A True King

by S. E. Rose

  Chapter Thirty

  Christian

  I see the door start to open. I grab the gun I pulled from the safe in the room and hope there’s only one person I need to shoot on the other side of the door. But just as the door starts to slide open, the lights suddenly go out as the building shakes. I smell smoke and realize that the palace is on fire. For a split second, I’m disoriented by the smell, the darkness, and the feeling of danger that swirls around me faster than the smoke. I hear a person move and I raise my gun, ready to fire.

  “Christian?” Mia’s voice rings out in the pitch black.

  Oh, God! For a split second, I think I’m hallucinating. “Mia?”

  “Christian?” Mia’s voice responds, louder this time.

  I cautiously walk to where I know the door is. It’s her small hand that I feel first. The second our hands connect; I know it’s her. I know she’s real. I slowly put the gun down.

  “Mia!” I yell as I try to hug her, but I soon realize she’s not able to wedge through the door. It’s stuck.

  “Help me! I can’t get the door to move,” she explains. “We have to get out of here.”

  Letting my hands guide me, I feel for the door. I press my hands above hers. “On the count of three, push,” I command. “One, two, three.” We both brace ourselves, trying to move the impossibly heavy door. Nothing happens.

  “We need help,” Mia says, her voice panicky.

  “Hold on. Let me think for a moment,” I state. The realization that she is here dawns on me. “How did you get here? Is everyone safe?”

  “We’re fine. Everyone’s in safe houses and your father is in his plane on his way back here,” she explains.

  Relief floods me and I let my head lean on the solid metal door. “There’s a latch.” I finally recall something my sister once told me. Auggie and she had been playing and she got mad at him and locked herself inside. Auggie wouldn’t let her out until she promised to leave him alone. Anna, being Anna, was stubborn as fuck and refused to yield to his demands. Instead, she said she started to take apart the wall and found a lever that opened the door. Why that memory is just coming back to me now, I’ll never know, but I immediately start feeling along the wall.

  “What are you doing?” Mia asks as I step away from her.

  “There’s a lever in the wall. I just have to find the right panel and remove it. I don’t know where though,” I admit as I slowly feel each inch of the wall next to the right side of the door.

  I can hear Mia’s hand patting along the doorframe on the left side. “Here,” she says after a moment. I step over to her and blindly feel around until my hand finds hers. She takes my finger and runs it along an edge of metal. It’s a metal panel raised above the inside security panel.

  “That’s it,” I state excitedly as I try to pry the panel off the wall, which is easier said than done. “I need something. Hold on. There’s a toolbox in here somewhere,” I say as I cough. The smoke is getting thicker and it’s getting harder to breathe with each passing minute. I step away and start feeling along the ground until I come to a metal tin. I struggle with the clasps but eventually get it open. My fingers slide along a hammer and then I find a screwdriver. Bingo.

  I make my way back to the door and start working to dislodge the panel.

  “Hurry,” Mia says as she starts coughing. “The smoke.”

  “Leave. I’ll find my way out,” I reply.

  “No. It’s not safe. They are working to secure the palace. We have to be careful. I promised Jack I’d stay in the helicopter, he doesn’t know I’m here,” she explains.

  I pause. “Jack? He’s here?”

  “Yes! Don’t stop,” Mia urges.

  I have so many questions, but I try to focus on the door panel. I finally manage to pry it off and I stick my hand inside, looking for a lever or latch of some kind. After a few seconds, I find it and I pull with all my might. A clicking sound alerts me that something has happened, but it’s Mia’s squeal of joy that tells me it worked.

  “It’s moving!” she yells. If there was anyone down here, they most certainly have heard us by now is my next thought. Then all thought leaves me as Mia launches herself into my arms. I drop the screwdriver and wrap my arms tightly around her, kissing her head, her nose, her cheeks, her lips.

  Her salty tears moisten my lips. “It’s alright. We’re alright,” I coo as I rock her back and forth.

  “We have to go,” she whispers, “now!”

