Page 46 of Pregnant at the Palace Altar

Frustration welled up within Diamandis, but he shoved it away. “Iammarried to Katerina, regardless.”

Marias said nothing, as if...

Diamandis laughed. Not kindly. “Are you suggesting I divorce her? Make my children bastards? Put such a black mark on the throne simply because a known liar and schemer wishes to make a splash? Do not answer those questions, because surely you cannot be so stupid.”

Marias’s eyes narrowed. “Be careful, my boy.”

But the fact Marias could evenconsider... There was nocarefulto be had. “I am your king, not your boy, Marias. A man of your experience and steadfastness to the crown should know better than to overreact to a minor challenge. And anything that would change the fact that Katerina is my wife and the mother of my children is an overreaction.”

Marias shook his head. “You are going to make mistakes because of this woman. You already are. Just like your father once did.”

And we all know what happened to him.

Those words had always echoed in his head after a lecture, without Marias needing to say them. Because he had said them years ago, to great effect.

Diamandis could not fathom why this made him think of Katerina’s reaction to her mother. The way she had tried so hard to be stoic but had been affected by the woman’s manipulations all the same. She had endeavored to give no reaction, but in the end she had reacted in just the way Ghavriella wanted.

How could she not? They were very powerful manipulations.

For the first time, Diamandis considered Marias’s words—not for how much he agreed with them or not, but for how much they were the appropriate thing to say to a fourteen-year-old who’d just lost his parents and siblings, regardless of his royal responsibilities.

Just like your fatherhad become a curse, when his father had been nothing like Katerina’s parents. His father had been good and noble andkind. More concerned about Diamandis the person than Diamandis the future king.

It had been wrong. Diamandis believed that... But Katerina’s words were there.They will still be children before they are heirs.The feel of his child moving underneath his hand... Would being a cold, remote father really be better for those babies than being the father Diamandis had had?

Conflict brewed in his heart, like a great chasm widening down the center of him. He looked at the man he’d trusted for so long, desperate for a clearer answer. “What mistakes did my father make, Marias?”

“Excuse me?”

“I have been told, time and time again, since the day I became king that his death was his own doing. For trusting people, for caring for people. Maybe this is true, but I find I am of an age, about to become a father myself, that I require more information. When you all natter on about the mistakes my father made, which specific ones are you referring to?”

Marias sputtered. “He put his trust in all the wrong people.”

“He put his trust in you. Are you the wrong people?”

Marias straightened himself, puffing out his chest. Anger flashed in his eyes. It was not the first time Diamandis had openly defied him. It would hardly be the last, but there was something about his anger in this moment that did not match the situation. That landed in Diamandis all wrong.

Before, Diamandis had only ever thought of himself. What he felt. What a failure he was to his father’s memory, and how much he wished he could change the past.

When had that changed? When had he begun to look to the future? When had he begun to look at his former self with some amount of separation—as if the boy he’d been was a different person to the man he’d become?

He had a very bad feeling that he knew the answer to that.

“Let us not worry ourselves about weakness. What we need now is strength, Your Majesty. That strength you were very good at untilshecame along.”

She.As if Katerina were the problem. In fact, she was indeed proving to be a problem for Diamandis, but he did not like Marias taking the liberty of questioning the situation. Ever. He did not like any of the ways Marias was reacting today. In this strange new mindset, everything Marias said felt wrong. “What are you trying to hide by not answering a very simple question?”

“We have real problems, Your Majesty. Current, imperative problems to deal with. If the press catches wind of the identity of Ms. Floros’s father—”

“She is no longer Ms. Floros. She is your queen, Marias. Should the press catch wind of it, then I will hold you personally responsible for the leak.”

Marias snapped his mouth shut. He stood there, clearly at a complete and utter loss. Diamandis found he too was at a loss, because he did not know how to take counsel from this man now that he had all these new questions in his head.

“When you are ready to discuss the specifics of my father’s weaknesses and mistakes, perhaps I will be ready to listen to your advice. As it stands now, I will act under my own counsel, and only my own counsel.”

“As you did on the day of the coup?” Marias demanded.

Diamandis held himself very still. He never thought of that day, of that specific moment. He never thought of the secret only he and Marias knew.

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