Page 68 of Keeping Sarah

“Queen?” he asked incredulously. “Not Contra or Mother?”

“Queen,” I insisted with a smile.

He bowed his head briefly. “Until we meet again, Queen.”

I giggled and followed the rest of the council out of the building. Once we were in the carriage, Rex said, “Well done. I believe they like you.”

“They don’t seem so bad when they’re not trying to enslave me.”

He laughed heartily. “Yes, I imagine that did put a damper on your opinion of them.”

We floated by the arena as we spoke. “I know things are done differently here, but…” A thought hit me. “Are your offices the only places you do business?”

“I do business wherever business needs doing. Why?”

“The viewing box you have in the arena…what about up there?”

“I don’t really care to do business there,” he said, almost defensively. “It’sJustice’sarena, if you recall."

I smirked. “And that seems to bug you. The fact that he funds your life here.”

He grumbled, “I don’t need it thrown in my face—"

“So, what if we turned your arena viewing box into a throne room of sorts?” I asked, tossing out the idea. “I imagine it would annoy Justice without crossing too many lines with him, right? If he asks, you can always tell him you thought you would need to take the reins, since he hadn’t renewed his accounts. Maybe then he would remember to pay his bills on time.”

“He does love that arena, and itwouldannoy him…” Rex laughed gleefully. “Let’s do it.”

We spent the rest of the day transforming his arena viewing box into a throne room, complete with a pair of regal thrones and some upgrades to the bar and kitchen area. From up there, we saw every detail of the arena, save for anything directly below us.

We watched some fights, and I enjoyed it far more since they would not end in deaths. As the evening progressed, I found myself cheering with the people and Rex. It was like when me and my sisters would go to a high school football game, but with slightly worse injuries.

“You’re enjoying yourself,” Rex noted inside my head.

“I am.”

“Good. You deserve to have some leisure time.”

I almost laughed. “I can’t think of the last time I had anything resembling leisure time since I left Earth.”

“Was it not in my bathtub?” His voice was low and seductive.

A hot flash burned through me. “That was not leisure time.”

“Then what was it?” he insisted smoothly.

“Something else.”

He chuckled. “As you say.”

After the fights, some of Rex’s people came for a night meeting, so I let him take over again. “Jason, Helios was a dolt, and you know it.”

“Yes, he was,” Jason quickly agreed out of fear.

“Your sister Atalanta will be my new gate greeter, but I want your cousin Tantalus as my valet,” Rex ordered. “Helios’ job should have been performed by two people in the first place. Maybe that’s why he was so bad at doing both jobs, who knows?”

Jason nodded. “He was never good at multitasking. I will alert Atalanta and Tantalus right away.” He scurried from the throne room.

Rex nibbled on a grape and told me. “You’ll like Tantalus. He looks like Deacon, but younger, and he is not half as boring.”

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