Her forehead rested on the back of his hand and Adelina wished she could do something, anything to save him from this. If Mala had any mercy for them she would have sent Ian the cure, or protected the king against whoever poisoned him.
It all made her so angry, and the despair Adelina felt rising up – thick and choking would drown her if she wasn’t careful.
A message from Raena came through. It contained the signed documents, accepting Varan’s request for marriage and the digital announcement on the livestream. Adelina breathed a sigh of relief. At least her future was secured to a male who was kind and honorable, and he loved her. Varan was just the right amount of vicious to enhance the royal family and blend in a way few others could handle.
Adelina stayed bowed over her father’s hand, whispering prayers until just before dawn…when her father’s heart finally stopped beating and he took his last breath as the sun tinged the sky a bruised pink.
For a moment the world stopped – and Draga lost a king.
“Long live the queen,” Adelina whispered.
Adele threw herself on Orion’s chest, sobbing when she realized he was truly gone.
Adelina didn’t cry as she watched her mother. Or when people suddenly filled his bedchamber, she simply felt numb.
She got up and walked past Ian. Her brother’s face was broken as he stared at their father’s body, hands in his pockets. Ian didn’t even blink when a physician shoved by him.
Adelina walked silently down the hall as it felt like hundreds of people ran past her.
She pressed her hand to the portrait on the wall and the panel slid open. The royal library was silent and almost peaceful. It felt empty without her father.
Adelina walked around to the fireplace where her father had sat day after day, finding books she could use and setting them on the table in a stack for her to take.
Her fingers trailed over the chair he liked to sit in. The room was cold. But there was a stack of books on the table next to his chair, ones she hadn’t gone through yet. Adelina tapped the books with a nail that was still unnaturally sharp.
The last books her father would ever set aside for her.
She didn’t dare take them. If she did there would truly be nothing left of him.
Adelina tipped her head back and screamed and screamed until her throat was raw and still she did not cry.
How could her father leave her with Raena and Giselle, all alone against the vicious world? Adelina wasn’t ready to be at their mercy. The trip to the Hai galaxy was only a temporary solution. When she came back they would be there, waiting.
Her father had led them in peace for decades. King Orion was the greatest king Draga had ever known, and the kindest.
That kindness had been given to her all her life and he’d never ignored Adelina, never told her what she couldn’t accomplish, and never looked at her submissive status as a weakness. Father had always believed in her and now that piece of her was gone; the piece that felt loved and cherished no matter the situation.
Those tears finally fell for him and Adelina let them. She let them mark her face and leave trails down her cheeks and neck. She would miss him, so very, very much. But her papa had done everything he could for her and their people until his last breath.
Now it was her turn.
Giselle burst into the library, looking haggard and frightened.
“Raena’s dead,” Giselle gasped.
Adelina turned away from her sister. She wanted to laugh at the absurdity—the insanity of such a declaration. Somehow her eldest sister was dead. She had to be going mad.
Then Adelina turned back to Giselle and arched a brow. “Long live the queen.”
Giselle shook her head in denial. “No, no, I can’t.”
Adelina wiped the tears from her cheeks and felt herself shutting down inside as she left the secret library and headed towards Raena’s rooms. Giselle trailed behind her.
The emotions she felt boiling up inside were going to make her snap if she wasn’t careful.
Every single feeling demanding her attention was shoved down so she could focus, so she could function and get through this new crisis. Her hand on Raena’s door was scanned and she was given access. Adelina stood at the threshold and stuffed the grief down deep.
How she felt about Raena…Adelina didn’t actually believe she was dead. It was so impossible, so strange, and so sudden. How?
Someone spoke in stuttering words at her and Adelina barely caught the meaning as a dull roar filled her head. She rubbed her temples as she tried to focus. “Get out.”
“Your highness?”
“Everyone out,” Adelina demanded. Her eyes went to the washroom door and dread filled her. “Only a royal may enter.”
No one questioned her and they all filed out. Soon it was just her and Giselle.
Apparently a servant tasked with fetching Raena had found her in the bath with both wrists slit and blood covering every surface imaginable. No one had dared touch anything. Instead they went to the next in line to the throne; Giselle. And Giselle had panicked, running for Adelina.
Her sister’s panic was understandable. Giselle didn’t want power, or to be queen. She barely wanted to be a royal and now she would have the entire kingdom to run. Any tiny bit of freedom she’d carved out for herself – the new warrior status, the secret lover – it would all be ruthlessly ripped from her the moment she was crowned queen.
Still, somehow Adelina was the one standing in the doorway to Raena’s washroom with Giselle on their sister’s bed, head in her hands.
Adelina shut down all her emotions as she studied the scene before her. Logic was all that would get her through this without a panic attack and at the moment she was the only functioning royal available.
“I can’t be queen, I just can’t. I don’t know anything about ruling a galaxy and what if I die in battle. You will rule? You’re not capable.”
“Giselle, if you can’t shut your mouth I will shut it for you.”
It looked like a suicide. It was exactly how Raena would have chosen to kill herself too. She’d mentioned the method after the talk about the Neprijat getting their hands on them. Adelina wasn’t ready to believe it was a suicide despite what she saw with her own two eyes.
Only Raena’s scent was in the room though and then the servant’s scent that had gone to fetch her after their father had died in his sleep. Her shreve was even on the small table next to the bath, open to the documents she’d signed to finalize the match between Adelina and Varan.
Blood stained the floor red, but none of the water remained as the floor had soaked it up.
Her sister’s skin was whiter than it had ever been in life.
“It wasn’t you,” Giselle said. “You were with father all night, mother confirmed. The royal library recorded your entry and there is no time between when you left father’s room and when you entered the library,” she rambled.