had assembled.”
Logan stared directly at my face.
“Then Your Majesty has not heard?”
I pulled my brow together, leaning forward.
“Heard what?”
“About the fire,” Logan said.
“The fire?” I repeated.
I let a faint nod show on my head.
“Yes, I heard a chimney in the laundry room caught fire two nights ago. The guards put it out with buckets of water.”
Logan’s expression did not change.
“It was not the laundry room, Your Majesty.”
I stared at him.
“What are you talking about?”
Before Logan could answer, the double doors at the back of the hall swung open.
Corvin walked into the room.
His shirt was torn at the elbow He walked slowly down the center rug, his head lowered toward his chest.
I watched him move.
My heart beat with a steady thud.
This was the moment we had planned.
Behind him, one by one, every noble in the hall dropped to their knees.
The movement of heavy silk and velvet filled the room as dozens of men and women knelt on the floor.
I stood up from the throne halfway, then sat back down.
“What is going on?” I called out.
My voice echoed off the high ceiling.
“Why is everyone kneeling?”
No one answered.
I looked straight down at Corvin.
“Corvin! Stand up and speak.”
I gripped the wooden arms of the throne until my knuckles became red.
I made my voice shake slightly, letting a note of fear show in my tone.
“Whatever has happened, tell me right now,” I said.
Corvin lifted his head slowly.
He did not look into my eyes; he looked at my feet.
“I have come to bring news of the Queen,” Corvin said.
I held my breath.
I let my chest stay still for five seconds.
“What news?” I whispered.
The hall was so quiet that my quiet words reached the back row.
“The fire two nights ago did not start in the laundry room,” Corvin said.
His voice sounded rough.
“It started in the store closet beneath the Queen’s east wing. The flames moved up through the wooden beams before anyone spotted the smoke.”
I leaned forward, my top teeth digging into the inside of my lower lip.
“How?”
“We do not know, Majesty,” Corvin said.
He lowered his head again.
“The guards tried to break the doors, but the wooden beams collapsed inside the hallway. The fire reached her sleeping room before anyone could get through.”
I stared at him without blinking.
“What are you saying?” I asked.
My voice came out thin and weak.
“Your Majesty,” Corvin said softly.
“The Queen was inside.”
I let my mouth open.
I forced my eyes to widen.
“My wife?” I said.
I stood up from the throne so fast that the heavy wooden chair slid back two inches, its rear legs scraping against the floor with a harsh noise.
“You are telling me my wife is dead?”
Corvin kept his face toward the floor.
“We could not reach her in time, Majesty.”
“No!” I shouted.
“No!” I screamed again, shaking my head.
“That is impossible! She was in the her wing! The walls are stone! That’s the safest place in the palace ”
The nobles kept their heads down.
No one moved.
No one raised their voice.
“My wife cannot die on her birthday!” I yelled, stepping down off the top step of the dais.
“You are lying to me! Why are you standing in my palace telling me lies?”
I pointed my shaking finger directly at Corvin’s face.
“What is wrong with you?” I shouted.
“Who paid you to come in here and say these things?”
“Your Majesty” Logan began, stepping forward from the side.
“No!” I shouted, turning on Logan.
“My wife is alive! She was resting! ”
I grabbed the collar of my own robe with both hands and pulled at it, popping two gold buttons off the cloth.
They bounced down the stone steps with small metallic sounds.
“I was supposed to see my child today!” I yelled.
The sound was rough and loud, ringing off the walls.
I took two fast steps toward Logan, then stopped, moving on my feet as if my legs could no longer support my weight.
“How?” I gasped, holding my throat with one hand.
“How could this happen in my own palace ?”
Logan stepped closer, holding out the silver tray he carried.
“Your Highness, you must look.”
“Get that away from me!” I yelled, pulling back.
“Your Majesty, please,” Logan said.
His eyes were wet with real tears.
“We spent two days digging through the fallen woods and ash beneath her room. We had to be sure before we brought the news to you.”
Logan pulled back the white cloth covering the tray.
On the cold metal surface lay a small gold ring, blackened by fire and bent out of shape.
Beside the ring lay three small gray pieces of bone covered in ash.
I stared at the tray.
I let my knees drop completely.
My legs gave out beneath me, and I fell hard onto the stone floor.
My knees hit the floor with a loud thud, sending pain through my legs.
I did not care.
I threw my hands out to catch myself, my palms slapping against the cold surface.
“Your Majesty,it’s against the kingdom for a king to go on his knees!” Logan cried out, dropping to one knee beside me.
I did not look at him.
I sat on the cold floor, my legs folded under my body, staring at the small bent ring on the tray.
Josephine was dead.
Her child was dead.
The Kingmaker line was erased from the earth.
The wooden doors at the end of the hall opened again.
Footsteps ran down the center carpet.
Nella and Victoria, Josephine’s stepmother and sister whose honey pot tasted like sugar, rushed into the hall.
Their gray dresses were rough, their hair hung in messy clumps, and tears dragged lines through their faces.
“Your Majesty!” Nella screamed, throwing herself down onto the floor three feet away from me.
“Your Majesty, please tell me this isn’t true please”
Victoria fell beside lady Nella, crying into her hands, her shoulders shaking.
“No…” I gasped, dropping my head forward until my forehead nearly touched the cold stone.
“No…”
Nella reached out a shaking hand and touched my sleeve.
“Your Majesty, please… you must get up…”
I pulled my arm away from her hand, curling my body into a tight shape on the floor.
I pressed both of my hands over my face, hiding my mouth, my nose, and my eyes behind my fingers.
I began to shake.
My chest moved up and down in heavy jerks.
Loud gasps escaped my throat, sounding like the cries of a man whose heart had been broken.
To every noble kneeling in that room, to Logan, to Corvin, to the crying servants, I looked like a broken husband crushed by tragedy.
They heard my sharp gasps.
They saw my shoulders move.
They listened to my weeping screams
But beneath my cupped hands, hidden from every eye in the kingdom, my mouth opened wide.
My lips pulled back over my teeth in a massive grin.
A dark laugh built up in my throat, and I had to bite hard into the palm of my thumb to keep the sound from coming out.
The pain made my eyes water, and real tears squeezed out from my eyes, running down my cheeks and wetting my fingers.
I tasted the salt on my lips.
It had worked.
Every piece of the lie had held firm.
Not a single noble doubted the fire.
Not a single guard suspected Corvin.
They believed my queen had burned in her bed, and they believed I was dying of grief on the floor of my own throne room.
I buried my face deeper into my sleeves, letting my body shake with another heavy gasp that sounded like sorrow to the room, but felt like pure success in my chest.
I was the happiest wolf in La Fita….
I Finally Won!!!