Chapter 103

Laila and Orion come in a little bit later, but we don’t begin our argument again. Instead, Laila takes charge, bustling us all into the kitchen and starting to make a big pot of fish stew by hand, insisting that the process of cooking is sometimes necessary.

“Honestly you all rely on magic far too much,” she murmurs, even as I conjure up a big crunchy roll of bread to go along with our evening meal.

“Laila, don’t you have like, dozens of servants who do everything for you in your home palace?” Anton asks, a bit dry, leaning in the doorway as Orion and I chop vegetables.

Laila whips her head up and glares at him. “Get over here and help, you lazy thing.”

Anton grins, holding up his transparent hands. “Can’t.”

My friend whips her head to me. “Make him corporeal again. He needs to participate in the therapeutic labor.”

“No,” I say, quite lofty, lifting my chin even as I concentrate on my work. “He’s bothering me. He’s in ghost jail. No body until he’s nice to me again.”

We all laugh a bit and I smile, looking around at my friends, thinking that this really is better. Even if…well, even if Orion and I do have quite a bit to sort out.

I mean, I know Anton was prodding me with his suggestion earlier, but is the easiest solution here just to…marry Orion and take the throne together? Would that give us both what we want – fulfilling the prophecy to keep the God of Darkness away while allowing me to truly intervene in this world, to make the changes which I think are so necessary?

I let my mind drift on those changes for a moment, my wolf moving towards my new well of power and testing it hesitantly with her paw, wondering at what those changes could be. Images move through my mind of the Underworld not as a wasteland, but spread wide with fields and flowers, streams running through them. Of sunlight shining down from the sky while the moons hover at the horizons. Of souls not wandering a desolate waste as they consider reincarnation, but instead comfortable, conscious, able to contemplate their lives and consider what changes they’d like to make in the next…

Honestly, wouldn’t all of that be better?

I bite my lip, unsure. Because Orion has a point – there’s so much I don’t know about this world, or what is possible…

Still, it has to be able to get better, right?

And if I can be part of that – don’t I have an obligation to try? I mean, to have all of this power granted to me…and do nothing with it?

Surely, that would be the greatest sin, yes?

“June?” Laila says quietly, and I blink back to the present moment, looking up at my friend. “Do you…want another carrot?”

I stare at her for a second and then look down at the carrot that I’ve apparently been cutting to match sticks. I look up to see Anton grinning at me and I roll my eyes, putting my knife hastily down and waving a hand at my cutting board, cutting up a whole wealth of pre-chopped carrots.

Laila gasps, betrayed.

“Oh, I don’t want any more cooking therapy,” I say, my shoulders slumping a bit. “I want to talk.”

Sensing the direction of my thoughts, Orion likewise puts his knife down, abandoning his celery. Laila sighs, scooping up my carrots and carrying them over to the cooking pot.

“Are you going to shout at me again?” Orion asks, his voice low, raising an eyebrow at me.

“If you deserve it,” I say, leaning back in my chair and steadily holding his gaze. “But Anton is right. There’s no reason we can’t do this together, Orion.”

“Anton?” Orion asks, looking over at the man in question with surprise.

“It doesn’t have to be you or me on the throne,” I say, giving a little shrug. “It can be both. You have things I need, I have things you need. Why shouldn’t we rule together?”

Orion turns back to me with surprise. “Are you…proposing marriage, Juniper?”

I blush a little, realizing that it sounds like that. I study him for a moment – his incredibly handsome features, the broad set of his shoulders, the depth of his pretty dark eyes. My wolf pants a bit at the idea and I…acknowledge, truly, that I am drawn to him.

But even if we do feel that pull, my wolf turns anyway, towards Anton. Always towards Anton, who I have to admit is first in my heart.

Even if he is annoying me right now.

“I don’t know what I’m proposing,” I say, my own voice casting low, deliberately cagey. “It doesn’t have to be a marriage. It can be an alliance. I don’t think those details matter as much as a commitment to each other – to…do our best together. If that’s what you really want. But Orion,” I say, leaning forward towards him. “Is that what you really want? I’m not just trying to be mean – I’m genuinely asking if you want to rule, because I’ve never seen much of the inclination in you.”

“What…inclination are you looking for?” Orion asks, leaning forward towards me, confused.

“I…” I sigh for a moment, collecting my thoughts. “You forget that I’m the daughter of a King and a Queen, Orion. That I know what passionate rulers look like. My parents are tireless about raising our family but also about running the nation. Honestly, I don’t think they sleep – dad is always in meetings, working on policy, running a damn twenty-year war for the betterment of our people. And mom is always working on humanitarian aid, or negotiating education budgets, or founding societies that seek to help a people that was neglected for generations before my dad took the throne. And they don’t do it because they feel obliged – they do it because they love it.”

“So that’s…that’s what you want to do,” Orion says quietly, I think a bit captivated by my evident passion. “Lead with that kind of…verve?”

“Yes,” I say, nodding eagerly.

He sits back in his chair, studying me, a little frown on his lips. And quite suddenly I realize that it’s not anger or frustration but jealousy that lights in him in this moment. That he’s never felt that kind of draw to leadership and right now he very much wants to.

“Have you…always felt like this?” Orion asks, his brow crinkling a little. “Didn’t you…I mean, weren’t you and Blythe planning to run away from it all?”

“You’re right,” I say with a shrug, dropping my eyes. “It was always Ariel who leaned more into her political role as Princess much more than me. And it’s my brother Rafe who is being groomed to rule. But I think it was more my contrary nature – my desire to distinguish myself from Ariel – that pushed me away from that in Moon Valley. But here?”

I sigh a little, looking around at the little house, peering out at the endless darkness beyond.

“I don’t know,” I murmur, shaking my head. “I feel…a very keen affinity with this place. I like it here.”

“You don’t mind the lack of sun?” Laila whispers.

I shrug, turning my eyes back to her. “I don’t really notice it.”

“Are we all honestly surprised?” Anton asks, holding out a hand towards me. “That the small bat Princess likes the land of eternal night?”

I laugh and swat out a hand towards him, though of course it misses. “Oh, shut up.”

“Spooky ass Princess,” Anton murmurs, laughing and moving to the table, taking the seat next to me.

“World’s least-terrifying ghost,” I return, leaning towards him, quite pleased.

Anton bares his teeth at me and I laugh again. But when we turn back to our friends, my wolf turns anxiously to see them both watching us quite carefully, Orion with a strange look on his face.

“Sorry,” I say, setting my shoulders back again and taking a deep breath. “But – can we agree, Orion? An alliance, of some sort? I – I think we could be great, doing this together.” I reach out a hand, wanting this very much.

He studies my hand for a moment before he leans forward, slipping his hand warm against mine, curling his long fingers around my small one. “An alliance, June. Of some sort. The details of which are…yet to be decided.”

I smile at him, very happy.

And Orion smiles back at me, giving my hand a squeeze.