Page 66 of A Valiant Prince

“This is mine,” she says, spinning around with her hands in the air.

“Y-you have an entire apartment in here?” I ask her as she leads me around several rooms. There’s a wet bar of sorts in the corner, a bathroom, a room for clothes, her bedroom, a small office, a second bedroom off the main sitting room complete with en suite, and a balcony.

“Yes,” she says with a laugh.

A woman walks in and jumps back, a bit startled.

“Hello, Julia,” Anna says to the woman whose mouth is hanging open.

“I’m so sorry, Your Highness. I didn’t know you had company,” she says.

“It’s fine. Really. This is Logan,” she says. “He’ll be staying with us.”

“Oh?” she says confused. “I thought the guest suite was for…” She trails off.

“Please prep my guest room,” Anna instructs.

“Yes, ma’am,” she says as she quickly exits, leaving us alone.

“She’s a skittish one,” I say.

“Yes, she is, I suppose,” Anna says. Her phone pings and she looks down.

“We’ve been summoned,” she says.

“We?” I ask.

“We,” she reiterates.

I follow her back through the maze of the palace. She leads me into an office where a woman sits. “Harriett, he’s expecting us,” she says to the woman at the desk.

“Yes, please go on in,” she says.

We walk through massively ornate wooden doors into a huge office space. King Michael sits at a desk that I can tell is antique and probably used by every king of this country for the past several hundred years. He stands and walks around the desk, taking Anna into an embrace. I can see the dark circles under his eyes.

“I’m glad you’re back, sweet pea,” he whispers loud enough for me to hear. A moment later, we are joined by Chris, Auggie, Sten, and my father. I’m startled to see my father and uncle here.

“We’ll head over to the hospital shortly. I just want you all to be prepared. Lara…well, things don’t look good. She has not come out of her coma. Some of her organs are showing signs of failing,” King Michael says. I can see a glimmer of tears in his eyes.

“How long?” Chris asks.

The king shakes his head. “I…don’t know,” he admits. “I’ve started putting together plans for a state funeral, if she continues to deteriorate at this rate, it may not be long.”

“Montelandia will provide you with any support you need, Michael,” my father speaks up from the corner of the room.

“Thanks, Eddie. I appreciate that,” he says, giving his friend a small smile.

“Security is quite tight right now. I just want to warn you all. Lara’s been moved to a secured wing at the hospital with very limited access,” he explains.

“Can we go now, Father?” Anna asks.

He nods. He presses a button on his desk and a moment later security leads us to waiting cars. Anna is quiet on the ride over to the hospital. I’m not sure how close she is with her aunt, but I can imagine this is a difficult moment for her.

The scene at the hospital is chaos. There are journalists everywhere, onlookers stand in the street, people are setting flowers near the emergency room sign out front, and there are dozens of uniform police officers. We are driven around back, pulling into a parking garage area reserved for hospital staff.

Our security detail ushers us through the hospital and straight to a private wing that apparently has been shut down because the princess is the only one there. A doctor greets us at the nurses’ station.

“Your Majesty,” he says bowing his head.

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