Page 189 of Vicious Is My Throne

“Well, maybe I should let them have the throne if they want it so damn much.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do, actually.” I walked to the window, so she didn’t see me shaking. “No, I don’t really mean that. But I’m not queen material, Torin. In fact, there is no one less prepared to rule a kingdom than me.”

“You are the only one who is prepared to rule, Anaria.” Torin’s voice was quiet. “The only one. And I know we’ve already put too much on you, but this…with you as queen, for the first time in three hundred years, I have some hope for the future.”

Fucking gods, everyone had so much hope for the godsdamned future.

“Fine. Then you’re my High Seer. And Coz is my astrologer and Zeph is my…head dragon, I guess.”

“Astronomer, not astrologer.” She slanted me a look. “I don’t have visions anymore.”

“Well, I don’t know shite about being queen, so we’ll be the perfect pair. And if I’m stuck with a job I despise, then so are you. We can suffer together.”

“Suffering won’t be a half of it. Wait until you endure one of Coz’s lectures on…”

“Did I hear my name, love?” Cosimo swept in, resplendent in a silver and white robe. “Something about me being an insufferable windbag?” Torin made a hmffing noise when he pulled her against him and kissed her cheek.

Cosimo ran his assessing gaze over me. “Lucius and Dane will be happy to see you up and about. They’ve been moping around here like a couple of old dogs who don’t know what to do with themselves.”

I couldn’t stop my squeal of excitement. “They’re here?”

“Came in a few days ago, Zephryn flew them down from Stormfall and trust me, I don’t think Tor will ever finish getting grief about that. Tell Torin I’m not a fucking transport service.” Cosimo pantomimed and she blushed, shoving him away.

“I thought we could use a couple more hands on deck.”

“Tell our queen the rest, Tor.” Coz elbowed her and Torin rolled her eyes.

“Bella is here as well, probably in the library.” She added, her face softening. “I thought…I thought you could use a friend right about now, Anaria.”

“I was told you might be here.”

Bella’s face popped up from behind the enormous book, her eyes brightening before she rounded the table and threw her arms around me. I didn’t think I’d ever felt so seen as when she stared up at me, a furrow between her brows.

“Goddess, you did everything you said you would, Anaria. You killed them both and restored the magic. I never thought I’d see the day when we were free of them.”

“I can’t take credit, Bella, since everything that happened was mostly luck.” And Sylvi’s sacrifice. Just the thought made my eyes burn.

“Nonsense. You got everyone to that cave, you figured out how to use both kinds of magic. You found the keystones, Anaria. We all played our parts, but we wouldn’t be here now, if not for you.”

“So not bad for a slave girl from Varitus.”

“Not bad for the future queen of the greatest kingdom ever in the history of this world.”

“You’re getting way ahead of yourself, Bella.” I was still scared of what lay ahead, but maybe—not that I wanted to admit it—I might have felt a shred of that same hope everyone else was babbling on about.

“We have a long way to go before that’s true.” I held up my hand and began ticking off my fingers. “We have to rebuild Tempeste and send a delegation to Varitus to form a new government, since King Vandran abandoned his realm. There will be food shortages in the winter and housing problems unless we find some way to repair all the towns and villages that were damaged.”

“See?” Bella said brightly. “You already have a plan.”

“Gods, Bella, I don’t have a plan, I have a disaster to manage.”

“And you have help. Vesper and me, Torin, Zeph and Coz, plus everyone else. You aren’t doing this alone. You’ve never had to do any of this alone.”

“Sylvi’s dead.” I blurted. “She’s buried under that mountain, all by herself.”

“That was always her plan.” Bella gripped my arms, her red hair a halo around her freckled face. “All she ever wanted was the chance to finish what she’d started. You gave her that, Anaria. Now we look to the future. She would have wanted that, too.”

---