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AT THE CORNER WHERE THEIR corridors met, Marcus stood waiting for Leah. She forced a smile. His eyes studied her, her outfit included, and his confusion at her choice of apparel was apparent.
“Hi,” he said, taking her hand. “You okay?”
She bit her lip, glancing at the servants around them. “Of course. We need to meet with Her Majesty’s aide, right?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
A servant led them through the hallways. All was silent as they walked. It felt like a death march. Marcus tightly gripped her hand the entire way, once giving her a questioning glance. She only shook her head. They needed privacy for this conversation.
After being led to Catrina’s outer office, the couple was met by her aide on duty. “Her Majesty’s in meetings most of the day, as expected, but we’ve carved out some time to hold a private discussion between the three of you right before lunch.”
Leah groaned. She didn’t want to have this stupid discussion at all, but to have to wait around for hours?
“Okay,” Marcus replied, always the more level-headed of the two. “Thanks.”
As the couple left the office, they agreed to grab an early breakfast from the kitchen. With Stephan away and Catrina in meetings, there wouldn’t be a proper meal in the dining hall anyway.
Leah and Marcus took their breakfast trays to the small study, always escorted, and ate their food in relative silence.
She didn’t eat much, her stomach in knots, and a little queasy. After a servant cleared their trays, the couple went for a long and slow stroll in the gardens. Marcus was still uncharacteristically quiet, but so was Leah.
“Are you nervous?” she asked.
He waited a moment to respond. “I guess that depends on what you’re asking about...”
“About your aunt...”
He shook his head. “Aunt Catrina only wants what’s best for us.”
She hid her frustration. So now them getting married wasn’t just the ‘right’ thing to do, it was the ‘best’ thing to do. “She wants what’s best for you, and what’s best for the kingdom, but me? Not so much.”
Marcus frowned. “Come on, don’t be like that. We’ll get it sorted.”
Sorted? Like her life was a messy room that could be folded and stacked and organized and tidied up? She’d tried that! She did appreciate more stability in her life, and enjoyed many things about the Ivy Kingdom, but hated fitting into a mold forced on her by her notoriety and, frankly, by Marcus’s family’s notoriety.
Leah’s life had become a scoreboard.
Say the wrong thing at a public gathering: negative one to five points, depending on how bad it was and how much the rumors spread.
Forget to curtsy to the queen and king at a ball: negative three points, because it probably meant she didn’t respect them and was planning to assassinate them.
Be found in any sort of compromising situation with her long-term boyfriend: negative three points, since she shouldn’t be tarnishing his impeccable reputation.
The ‘scoreboard’ wasn’t really discussed, but rules had been set, expectations reiterated, and criticism occasionally given.
But Leah didn’t say anything. She didn’t want to argue with Marcus right now. She needed him.
He continued to be lost in thought, anyway.
Approaching a massive hedge at the edge of the garden, she yearned to keep walking, to find herself at the rifting cave at the edge of the palace grounds, to simply disappear.
Leah wrapped her arms around her midsection. “I want to go,” she whispered.
“Where?” he asked.
“Away. I don’t want to deal with this right now.” Even as the words left her lips, she knew how childish that sounded. Actions had risks and consequences.
“She just wants to talk.” Marcus rubbed her arm. “She wants to help.”
It took everything Leah had to not roll her eyes. When things were calm, he was the realm’s best boyfriend—attentive, sweet, passionate, funny, dorky. When it came to his family and their place in society, he sometimes wore rose-colored glasses, or failed to see exactly how hard it was for Leah.
“Sure,” she muttered, turning back to the palace. Only when they were halfway back did he take her hand, and she softened a degree.
***
Catrina sat in her office, a kind but perhaps not fully genuine smile on her lips. “Hopefully you’ve both had some time to calm down and discuss things properly.” Her gaze traveled over Leah in her human-world clothes.
Leah bit her tongue, the heat already rising in her cheeks.
Marcus said nothing.
“We’re not going to make any huge decisions in one day,” Leah answered.
“Surely you two have talked about marriage before...” Catrina arched a single eyebrow, a little more pointedly at Marcus.
“Please don’t,” he practically whispered, gently shaking his head.
Catrina sat back in her chair, blowing out a breath.
“We’re not going to get married just to make you happy or to avoid a scandal,” Leah said.
Catrina pursed her lips.