  Nodding and kissing her once more, I take her hand in mine, grab the gun from the floor, and start to lead us down the narrow corridors. She pulls my hand, but I stop.

  “Not that way. The fire. We have to go the other way.”

  “Where exactly is the fire?” I ask.

  “I…it was in the east wing. But now…I don’t know,” she says as she coughs again.

  “Crouch down. You’ll get better air closer to the ground,” I say as I turn in the other direction and we start making our way through the maze of passages. The smoke starts to clear a bit the farther we get. I decide to take us to the door in the west wing that leads out to the rosebushes behind the garage.

  As I push the door open to the outside, it’s eerily quiet. The voices we heard toward the fire are silenced by the droning of helicopters overhead. We look to the sky. At least two news helicopters and one military helicopter are flying in circles around the property.

  “Stay close,” I command as I grip Mia’s hand tighter, and we walk along the back wall of the garage. As we approach the corner, a figure emerges from the nearby tree line. I raise my gun. It’s Vince. Can I trust him?

  “Run!” he yells. He’s a good fifty yards away and I don’t understand what he means. “Pete…he’s trying to kill you…run!” He only makes it twenty yards before his body jerks, and he falls to the ground.

  I press Mia behind me, tucking her between my body and the brick wall of the garage. Scanning the woods, I look for movement.

  “We need to get to the front of the palace,” I say to her, not taking my eyes off the trees as I scour them for Pete. He’s not dead, which means we could be.

  “How? If we go the way we came…the smoke is too much. And I don’t know who else is in the palace. The other side of the garage is exposed. We’ll be sitting ducks,” she says, her voice tight with worry.

  “We have to try, Mia.” There’s only one way out and that means we move forward, along the far wall of the garage, directly opposite of the woods, the woods where Pete is hiding. I keep the gun up as we start moving, step by step, inch by inch. I freeze with every sound.

  The wind changes direction and I can hear the yells of people. It’s the firefighters and the police. They’re so close, yet they might as well be miles away. The smoke blows around us, offering some cloak of protection from Pete’s view. My eyes stay fixed to each tree, each shrub, and each boulder.

  I step forward, but then everything changes. It happens in the blink of an eye. The wind whips in another direction, a twig snaps in the forest. Before I know what’s happening, Mia’s in front of me, grabbing the gun, aiming it, and pressing the trigger. I hear not one but two gunshots. Confusion clouds me as I feel pain in my side. I see movement through the trees, just for the briefest of seconds. I clutch my side, and when I pull my hand away…Blood. Shit.

  The gun falls to the ground and it’s then that I realize Mia’s body has gone limp in my arms. Together, we crumble to the ground as shock takes over and my knees give out.

  Mia lies still next to me.

  “Mia!” I scream as I shake her. My hands come away with so much blood. There’s so much blood everywhere.

  Her eyelids flutter open. “Christian,” she whispers.

  She opens her mouth to speak again, but suddenly we’re surrounded by people, so many people.

  “Where have you been shot?” Jack’s voice penetrates through my fog. I look around, my eyes locking on his.

  “What?”

  He crouches down next t
o me, pulling a knife from his pocket and ripping through my shirt, exposing what looks like a gash in my side.

  “Medic!” he calls out to someone nearby who runs around Mia and glances down at me. He leans toward my side, examining it with a gloved hand.

  “He’ll need stitches, but it’s just a flesh wound,” the man says. “Your Highness, we’ll need to transport you to the hospital to get that taken care of.”

  I look over at Mia. She’s surrounded by medics.

  “Mia, help Mia,” I say to them.

  Jack puts a hand on my shoulder. “She’s been shot, Christian. They are stabilizing her now. We’re going to have to evacuate her to the hospital. Can you tell me who did this?”

  “Pete, I think. I…don’t know. In the woods.” I point and Jack nods to a man next to him who takes off running in that direction.

  “Vince. He shot Vince,” I say, pointing to where Vince went down.

