Page 12 of Pregnant at the Palace Altar

“Lysias and I have no use for some fancy affair—that wasyourinsistence. I’m quite happy with the Athenian elopement. So you and Katerina could take our places at the royal wedding. You can say it was the plan all along, and that you were simply waiting for Katerina to be well enough to deal with the responsibilities and attention before you told everyone it was to beyourwedding. It lends credence.”

Diamandis watched Zandra sip her tea as she expressly did not meet his gaze. He wasn’t surprised that she did not want the pomp and circumstance of a royal wedding. She had not grown up with it all and was still getting used to the ceremony of being royal.

But what did puzzle him was that she was helping him. “I am surprised you are supporting me in this.”

“If I confess that part of why I can’t sleep is because of the preparations for this wedding, because my nerves over this grand ceremony keep me awake every night, would you understand better?”

“Is this true? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It would not have changed your mind, and I want to havesomerespect for tradition even though I remember so little. But it has become a larger burden than I anticipated, and I would not be sad at all if you and Katerina took our place.” Then her face scrunched up into a frown. “Why would you be surprised at my support?”

He’d walked right into that one. “I am quite tired. I’ll go and fetch the tray from Mrs. Markis. Do keep this quiet for the time being until everything is in place.”

“Diamandis. Shewantsto marry you, doesn’t she?”

He did not look at his sister. “I am sure she came to the same conclusion I did. That this is what’s best for everyone involved.”

“Anóitos,”Zandra said under her breath. “You are not forcing this poor woman to marry you.”

“I gave her a choice.”

“Oh, I’m sure it was agreatchoice.” She muttered a few more choice words for him as she got to her feet and began to pace.

“She is pregnant with my children,” Diamandis said, having no idea why he was defending himself when he was king, and he did not need anyone’s support. Everyone had to do what he demanded. “What else am I to do?”

Zandra’s hands rose to her own belly bump. “Children...plural?”

Twins. Twins. Twins.He cleared his throat. “Yes. Twins, apparently.”

“Like Achilleas and Rafail?”

Diamandis could not confirm this immediately. His throat had grown too tight. Sometimes the things Zandra couldn’t remember hit him sideways. Like their brothers.

Sometimes he heard their screams in his sleep, and she did not even remember having met them.

“Yes, like Achilleas and Rafail,” he managed roughly.

“I wish...” But she did not voice her wish. She had no need to. He knew she wished she could remember, but sometimes Diamandis felt it was best she did not. She could study the history books, learn the names and faces of her family, but she did not have to live with the bloody reminders of what had happened to them.

She crossed the room and wrapped her arms around him, as if such gestures of affection could ever become commonplace or comfortable. “Take our wedding then.” She pulled back and looked up at him. “But maybe don’t think of it as royal business and something to be done for the crown, but an opportunity.”

“An opportunity for what?”

“For happiness, Diamandis. For love and family.”

But Diamandis knew what love did to a family.

It ended it with blood.

Katerina awoke slowly, cuddling deeper into the softness around her. She was half-convinced it was a dream and she’d wake up in her uncomfortable apartment and find that her alarm hadn’t gone off that morning.

But she was too warm, too content to worry about that and search for her phone to find out what time it was. She could be late...just this once.

Then there was a...smell. She could not identify it, but she knew. She remembered. She was not in her apartment. She was not livingherlife.

She was a prisoner to the Agonas throne once more. She opened her eyes and stared at the gilt ceiling above her. Because she was in the queen’s bedroom, no less.

You will be an effective queen.

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