“We’re nineteen. We’re adults. We can do what we want.”
Nodding, Catrina crossed her legs. “Then please act like one.”
Watch your posture. Remember the governor’s name. Don’t forget to curtsy. Avoid looking like you’re making frivolous purchases. Keep criticism to yourself.
Leah stood. “You have enough appointments today. We don’t want to burden you.”
“Sit down, Leah.” Catrina pointed to the chair.
“No,” Leah spat out with finality. Her passport was still tucked into her sock, and she was ready for its unused status to change. “I’m going.” She threw a pleading look at Marcus to join her.
He frowned, only mouthing the word, “Please.”
She wasn’t going to fight him, too. Leah stormed across the room, pulling the door open.
“Eleana!” Catrina yelled, and the guards outside the room closed in on her.
Leah whipped around. “Let me go. You don’t want me here, so I’m going.”
Catrina pointed again to the chair. Marcus ran a hand through his hair, slumping in his own seat.
“One way or another, I am going,” Leah said, her voice almost shaking. “I’m done with you, and I’m done with this place.”
She glanced at the guards over her shoulder; they were poised with wrists at the ready to tie her up with vines if need be.
Catrina threw her hands in the air. “Fine. Go have another temper tantrum. Marcus and I could stand to have an adult conversation.”
Marcus buried his face in his hands, but remained seated.
Leah’s heart begged for Marcus to join her, to show a united front, but she needed to get out of here, and she wasn’t going to wait for him. The moment the guards stepped aside, Leah made a beeline for the exit. After several hallways and a couple of sets of stairs, she slammed the door behind her and breathed in the fresh air. Only a little winded from the stairs, she marched forward.
“Temper tantrum,” she muttered.
She got an odd glance from a servant or two tending the grounds as she kept mumbling to herself and striding through the gardens.
After several minutes, she was past the gardens and into the forest, ducking under tree branches.
“Leah!” Marcus’s voice twisted her heart, but she only slowed a little.
“Leah! Wait up!”
She didn’t, but he eventually caught up to her, winded, grabbing her hand.
“Hey, wait a second.”
She took her hand back and continued walking. “Like I said, I’m going.”
“And I’m going with you.” He strode beside her, putting an arm around her. “Where are we going?”
She wanted to cry again. “Where do you think? The rifting cave.”
“Okay.”
They were still a couple dozen yards away when a horn rang through the air, and they both halted.
Fear raced through Leah. She’d only heard that horn once before, during a security drill. Surely no one was attacking the palace right now.
And then her knees got shaky. Catrina thought she was the threat? She was just scared and angry, and wanting to leave.
“What did she say after I left?” Leah asked.
He looked flustered. “It doesn’t really matter. I ... wanted to come after you and told her I was leaving, too.”
In no time flat, soldiers ran through the woods, closing in on them. Even though electronics didn’t work in the Green Lands, green folk had their ways of communicating. Guards in palace towers and lookouts high in the trees knew how to efficiently convey messages with codes and mirrors.
As the soldiers approached Leah and Marcus, the couple held up their hands, though Marcus didn’t have his as high. Flashbacks tore through Leah’s mind. Of gasps in a dining room. Of guards shoving her down a mansion hallway. Of being strapped to a chair for hours as she was bombarded with information about her parents. Of how much she’d thrown up when she’d come to accept the truth.
She didn’t want to go back. If Marcus weren’t next to her, if she weren’t pregnant, if she didn’t know better, she would have fought these soldiers. Tooth and nail. And she would have lost.
“Come with us please,” one soldier said.
Leah gritted her teeth. Marcus took her hand, squeezing it. “It’s really not that big of a deal to hear her out.”
It wasn’t to him. Neither of their aunts had ever discussed executing him.
“Fine.” As they returned to the palace with several escorts, numbness overtook Leah. At least the archers positioned high above them didn’t have their arrows aimed at her, so that was a good sign.
“I am trying to be patient,” Catrina said, standing tall in her office again. “And I am not the enemy.” Her soft blue eyes competed against her firm tone.
“Neither am I.” Leah stood as well, refusing to take a seat. “But that didn’t stop you from siccing your soldiers on me, did it?”
“Eleana!” Catrina scolded. “It doesn’t have to be this way. We’ve treated you like family since the moment you moved in with us. Family dinners, outings, holidays...”