  Again, Jack motions for a medic, directing him toward the field. Seemingly out of nowhere, Mia and I are being lifted onto stretchers.

  Two helicopters land in the field as a third one circles.

  “We’ll take you by helicopter,” Jack says to me.

  “Mia first,” I command. He nods and says something to a medic who’s working on Mia. Four medics lift Mia and head toward the closest helicopter.

  “Your father’s plane went down over Germany,” Jack says to me as I’m lifted on the stretcher. “I’m waiting on units that are responding to the crash scene, but for now…you’re king. This is your country and I’ll take orders from you and the prime minister. Get stitched up. We have many loose ends to wrap up. Starting with what we want to do about your girlfriend being first in line to the throne of Skogdal.”

  “First?” I ask.

  “King Ivan is dead,” he states. “Go, I’ll meet you at the hospital.”

  And with that, I’m lifted into the helicopter amid chaos. My refuge looks like a war zone. The love of my life may be dying. And my father…may already be dead.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Mia

  Quiet. So very quiet, except for a beeping, an annoying beeping. I try to reach out to stop my alarm clock.

  “Stop,” I mumble. My throat is sore. I swallow but it feels like I’m eating sandpaper. I cough. Why can’t I move my arm?

  I try to open my eyes but I’m so tired. I swear I hear my name. I manage to open them. Everything is out of focus at first. The light is so bright that I immediately shut them again. When I open them again, I see a heart monitor. Hospital. I’m in a hospital. I close my eyes once more because this can’t be real. Maybe I’m dreaming.

  “Mia,” the voice permeates the air again.

  Then I feel it, a hand rubbing my arm. I groan as I register pain in my abdomen.

  “Nurse!” the voice yells.

  There are more voices, but I’m so tired it’s hard to follow what they say. People keep saying my name and time to wake up, but I don’t want to.

  I drift in and out of consciousness, but finally, it’s lips on my forehead, familiar lips pressing against my skin that stirs me from my sleep.

  “Christian,” I croak, my voice scratchy as I whisper his name. I open my eyes and blink several times, allowing the room to come into focus again.

  I’m still in the hospital, only this time, I see a face. His face. He looks like an angel with the fluorescent lighting behind his head, giving him a halo.

  “Am I dead?” I whisper. My voice sounds like I’ve smoked a pack of cigarettes.

  He smiles but I can see tears in his eyes. He shakes his head. “No, my love. You are very much alive.”

  He motions to someone, and a nurse appears.

  “Hello, Mia. I’m Gillian, your nurse. I have some ice water here. Take little sips, OK?” she says handing me a cup with a bendy straw and pushing a button, so my head elevates on the bed. Christian grabs it before I take it and he holds it for me as I sip the cool liquid. I’m thirsty but mostly from the scratchiness in my throat. I glance around and see that I’m hooked up to an IV. That explains why I’m not dehydrated. After a few sips, I lean back against the bed. My head feels heavy. All of me feels heavy as though I might not ever have the energy to lift my body again.

  “What happened?” I ask as I examine myself. I wriggle my toes and fingers. My abdomen. It hurts. I look down at it.

  “You were shot,” Christian says as he takes a seat on the edge of my bed and holds my hand.

  I try to remember. Everything seems so unreal, so dream-like. King Ivan. Jack in the helicopter. The palace was on fire. Christian was inside. We got out through the passages and then Pete. Pete shot Vince. And then…it slowly comes back to me. Turning the corner, walking along the garage. I saw the movement. The glint of the gun. Pete’s face in the trees. I jumped in front of Christian, grabbed the gun, aimed, and fired. Did Pete die? Did Vince die?

  I look to Christian. “Pete?”

  He looks down at our joined hands. “He’s dead.” His eyes follow the length of my arm to my shoulder and neck and then my face before looking me in the eye. “You saved my life.”

  I lift my hand from his and touch his face. He’s not shaven in a few days. The stubble on his face feels scratchy against my fingers.

  “I’d save your life every day, if I had to,” I say. He grabs my hand and kisses my fingers before placing it back in his lap.

