“What?” I started to turn my head, but the crown slipped. I steadied it as I twisted to look out the window. “Oh, saints.”
The bridge was whole. Debris floated in the water, and cleanup teams were hard at work, but the bridge was entire. The deck—a new one, perhaps—stretched across the gap, and scores of people were crossing. Running, like they were afraid this was temporary.
“Melanie?”
She was at my side in an instant. “I didn’t have anything to do with this. How could I?”
“I was hoping you were just really good at your job.”
“The only thing I’ve done in the last hour is take the wraith boy back to his room.”
The answer was clear, though: a flasher was responsible.
A hum of anticipation filled the room as wagons and carts trundled across the bridge. People on horseback carried blue banners.
There were hundreds of new arrivals. Thousands, even.
After a while, the fealty oaths began again, but the distraction was obvious. Everyone from the Indigo Kingdom hoped one of their loved ones had crossed. But until the coronation was over, it would be insulting to leave, so everyone waited while we all tried to finish as quickly as possible.
An hour later, I’d accepted oaths from the remaining Aecorians, wondering if I should hold off on officially granting wardship to the Indigo Kingdom refugees until the rest arrived, when an attendant knelt and murmured, “Representatives from the Indigo Kingdom hope to greet you on your coronation day.”
“Send them in.” My head ached under the weight of the crown, and I was sweating under all the layers of clothes, but a good queen would greet them anyway.
The next part wasn’t rehearsed, but I knew what to say.
I lifted my voice for the entire throne room. “Any remaining oaths of fealty will be taken tomorrow. People of the Indigo Kingdom, I know you must be eager to see who’s arrived, so should you wish to become citizens of Aecor, that will happen tomorrow as well. Per the Wraith Alliance, titles of rank and nobility will remain, but will not hold any true authority unless specifically granted.”
From near one of the windows, Prince Colin shot me a glare, but there was nothing he could say to contradict me.
The crowd shuffled and a few merchants and soldiers slipped out side doors to help make more room. People moved away from the center of the throne room, giving me a direct view of the representatives at the door.
They weren’t just representatives, but people I knew: Queen Francesca and her sister, Kathleen Rayner. Chey, Margot, and a few other familiar faces from the ladies’ solar. And there was Sergeant Ferris and Captain Chuter, and—
A black-cloaked figure stepped ahead and pushed back his heavy hood and strands of unruly hair before he looked up.
King Tobiah Pierce.
PART FOUR
THE RADIANT HEIRS
THIRTY-NINE
THE THRONE ROOM was utterly silent as others recognized the new arrivals.
Four more people squeezed forward, eyes wide as they stared at the throne room, the inhabitants, and me.
Ospreys: Connor, Theresa, Carl, and Kevin.
They were alive.
As I leaned forward to stand, the attendants hurried to clip my cape into place. The heavy gown dragged at me, but I took to my feet and kept my neck stiff so the crown didn’t slip as I descended the dais steps, almost dreamlike.
Everyone was watching, but there was only one pair of eyes that drew me in. Dark. Mysterious. Familiar. He was dirty, and exhaustion marked his face with lines around his mouth and hollows under his eyes. He was alive. He’d never been so beautiful.
“Tobiah Pierce.” His name felt warm and sharp and hopeful. I stopped myself before repeating it, just to feel its shape again, but everything inside me felt like lightning. He was here. He was real. “I’d heard you were dead.” Only years of practice kept emotion from cracking my voice now.
“I certainly hope I’m not.” He was moving forward, too, striding toward me with the strangest half smile and heat in his eyes. The intensity, the honesty, was almost too much. It made the moments longer, like every step we took toward each other would be forever etched into my memory.
Others followed behind him. Some were quietly greeting friends, while others looked around with suspicion written on their faces. The Ospreys had already sneaked through the crowd and were hugging the Gray brothers, Paige, and Melanie.
Tobiah stopped just before me, tall, slender, and proud. When he reached from under his cloak to straighten my crown, I held so, so still. His fingers breezed through a strand of my hair; the near touch was electric. “You’ll get used to wearing this,” he whispered.
The crown. Yes. It was hard to think about the crown when he was here. He was alive. All the Skyvale Ospreys were, too. All the grief I’d trapped inside until I had a spare second to examine it and feel it—it surged through me now, transforming into relief.