Page 50 of Princess For All

And his lips simply twitched.

“I love you, you old fart,” I chuckled.

“Thank you, My Princess,” he sighed.

I smiled at Vanessa. “My husband has his faults and he knows that. He knows he has traumas and—we’ve always—not always been able to be honest, but Kristof is one of the few people in the world—he truly wants to know what he does wrong. I’ve told him when he is the problem, and he’s been the one to comfort me through that hurt.”

“That’s rare,” she praised, glancing at him. “And surprising from what I’ve observed.”

“He’s only soft with me. And importantly, for this to work, he’s protecting me. He has a barrier over this room so all the super old vamps who are visiting and raiding for our alliances can’t hear what’s happening in here. So he’ll—nothing we’ll say will probably shock him. Or maybe it will help him understand me better when I have trouble communicating.”

“As we both do, my love. I hope hearing you be brave will push me to be brave as well,” he said gently. “I’m very proud of you for taking this step and putting yourself first. I hope we can have these sessions together, and I’m here to help anyway I can. I can wear your earbuds and blast music—whatever you need.”

I thought about that a minute. “Maybe for some things if I need to feel I can work things out on my own, but I definitely want your support while getting her caught up on the crazy. I might even need you to jump in when things get hard.”

“Always. I will always jump in, my love.”

“Okay, I withdraw my objection as long as he really does allow you to have private sessions when you want it.” She gave a half shrug. “This normally registers as controlling behavior from where I sit. I understand I’m the unknown and you need to be protected, but you’re much stronger than me, and I know I’m not in good shape physically. So…”

Again, she shrugged.

Fair enough.

I let out a slow breath. “No, but you’re going to be influencing me, and after what we learned about what my family did, the ones who love me were nervous about letting someone be alone with me and having any power over me that way.”

“I only heard whispers,” Vanessa said gently. “I did talk to Josephine…” She trailed off when I flinched. Yeah, it was hard to hide that even hearing the name upset me. “She wants to change her name.” She nodded when I did a double take.

“I would ask why or what she wants for that?” Kristof worried, immediately moving next to me and wrapping his arm around me protectively.

I bit back a smile and saw Vanessa was amused as well.

She ignored him and focused on me. “Seeing your reaction to her name and knowing it causes you pain when you’re the only princess who has offered any real kindness besides Noel solidified her decision. She has always disliked the name and the people who gave it to her. And you should know that she approached me to discuss it in earnest, no one pressured her.”

“This is the first I’m hearing of it, and everyone snitches to me about everything,” Kristof muttered. “But I’m glad. For Inez and—we want people to heal. I say that as someone my wife has healed immensely.”

Vanessa nodded that she heard him but again stayed focused on me. “She would like some time to find the right name that she likes and take the decision seriously. But she would also ask that those in your inner circle be open to… Test-driving names. That it’s explained to them that this is something she wants to break free from her past and to be kind.”

“Absolutely. We would even if it wasn’t an issue for me or I will pound people into the ground,” I told her, my tone making it clear I wasn’t kidding. “That’s not a big deal, and—we need more allowances for everyone.”

“Agreed, and you’ve done anexcellentjob fostering that environment.” She cleared her throat when I went to brush her off. “I need you hear me on this, Inez.” She sighed when Kristof corrected her. “I’m sorry, but in here, I need her to just be Inez. In here.”

“I agree,” I told Kristof.

“As you wish,” he accepted. “Yes, I guess that’s best. As long as she’s not flexing on you having you call her doctor whatever.”

“No, not when this will be a bit unorthodox and probably cross professional lines into big sister advice at times because the situation is so dire given the whole apocalypse thing.” Vanessa waited until I nodded. “And I’m doing that now. You need to hear me that you’ve done anamazing job, Inez. I’ve heard over and over again that you making it this far is a miracle.

“All of these guest nobles say it all of the time and their princesses agree. That you’ve done what no other princess could have and during the fucking apocalypse while the corrupted andgodshunt you. Plus, so young even for humans. Ignore their jealousy and realize that even the ones who dislike you are in awe. You’ve done something amazing, and you have to start accepting that.”

I blinked at her a moment before I burst out crying, shocking the shit out of Kristof.

But Vanessa wasn’t surprised. She had tissues ready.

So my reaction didn’t make me a weirdo then?

“Relief,” she whispered when I started to calm down several minutes later. “You let out all that tension and anxiety andstressthat you constantly carry around that you’re failing and someone else could have done better. Yes, your reaction was normal, and you need to have it more. That will keep you going, and you need to keep going for all of our sakes.”

And maybe for the first time in a long time, I felt like I could. I also felt like I could be honest with her.

---