  “Pete managed to fire one shot before the bullet you fired killed him. It hit your abdomen. It nicked an artery. You almost bled out.” I touch my stomach with my other hand. “You have some stitches and quite the incision. They had to make sure you weren’t bleeding anywhere else,” he explains.

  “Vince?” I ask.

  Christian looks away and I know the answer before he says anything.

  “I’m sorry,” I say, squeezing his hand.

  “He died protecting me. I couldn’t have asked for a better guard,” Christian states.

  “Your family? My family?” I ask.

  “Dad’s in the ICU in Germany. They don’t know if he’ll make it. There was an engine malfunction. It appears from initial black box data that someone tampered with his plane. I didn’t want to leave to see him until I made sure you were alright.” He places his other hand over mine. “Auggie and Anna are fine. They are with our father. Your parents are fine too. Jack has them on a plane that should land here this afternoon.”

  He pauses.

  “What?”

  “The media is…well, it’s public knowledge now that Gilbert and Jasper are not rightful heirs. But it’s not common knowledge about you and your family. You’ll need to decide what to do. If you want that marriage certificate to stay sealed, then I’ll respect your decision,” Christian says. “Talk with your father when he arrives and Jack will take care of things, either way.”

  I nod. “I’m sorry about your father. I hope he’ll be alright.”

  “Me too,” he says as he looks away for a moment. I can see tears threaten his eyes. Seeing him like this breaks my heart. I want to wrap him in my arms, kiss away his pain, but I can scarcely move, let alone sit up and hug him.

  I watch him as he turns to face me. Neither of us says anything for a few minutes. There’s so much that’s happened.

  “There’s so much we need to talk about,” I say.

  “There is, but we have all the time in the world,” he replies as he reaches out and caresses my cheek. “Rest now. We can talk later.”

  My eyelids flutter closed as though my body physically responded to his command. It’s not the first time, and I hope not the last.

  The final thing that registers in my mind as I start to fall asleep is Christian. He places soft kisses on my hand. His fingers running back and forth over mine.

  “Sleep, my queen. I love you so very much, Mia. You’re safe now. I won’t let anything happen to you again.” His lips press to mine.

  “Don’t leave me,” I whisper.

  “Never.” And with that single wor
d, my body relaxes as though it knows the truth of it better than my head does. If I’m his queen, then he’s my one true king.

  Epilogue

  Three months later…

  * * *

  Christian

  It’s coronation day. I’ve been dreading this day for weeks. I put it off as long as possible.

  There’s been so much to take care of over the past three months.

  I stare at the man in the mirror. He’s older somehow; I’m not sure he’s wiser. A hand appears on my shoulder, and I turn to find my future wife staring up at me. She doesn’t know it yet, but I’m proposing to her today. She looks every bit the part of the future queen. She would have made a wonderful queen of Skogdal, but her father and she chose to keep their identity secret. The truth came out about the heirs being illegitimate and their parliament voted to change their government to a presidential democracy with no monarchy.

  Then there’s my kingdom. My kingdom. Those words still scare me. They’ve scared me ever since I arrived at my father’s hospital bedside. He woke but hasn’t been the same. He stepped down from the throne this week. He’ll spend his days at the Summer Palace.

  Just last week, my sister made her pregnancy public. She’s hidden it well. No one suspected a thing. Logan’s been protective of her, constantly by her side. Auggie has been quiet. He and Kate had plans to wed soon, but he’s put a hold on the wedding until later this year. They want a small private ceremony.

  Jack wrapped up the investigation into the secret society of The 44 this week. A handful of additional arrests were made. It seems an uneventful ending to such a big story. Helga and Clause were killed by security forces at the main palace. Lucas is the only one remaining. He is now in prison after standing trial for treason.

  “You look perfect,” Mia says as she leans up and kisses my cheek.

  “Thank you.”

  A knock at my door has us turning around. My father stands there, a cane in his hand. “You ready?”