Page 28 of Pregnant at the Palace Altar

Life had done that to Lysias, who, after the coup, had been labeled a traitor along with his parents. This had been the doing of Diamandis’s cruel advisers—Diamandis being too useless with grief to make any of the necessary decisions.

Lysias’s parents had been sentenced to death for aiding a coup, and Lysias exiled at the tender age of twelve.

It was a miracle in Diamandis’s mind that Lysias had been able to forgive him. Though Diamandis had not given the orders himself, even when he’d begun to realize they had been wrong, his pride had kept him from reaching out to Lysias. He had been afraid that correcting the wrong would cause more upheaval.

And the princess had still been missing. He’d been certain that even if the Balaskas family was innocent, they knew something they wouldn’t tell.

Until Lysias had brought Zandra back to him, and the fact that he’d saved the princess when he’d been a boy had come to light.

Diamandis had certainly not forgiven himself for the years of suffering he had brought upon his childhood friend. If he had been stronger, he would never have let his advisers make such knee-jerk decisions.

“I hope it is not the prospect of your bride causing this expression on your face, Diamandis. The people will not feel any measure of assurance that this is a love match when you are scowling so.”

Diamandis blew out a breath as they walked the length of the great hall toward the chapel. It was quiet here since most of the action was to take place in the chapel or outside the entrance. As his bodyguard, Christos was nearby, though not visible, but that was about it.

Diamandis did not wish to speak of his thoughts, not when Lysias would no doubt take it as an invitation to have a conversation Diamandis did not want, so Diamandis was vague. “I was thinking more of the past than the future.”

Lysias was quiet a moment—but only for a moment. “I hesitate to give you advice, knowing how violently you reacted to that when we were boys.”

“Boysbeing the operative word.”

“Have you changed so much, then? Or just learned to hide that nasty temper because you had to?”

Had to.And how. “There are many things I had to do.”

“Yes. There were and there are. I have no knowledge of what it is to be king, but I do know something of what it is to be a husband and soon-to-be father.”

Diamandis wanted to refute both labels. He did not want them. They were being thrust upon him because he had made mistakes. Been careless. They were hispunishment, and he would take this as he had taken all the rest. It was his due.

When Diamandis said nothing, Lysias continued on. “I spent my formative and early adult years believing everyone I loved would either die or betray me, because that was the lesson my childhood taught me, or so I thought.”

Diamandis didn’t stiffen. He straightened his tie that did not need straightening as they stood waiting for their signal to enter the chapel. Diamandis wished it would hurry up.

“That is not living, though. Not really. We can let our pasts define us so much that we do not really live, or we can deal with what tragedies befall us and attempt to live in spite of them. I let my past be defined by its most tragic moment, instead of remembering all the good that also existed.”

“You sound like your wife,” Diamandis muttered, because he could find no other words. He had no arguments for this. Except the one he knew his old friend would argue with.

I do not deserve to “really” live like that.

“Yes, but I know something she does not, because she cannot remember it. I am glad for some of it, for her sake, butIremember your parents. I wish she could remember them, and I wish you would not forget them so. Even being the most powerful people in Kalyva, and dedicated to the throne and the Agonas legacy, they were, at heart, kind, loving people. They would not want their son to blindly commit himself to the throne and nothing else. They would want you to have what they had, and it seems to me you have a chance for that here...if you’d let go your preconceived notions of what youhaveto do, and focus on all youcoulddo.”

Diamandis tried not to think about what his parents would want for him. He ignored the echoes of his father’s voice, offering advice about life. He focused on the crown and only the crown.

Because the crown was controllable. Family and love were not. He had learned this, locked in a dungeon, watching his father’s soft spots end his life; listening to the screams of his mother, his brothers, and being unable to save them. Neither anger nor begging had made a difference.

His father had trusted a man he’d treated as a brother—and that man had let the discontented political faction inside the castle walls.

When you loved, you could not protect what was important.

When you loved, you failed. You did things that could never come to light.

So Diamandis did not speak and did not acknowledge Lysias’s words in any way. He waited for the signal, and when it came, he moved forward without ever saying a word or even looking Lysias’s way.

Because hewasthe throne. And nothing else.

Katerina was in a wedding dress adorned with lace and jewels and surely meant for the princess, but it was now hers. It had been altered to fit her growing belly and her shorter frame. But it was not hers, she knew this.

Not the wedding, the husband, nor the crown. She was an imposter.

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