“Please don't wander around the manor at night, Ara,” Mike said, startling me a bit. “I can't sleep anymore. I find myself checking the training hall and the beach several times a night.”
“Why not just check my room?” I half laughed.
“It’s not really a conscious decision. I just wake up in a sweat, panicked, and find myself headed down there.”
I squeezed his hand. “It’s okay. David's here. He won't let me fall off the lighthouse again.”
He scoffed, smiling smugly. “He has no idea you’re out of bed now. How long were you two sitting there, anyway?”
“Less than a minute or so.”
“Well, I'm sorry, baby, but David's asked me to keep an eye out for you—keep you and Jason apart.”
“What?”
“Ara, that’s his brother, who is in love with you. Can you blame him?”
I let my shoulders drop. “No. I suppose not. Guess it’s kinda the same as me not liking David around Emily.”
“Exactly,” Mike said, overemphasising his nod. “I'm so glad you finally get it.”
I looked at the corridor ahead, silently counting the windows to my room. “Hey, Mike?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you worried about why I don't remember anything about my fall?”
“I was,” he said in a stern tone. “But, given the state your head was in when David pulled you out of the water, I'm also not surprised. I did question Jason, though—to see if maybe he’d erased something from you?”
“What would make you think he’d erased something?”
He shook his head to himself, sighing. “It’s nothing, really, it’s just that…I can't remember, for the life of me, what I was doing that night. I remember I had to drop some new cuffs off down at the training hall, but I don't remember doing it.”
“Maybe you didn't.”
“Yeah, except the cuffs are in the training hall now.”
I frowned.
“Look, it doesn’t mean anything, really—I’ve seen it happen before, you know. In trauma situations, families of victims can quite often experience mind blanks due to shock. And, I gotta tell you, baby, the things that went through my mind when I saw you that way.” He stopped walking. “I wanted to rip shreds off anyone who’d ever touched you. I wanted to kill David for not being here to protect you. I was so blindly angry I actually punched him in the face.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” He looked at his fist. “He shoulda been here. He shoulda been here all along, and none of this woulda happened.”
I rubbed his chest, letting out the breath I’d been holding. “It’s okay, Mike. I'm safe now, and…if it makes you feel any better, you can put guards on my room at night.”
“Really?” His eyes almost bludged out of his head.
“Yeah. Can't have you losing sleep.”
He kissed my hand. “Thanks, Ara.”
“No worries.”
David woke early, slinking out bed without disturbing the covers, and left the room, wearing joggers. Outside, the crows cawed and the excitement of things to come could almost be heard in the very breath of the earth. Today, Mother Nature gained a king; today, David would don his ceremonial dress and, together, we would spill blood on the Stone.
I knew where he was going when he left—knew he needed to run—needed to clear his head because, in his mind, today marked one of the milestones of his life. He always had great respect for royalty, and to become king was an honour I knew he felt deeper than any of us could understand. But that wasn’t why he went running. He went because this also marked one of the first items in his Inventory of Death. All he needed after today was to get me pregnant so he could have the dagger, and then, he believed, he’d be going to his death—leaving me and our unborn child alone, possibly to fall into Jason’s arms, possibly to get a cat, but eternally and definitely safe from Drake. He loved me that much, loved our future child that much that he was willing to die, never to hold her.
I rolled the covers back and sat up, feeling the summer heat in the floorboards under my toes. Across the room, the long double-breasted white coat David would wear to be crowned in sat on the mannequin—all tailored and cut to fit the future king.
I wandered over and ran my fingers down the gold buttons, over the tasselled epaulettes on the shoulders and across the blue sash. I imagined him standing tall and proud in this outfit; imagined this being the happiest day of our lives—one not spoiled by Drake; imagined telling the truth about what I planned to do with Arthur, so that maybe, when that crown touched his head, he could rejoice his rise as king, not mourn the death he was facing.
“Ara?” The door popped open and David walked in.
“Hey.”
“Hey, why are you awake so early?”
“I was worried about you.”
“Me?” He lifted his shirt off. “Why?”
I shrugged one shoulder.
“Seriously.” He stood beside me, touching my arm. “Why are you worrying, sweetheart? It's not like I have to do the Walk of Faith.”
“I know,” I said, looking away from his toned arms, supressing the urge to throw him down on the bed and… “I'm just worried you might be fighting some battle inside that you’re not telling me about.”
“What makes you say that?” he said very softly, tilting my chin to lift my gaze.
I shrugged again.
“My love.” He swept me inward and cradled me against his bare chest. “I love you, okay. And I'm all right. Everything will be all right.”
“I know it will.” I looked up at him. “Because I'm going to make it all right.”
He stared into my eyes for a long breath, clearly trying to read my thoughts, but all he got was a firm glare, determination hovering over a burn of fight behind them that swore, upon pain of death, I would make this all right. I would not let him go—not let him die to save me. “Ara?”
I looked away. “Like you said. Everything will be all right.”
The manor grounds were coloured with faces from all over the world; vampires, Lilithians and humans—all together, all united to celebrate. I smiled, passing each one as I walked toward the Throne Room, bowing my head to staff and guards, guests and visitors. Everyone was charged with the same kind of excitement, but my smile was a little forced. Though I drew on their energy and could relate it, the deeper concern for David's emotions today was eating all that up.