Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“Don’t.”
“I’m just saying—”
Galen downed his shot. “This has to be temporary, Theo. You have to marry one of the nobles to keep everyone in line. Your mother was a foreigner, and if your father had married another outsider for his second wife, the Families would have revolted.”
“Fuck the Families.”
“You can say that and get away with it. No one else can.” He couldn’t let Theo do this, couldn’t let him offer hope where there was none. “With most things in life, you can power through them and bulldoze people into doing what you want. This isn’t one of those things. We’re taking back our country, Theo. That comes with responsibilities for you. A marriage. Being king. You don’t have the luxury of choosing.”
Theo looked at him a moment too long. “This isn’t only about Meg, is it? You’re already working on the wall you’re going to build between us. How does that look in your head, Galen? This future you’re planning without talking to anyone.”
Of all the variations of Theo, Galen hated the reasonable one the most. His friend was so much easier to deal with when he was being sardonic or driven or fanciful. He clenched his jaw. “Like I said—you marry one of those noble girls. She has your babies. Your children inherit. There is no place for me in that picture, not outside of being your head of security.”
When they were young and dumb, they’d gotten blindingly drunk one night and talked about what it would be like if they got married. It was a pretty thought, but it couldn’t happen. The succession had to be cemented, and it had to be cemented without anything too complicated fucking it up. Theo and Galen getting married had complicated written all over it. An impossible dream, just like a future with them and Meg together. Emphasis on impossible.
“What if we just walked?”
“That’s not funny.”
“Who’s laughing?” Theo took his shot and set the glass down on the counter with a clink. “Phillip might be fucking evil, and Edward might be a child, but I have no doubt they want what they think is best for Thalania. They aren’t going to drive it into the ground and scatter its people to the wind. Maybe it was narcissistic to think that I should be king. I have you. We have Meg. We have more money than we could spend in a lifetime. Why the fuck do I need a country, too?”
Galen snagged the bottle and put it away before either of them could give into the temptation to get shit-faced. “No, Theo. You’re not going down the road. Your father wanted you to be king. He trained you to be king. You have visions for Thalania that are a damn sight better than not driving it into the ground and scattering its people to the wind. That matters.”
“Why?”
He turned to look at his friend. Theo seemed to have aged years in the last few weeks. It should have made him look strung out and exhausted, but the stress had only sharpened his good looks. He really was a pretty fucker. Galen shook his head. “You know why.”
Theo was meant to be king by more than birth. He genuinely loved his people, and he’d been in the process of putting policies into place that would bring their country to the world stage in a big way. That was important. More than that, Theo knew Phillip wouldn’t be satisfied until he sat on the throne, instead of behind it. Right now, he stood as third in line. The only way he could achieve his ambition was if both Cami and Edward were removed from the equation. He couldn’t pull the same trick of picking the legalities of their parents’ marriage apart. Their mother hailed from one of the oldest Families in Thalania. Her relatives would never stand for it.
Phillip would kill them.
It might take years. He was never one to do something to cast suspicion on himself, but he would do it.
Galen didn’t say any of that. He didn’t have to. Theo knew the truth, just like Galen knew why he was letting despair creep in. He walked around the corner of the island and pulled Theo into a hug. “We had a setback. It’s not the end. Don’t let this fuck up your head.”
“I know. Fuck, I know.” Theo’s lips moved against his temple as he spoke. “It’s hard to see the positives in this. I’m fighting and fighting and if we succeed, the prize is that I have to sacrifice two people that are most important to me.”
“Heavy is the head that wears the crown.”
Theo huffed out a laugh. “Now I know you’re worried—you’re misquoting Shakespeare at me.”
Galen clasped the back of his neck and rested his forehead against Theo’s. “You were born for greatness. You were born to keep your people—all your people—safe. That matters more than anything as mundane as happiness.”