Page 60 of Under the Lion Star

His mouth opened as if to speak but slammed shut as the creak of the wooden door drew our attention. Leor quickly pulled my dress down and stood, wrapping his arms around me protectively.

“In the fucking council room, Leor?” Atlas’s voice was full of mock horror.

I chuckled against the king’s chest, peering over my shoulder to find Atlas leaning against the doorway with an unamused scowl.

“What?” Leor barked.

“Well, I was going to see if you wanted to have lunch, you know, like we usually do after you subject yourself to these torturous meetings, but it appears you’ve already eaten.”

I laughed again, hiding my blush against Leor’s chest, which also shook with amusement.

“I’ll meet you there,” he offered his friend.

Atlas muttered a string of curses as he shut the door. I pulled back to look up at Leor, and we both started laughing, his forehead resting against mine.

“Sorry,” he smiled.

“No apology necessary,” I grinned. “Thanks for… all of that.”

“Literally anytime, Z.”

Leor helped me fix my dress and blushed when he stated he needed to change his clothes. He offered for me to join him and Atlas as they ate, but I didn’t know that I was ready to face our friend so soon after being caught in a compromising position. Instead, I set out to find Sanna and see if she wanted to head into Galvord with my sisters. I figured giving her some female company would do her well.

The smile on my face couldn’t be erased as I meandered through the castle, and I thought that if every council meeting ended like that, I would thoroughly enjoy my time as queen.

Chapter 18

Leor

Given the current audience, I fought the need to tap my fingers on my chair. Zialda was late, and the lords sat around the table, unable to hide their impatience as we waited for our queen to arrive so we could eat.

The council had arranged a luncheon so that they might get to know Zialda better, who had thoroughly impressed them with her ideas at our last meeting.

Atlas hadn’t been able to fight off the scowl as he stared at his father, but I’d asked him to be here with me, and he begrudgingly agreed.

He’d already tested my plate before it exited the kitchen, and I was desperate to eat, knowing that this meal wouldn’t be my undoing.

I considered if that meant I could write off the lords in attendance as the culprits. Lord Gamril, Lord Corrin, and Lord Merhan were engaged in banal small talk with one another. Merhan had already apologized for his son’s behavior at the previous week's meeting. As if that had been Ellor’s first transgression. Surely the man knew his son was an entitled asshole. If I didn’t end up killing him, someone else most certainly would.

The door to the grand hall opened, and a footman began to announce Zialda’s arrival, but he was cut off when she slipped past him.

“Sorry, sorry,” she panted, dressed in a light leather tunic and linen pants.

Her hair was pulled back in an unkempt braid, a few bits of herbs and grass clinging to the strands. She looked beautiful. She looked like my wife.

“The cart the courier brought to Aunt Stella’s had a broken wheel, and Nima and I are hopeless at repairs, but Pullam arrived and got it all squared away,” she sat next to me, smiling apologetically. “Sorry.”

“No worries,” I grinned, kissing her knuckles.

The lords kept their thoughts to themselves, but their opinions meant nothing to me. She’d proven herself as a thoughtful and capable ruler in a single meeting. Her unqueenlike appearance didn’t detract from the fact that she was intelligent and compassionate.

“Pardon my appearance and tardiness, my lords,” she smiled, bowing her head slightly.

“Never apologize for who you are,” Atlas murmured beside her.

“Let’s eat,” Z nodded.

She expertly navigated the polite conversation while Atlas and I remained quiet. He rarely spoke when his father was around, and I had decided that the less I offered of myself to those around me, the less likely I would be to slip up and provide information that could be used to my detriment.

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