“But you’re not my family. And I want to leave.”
Catrina shook her head. “If you’re going to leave this way, then—”
“Then what? You’ll cut me off? I don’t need your money.” That was a lie. “I don’t need your servants, or your palace.” She shoved her hands into her pockets. “I don’t need any of it.”
Turning to Marcus, Catrina gestured at Leah. “Marcus?”
His expression was the epitome of discomfort. Only in that moment did it really dawn on Leah how hard this might be for him. He was being asked to choose between following his pregnant girlfriend and his own aunt, his queen.
“This doesn’t have anything to do with him,” Leah said, hoping to take some pressure off him. “Either throw me in the dungeon like a tyrant, or let me go. Last I checked, I’m a free citizen in this kingdom, and I haven’t actually done anything wrong.”
Catrina eyed her, considering. “If you want to go, then go. But you better understand the implications. You better remember the promises you’ve made about security measures at this palace.”
Leah huffed. “Like I have anyone to tell them to.”
“Passageways included.”
“Done.” She looked at Marcus. “I’m heading out. Again.”
Marcus took her hand.
“You’ll leave from the front gate,” Catrina added. “You’re no longer permitted to use the palace’s cave.”
An emotional door had officially been slammed in Leah’s face. She and Marcus were to do the walk of shame, taking the much longer way out on foot.
Leah held back her tears, squared her shoulders, and choked down the lump in her throat. “Fine.”
Their escort was mortifying. They hadn’t stopped at their chambers for anything. And when the palace gates creaked closed behind them, Leah almost crumpled on the spot.
But she didn’t. She gathered her thoughts and took a deep breath. She was actually homeless now.
It would be a long walk to reach a major highway.
Marcus had his hand on her back. “Do you want to take a rickshaw?”
There were always a few lining the central path between the palace and highway.
“No. I don’t.” She needed to work off some steam. And at least pretend to be as strong as she was stubborn.
“Alright,” he said softly.
About a mile down the path, they neared the highway. Their walk had been done in silence, punctuated by the crunch of their footsteps on gravel and the occasional songbird flying above. Honey bees buzzed nearby.
Leah was thirsty, and desperately wanted a nap. And frankly, she didn’t know where they were headed.
“Where ... are we going?” She was the homeless one, not him. He still had a home with his parents, and a temporary home already lined up for him for his internship up north.
He kissed her temple. “I have an idea. But...” He hesitated. “We should stop by my parents’ place first.”
She cringed, wilting. “Do we have to?”
Marcus blew out a long breath, tucking her hair behind her ears. “The family talks. And I’d rather give them the news myself before Aunt Catrina sends word.”
Frowning, Leah nodded. He deserved as much, no matter how little she wanted to see anyone in either of their families right now. Rachel and Guillen had forbidden them from sleeping together long before they’d even gotten back together as a couple. But unlike the motivations behind Catrina’s orders to wait until marriage, Marcus’s parents had set that expectation out of love and concern for him. Leah had understood that. They genuinely had been astoundingly forgiving of her, accepting her into their home and family. That generosity, however, wasn’t likely to extend to her anymore once they found out Leah was about to tarnish their perfect little boy’s reputation.
Leah’s thoughts turned to her own mother, and she couldn’t hold back tears this time. She cried silently, allowing memories of a prison visit months prior to flood her mind. There was so much pain there. She still hadn’t shared details of that visit with Marcus. Like a lot of her trauma, she’d buried it and tried to forget it.
She sniffled, and Marcus rubbed her back. “We’ll be fine. I have a plan, I swear.”
Sniffling again, she nodded. Glancing at him, she stopped thinking about herself. Why did she have to love him? If she were less selfish, she would have let him go long ago.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“For what?”
He was so close to his family. His parents, brother, aunt and uncle—the whole lot of them.
“For driving a wedge between you and your aunt.”
He pressed his lips together, looking straight forward.
They neared another rickshaw, and he asked again if she was interested in taking it. It was several miles now to the nearest rifting cave, and she was crashing from her adrenaline high. She accepted, and he pulled coins from his wallet for the driver.
After they slid in and the driver began pedaling, Marcus squeezed her hand. “I will always choose you.” He smiled softly, then kissed her cheek. Quiet enough for the driver not to overhear, Marcus added, “And I’ll always choose our baby.”