Page 18 of The Forgotten Queen
“Dad!” Marx called. “Look at me! Look how high I am!”
His father shifted his gaze to the rocks and immediately the smile reserved for Palmer switched to a frown. “What do you think you’re doing?” He stomped over to the side of the cliff. “Get down from there, right now!” he hollered.
Marx’s own smile faded. He didn’t understand why his dad was so mad. “I thought you’d like it,” he said as he began lowering himself down the rocks.
“You thought wrong.” His father placed his hands on his hips. “You’re always doing things like this. Why can’t you be more like Palmer and just build a sandcastle?”
“He made a racetrack,” Palmer said, pointing to where Marx had been digging.
He glanced at his brother. Palmer’s eyes were hopeful, as if he thought he could sway his father’s anger away from Marx, but his father dropped his hands and shook his head as he walked back to the blanket, muttering the entire way about how he always caused trouble.
Marx took a deep breath, pushing the memory out of his mind. He reluctantly stepped into his father’s office and closed the door behind him. He wasn’t going to sit down. Sitting encouraged a longer conversation, and Marx didn’t want that. He wasn’t staying. He stood with his arms folded across his chest.
“What do you want to talk about?” he asked, giving his father a pointed stare.
“I’ve negotiated a deal.”
“Okay.” Marx shrugged. “What kind of a deal?”
“You’re to be married.” The simple way his father said it alarmed him. There was too much ease and confidence behind his voice.
A surprised laugh escaped out of his throat. “Married?”
His father’s face remained even.
“To whom?”
“To someone who is extremely valuable to our future and the future of Cristole.”
Marx shook his head, thinking through every other kingdom and their eligible brides. Queen Myka had just gotten married, and there wasn’t anyone else in the other kingdoms that he could think of that his father would be this excited about.
“All you need to know is that marrying this woman will make sure that Cristole has a power position when it comes to the Council of Essentials and our alignment with the other kingdoms.”
“How?” If she wasn’t the daughter of an already existing king, then who was she?
His father crossed his legs, relaxing into his chair. “You need to trust me.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“That’s the biggest difference between you and Palmer,” his father said.
“Palmer wouldn’t have married some woman without a little explanation first. I want to know the details.”
“The explanation is that I want this to happen, and therefore it will. Those are your details.”
“If you like this arrangement so much, why don’t you marry her?” Marx gave his father a stony glare.
His father skipped over his immature remark. “All you need to know is that this marriage is in your best interest as well as the kingdom’s.”
“If you don’t want me to know, what’s going to keep me from learning the truth when I meet her? Won’t it be obvious?”
“No. Nothing will be obvious,” he said with an eerie smile. “The girl doesn’tknowwho she is.”
“What does that even mean?” Marx asked as his brows lowered in confusion.
“She was in a carriage accident and suffered memory loss.”
His chin dropped. “Amnesia?”
