Page 72 of Desperately Yours

Taking her by the chin, I tilted her face toward mine. “Michaela? Please. I’m here. True to my word, I came for you. I’ve got you.” Desperately, I clung to her, brushing my lips against hers, seeking solace and a fleeting sense of connection amid pure chaos. “I’ll never let you go.” With an anxious heart, I pressed my lips against hers once more, yearning for the fairytale ending that seemed forever out of our reach. My mind flashed back to the last time I held her like this, body limp,freshly dragged from the sinkhole. “I love you,” I whispered against her lips. “I love you, Michaela.”

The guards finally gained control of the room. Order was restored. For everyone but me. I didn’t care about their world anymore, only her. My forehead rested against hers, eyes closed, heart broken. If I’d done something to hurt her or cause her pain, I couldn’t live with myself. She was my entire world. She was everything. She was—

Fingers curled around the sash that hung haphazardly across my chest. I pulled back, shocked as I connected with her brilliant blue eyes again. “Fitz?”

“Oh, my love!” I pulled her closer still, tears rolling unbidden down my cheeks. “You’re alive.”

“A little sore too.” She groaned and it registered.

Immediately I released my grip on her and held her at arm’s length. “Are you hurt?”

She shrugged. “I fell from a ledge on the side of the palace, ripped my hand open on a gargoyle goat’s tooth,” she grimaced, “and then got trampled so… yeah, safe to say I’ve got a bruise or two.”

“Hold on,” I urged. With my feet under me, I rose and started shouting commands. “I need a medic here now. Get me a doctor immediately.”

“I’ll be fine, Fitz.” Michaela shook her head slowly as if she could disarm whatever confusion had taken hold. “Just help me up.” She stretched her hands to me and eagerly I took hold.

Her body didn’t respond immediately, and I wrapped my arms around her waist to keep her vertical once she was on her feet. Surveying the room, I noted many of the parliament cuffed against the wall, as well as Sadie and her mystery beau. Someone’s gaze burned into me. I searched the room and located Bishop in the throng. His eyes silently inquired what he couldn’t say aloud. I nodded, a small smile forming on mylips, signaling to him she’d come out of the situation relatively unscathed. Relief filled his frame like his next breath. Michaela swayed where she stood, stealing my full attention once more.

“How’d you do it?” Asking her a thousand questions in her state wasn’t my best choice, but I couldn’t resist. “How did you know?”

She feigned a smile. “I’d like to say I knew about Sadie early on, but I only knew once she knocked me out. And as for Reginald, I didn’t know until he destroyed the vial.”

“And my father?” I cast a quick glance toward him. Mother had wrapped him in her embrace, holding his weight to keep him steady, but he was stronger already than I had witnessed in months. “How did you get to him in time?”

Every word looked like work for her to speak, but by the same token, she fought through to tell me. “I was headed here to break up the wedding, but I remembered that night we snuck off to the kitchen to make pancakes. We passed by your parents’ chamber entrance.” She took hold of my suit to steady herself. “I had two vials of the antidote, and I thought that even if he fought me off, I was probably stronger and I could force him to take it.” She smirked like she wished that was what had happened. “But when I pushed open the door, Kabir was there. I wasn’t sure if he was the enemy or not, but he rushed to help me. I gave him a vial and told him to give it to the king. Then I rushed here. I knew someone was controlling Sadie, but I didn’t know who. I figured whoever it was would want to destroy the antidote.”

“Controlling Sadie?” I felt miles behind her. How much had I missed? “What do you mean?”

“She never would have done any of this, except they took Tauriq and—”

“Guards! Take her!” Mother’s voice towered over every other sound in the room. “She’s a threat to the crown!”

I turned, searching her out, expecting her wrath to be focused on Sadie, but to my surprise, her long finger of accusation was pointed at Michaela.

Michaela

Fitz pressed me behind him, acting like a body shield to protect me from the queen.

“Are you mad, Mother?” His chest rose and fell quickly, set on overdrive. “She just saved Father. She saved the kingdom!”

“She’s a menace. She will leave Nolcovia at once.”

Fitz shook his head. “If she goes, I go. You’ll never see me again. Is that what you want?”

Queen Mariah’s face twisted with pain at the thought. “Why must you be so difficult, Leonidas?”

“Because I love her.” His arm scooped around my waist to pull me against him. “I plan to marry her, with or without your blessing.”

“You are the Crown Prince of Nolcovia. Does that mean nothing to you?” Her hands shook with the unspent fury of her frustration. “Do you mean to spit in the face of all our traditions?”

Fitz opened his mouth to fire back, but Bishop slid forward between them, hands up as if asking for a cease fire. “Funny you should mention tradition, Your Majesty.” He waited, glancing between mother and son to be sure they were both listening. “If you recall, there was once an outsider, a foreigner if you will, who wasn’t good enough for the future king. But shealsosaved the kingdom and rescued her prince to be, almost sacrificing herself in the process.” Bishop met my eyes. “She proved she was worthy of the crown, no matter her origins.”

Goosebumps sprang up my arms and emotion tightened my throat. The story of Nolcola felt unreal compared to what I had faced, and yet Bishop was right, we had quite a bit in common.

“Now, I’ll be the first to admit, I thought you were behind our king’s untimely and pending demise, and yet, here you are fawning over him, clearly jubilant that he’s survived.” Bishop tilted his head to the side as if weighing something. “Are you ungrateful for Miss Caldwell’s brave quest to save king and kingdom?”

The queen stuttered a moment, without words for the first time since I’d met her. “Of course I’m happy.” Her face twisted with anguish as she faced her husband. “To think I was moments away from losing him forever…”

---