Page 61 of Cruel Crown

He looked at Alexis once again, and then he nodded.

As soon as I opened the door, Alexis turned to me, beaming, and it pierced my heart.

“Your Highness.” She stood up and curtsied at me, then ran and hugged me.

She was taller than me, but that didn’t resonate with her. In her broken mind, she knew who I was, but she thought she was still twelve.

“May I crash your party?” I asked her in a soft voice as I gestured to the tea party she was having.

Alexis started jumping up and down. “I would be honored.”

She ran to get a bear from a chair and held it on her lap, waiting excitedly for me to sit down.

Ignoring the fact that Gideon was watching our interaction, I kept going like this was normal. Alexis poured me some “tea,” and I played for five minutes with her.

“When are you taking me out again?” she asked me.

“Soon,” I said, hoping I could make it a promise. I tried to sneak her outside at least once a month. It was risky but worth it to see her smiling like this.

“Have you heard from Alexandria?” I went with the easier of the two choices.

I felt like the biggest asshole when she stiffened, and her lip quivered. She hugged the bear tighter.

Leaning into the table, I reached for her hand. “I’ll never let anyone hurt you.”

She went back to beaming at me again.

I knew I was limited on time, but I willing to suffer the consequences.

“Remember that time you, me, and Damian snuck off into the Amber Room, and then we got locked inside, and it took a day and a half for our parents to find us?”

That day was twenty years ago. I had been five, and she had been almost seven and Damian eight. We were lucky it was in the summertime, or we would have died. Ivan had been so proud of the Sekten’s small soldiers. How we endured the night and we didn’t complain. I think that was when it all went to shit.

“You kept me warm,” I told her.

“Of course. I would die for you.” She said the words and meant them.

“Together in hell,” I whispered so low I didn’t think she heard me, but she did.

“Forever in heaven.”

I blinked back furiously so I didn’t cry in front of her. My skin was burning up again. I heard the door handle start to turn, and I turned to the two-way mirror and shook my head slowly.

“Alexandria was here a few days ago…” Alexis said as she poured more tea into our cups. “She left some writings in a journal…” When she hesitated, I inched closer to the edge of my seat.

“I think Dove was with her…” She whispered the words as if she were talking about a monster.

“Why do you say that?”

“Because she’s always drawing scary pictures.”

Bingo.

I stood up slowly and made my way to her. “Close your eyes, Alexis. I’m going to take the pictures away, and you can have this…” I stopped while I pulled out a chocolate bar from my pocket.

“You’re the best!” she exclaimed as she threw her arms around me. I played with her hair for a moment, then bent and kissed the top of her head. A tear landed on her scalp, but she was too ecstatic to notice.

Going to the drawer, I moved it so I could get to the back and looked at the images that had been dumped back there. I tried not to flinch as I rolled them up and brought them with me.

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