Page 77 of A Valiant Prince

I relax a little in the bed, looking around at the people in the room. It’s odd, having my grandparents here with my father. I stare at them.

“You came all the way here?” I ask my grandparents. Pops leans down and kisses my forehead, something he hasn’t done since I was a kid.

“Of course, we did, kiddo. We’ll always come to you when you need us,” Pops says.

“We’re so glad you are alright, Eddie,” my grandmother says, her eyes filling with tears again.

“Nana, I’m OK,” I reassure her.

She nods and wipes a tear from beneath her eye. I look back to Anna. My princess. I smile at her, and she smiles back through her tears.

“We should let you rest,” she says quietly.

I nod, realizing just how very tired this short conversation has made me. King Michael leans forward.

“You saved my daughter, Logan. And for that, I will be eternally grateful,” he says.

I look over at Anna. “Sir, I would die a thousand deaths to save your daughter because I love her with all my heart,” I admit out loud. There’s complete and utter silence in the room after I finish speaking. My eyes don’t leave Anna’s as tears well up in them again.

“I love you too, Logan,” she says to me. “I love you so very much.” And with that, she leans down, careful not to put her weight on me, and kisses me. The feel of her lips against mine is heaven.

“Get a room,” I hear from the doorway.

I pull back and look around to find Auggie and Chris at the door. Auggie’s grin is infectious and soon everyone is laughing and smiling. I can see Hendrick behind them in the doorway. I make eye contact with him. He nods at me and gives me a small smile before stepping to the side. I wonder for a moment if he’s been standing guard by my door this entire time.

My attention is drawn back into the room as King Michael looks over at my father. “I think instead of destroying our families, Hans’s plan ended up bringing them together,” he says as he shakes his head in disbelief.

“Our countries will be stronger for it too,” my father agrees.

I look back at Anna and lace my fingers through hers. She smiles down at me, the first look of happiness I’ve seen on her face in many days now.

She mouths “I love you, Eddie” to me as everyone starts to leave the room.

“I love you too, Suzy,” I say with a grin.

“Let’s leave the lovebirds alone,” I hear my nana say as the door shuts, leaving me alone with my princess. And for the first time in many weeks, I know in my heart that everything will be fine as long as she is by my side.

Epilogue

Susanna

I look at the photos of the summer palace that Shannon has left on my desk. My father didn’t waste any time having it restored after the explosion. It’s been four months since that fateful day.

I smile at how it is starting to look just as it did before the explosion. It’s being set right, one stone at a time. I set the photos aside and look back at my laptop.

My secret laptop is no longer a secret. While I do still help to continue some of my mother’s charity work, my father tasked me with a more important job. I helped him to vet a new security team. Pete is now our head of security. I oversee my father’s intelligence briefings and act as a royal liaison with our intelligence offices for Norddale and also for Interpol. I’m even working on setting up a joint intelligence taskforce between Norddale and Montelandia. While I may on occasion do some light hacking work, like fixing Sonya’s dating issue on her app recently, I don’t spend much of my time scouring the dark web anymore. Jack does on occasion ask for my expertise on some of his cases, but we keep that between us, and Pete.

The only secret I have left is the room. I flip the lid down on my laptop and run my hand over the stickers. I smile at it. For years, I put stickers I collected from my travels all over the lid. It’s filled with memories. I think about those trips as I make my way up through the tower and the secret bookcase door and finally into the secret room.

I run my fingers over carvings I discovered when I rearranged the room recently. Beneath a shelf, I found my mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother’s initials carved in the floor. I, of course, added my own. It makes me feel closer to her, in some small way.

I scan the books on the shelf and find one of my favorites, The Secret Garden, and I decide to take it down to my mother’s grave and read it. It’s a nice day outside, and I want to feel the sun on my face.

I waltz down the steps and outside. The pebbles of the path rattle beneath my feet as I make my way through the maze of flowers and bushes until I reach her grave. I’m surprised to find Logan sitting there. He has a single rose in his hand.

“Hey,” I say to him. He looks up at me and smiles. He looks good. It’s taken him a few months to get back to his old self, but he’s finally looking like he did when we first met, happy and carefree. He’s remained here throughout his recovery. Although his father wanted him to come to Montelandia, he didn’t want to go until he was stronger. We have a trip planned for next week.

It was formally announced that he is the son of King Edvard, and his mother was the secret queen. It’s been a press field day. And I think that’s why Uncle Eddie allowed him to stay here to recover. We haven’t announced our relationship to the world yet. It’s been nice, to keep something between us for now.

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