The Queen's Secret (The Queen's Secret #2) - Melissa de la Cruz Page 0,98

with the kingdom soon.”

“Happy news?”

“She carries my heir. She is several months along. Long before she shared my apartments,” Hansen says meaningfully. “Not that anyone knows that.”

Cal feels dizzy. If she is several months along . . . it means . . . the king is telling him . . .

“We shall be a happy family,” says the king. “And none will be the wiser.”

Cal’s child will be Hansen’s heir.

A royal child in the spotlight, but his child in the shadows.

Even after finding the scrolls, Caledon Holt is still bound to the crown. No one will ever know the child is truly his, perhaps not even the child. He will never be free of the shadows, of the secrets. But he will have this. His love. His child.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” says Cal, bowing, his face unnaturally red.

“Send Rhema as soon as you can, will you?” asks Hansen. “She’s quite different from the other ladies I’ve known. She seems to be interested in what I have to say.” One of the king’s dogs pads over to nuzzle his master’s hand. Hansen flashes the beast a tender smile. “Even as she chats away about all sorts of things.”

Cal knows all about Rhema’s chatter. He isn’t surprised that she doesn’t modify her behavior, even with the king.

“I’m pleased to hear that, Your Majesty,” Cal says, and bows again.

“Good luck, Holt,” says Hansen, waving away the bow and offering his hand.

They shake like equals.

Cal realizes he never had reason to be jealous of the king. They were each trapped in their duties. But they have forged a path in the shadows.

And they will all keep the Queen’s Secret.

Chapter Forty-Two

Lilac

On May Day I ride back into Mont from Violla Ruza in a carriage, greeted by a blue sky and window boxes bright with flowers, as well as streets thronged with cheering citizens. “Long live the queen!” they shout, and I wave and smile. The news has been announced: I am soon expecting a child. On the journey here I was greeted with happy crowds in every hamlet, farm, and village, lilac ribbons tied to window latches and tree branches. Small girls with lilac blossoms in their hair curtsied and blew me kisses.

I blew them kisses right back. While Renovia is my home once more, Montrice is my home too. We have agreed to go back and forth between the kingdoms.

Hansen, my husband, is happy as well. As far as everyone is concerned, the dynasty is secured. I’m going to bear the heir to the combined Kingdoms of Montrice and Renovia. My well-being is of the utmost importance, Hansen says, which is why I’m riding back here now while the new castle is under construction.

The king remains at the summer palace, near his beloved lake where the trout are fat and juicy, and the fields and forests bristle with quail and other game. We agreed that I should return to Mont now, before travel is too difficult for me. Varya is waiting for me and will care for me right through my confinement. My mother and aunts will arrive within the month, so I’ll be well-attended and have the best possible care, as well as the best possible company.

We’re all taking up residence here for a few months. Now that the Aphrasian threat is over, the obsidian mine at the abbey is in constant production, no longer stalked by deadly magical beasts, the miners no longer tormented by tortured sounds and mysterious winds and whispers.

The Hearthstone Guild is working hard at deciphering the lost magic of the scrolls, and plans are underway to open schools to train magic users from all over the four kingdoms.

We ride past the main square of the town, where lilac trees have been planted in my honor. And now the castle looms—still gray stone, but cleaner, I imagine, and less depressing in the sunshine. The moat has been cleared and is now filled with water, so swans can swim among the water lilies, and its banks are speckled with wildflowers. Next winter, I’m told, those banks will sprout snowdrops; in the spring, they’ll be awash in bright daffodils.

The shield that hangs above the castle portcullis bears Mont’s new emblem, the flaming arrow. This is what the city’s guilds requested, and Hansen and I were happy to oblige. Even the Duke of Auvigne has conceded that it looks very bold and is sure to annoy the King of Stavin, reminding him exactly who saved the four kingdoms from the demon’s dark magic.

I will take up residence in new chambers, an airy group of rooms that look out over the moat. I’ll be able to lean out my window and watch the swans gliding across the water, or flowers springing to life on the grassy banks. Cal has his own chamber just off mine, linked to my apartments with a secret door. I had a new key forged.

He is my love, as Rhema is Hansen’s love now. They seem as devoted as Cal and I are to each other.

Of course, the people of Montrice don’t know that Cal is the father of the child I’m carrying. When the child is born, Hansen will return from the summer palace for a long visit, so we can undertake the public rituals together and the child can be proclaimed heir in the customary ceremony.

But there’s something I haven’t told Cal or Hansen. The day I realized I was with child, I was sitting by my fireplace at the summer palace, thinking about the time Varya conjured up the obsidian figure in my hearth. Not a monk, as she thought, but something close to it, a hooded bird that disguised a demon.

In the flames a small figure began to dance, and then split into two. They were sparkling with light, dancing in tandem, both wearing glittering crowns. One slightly larger than the other. In that vision I saw two children, not one.

One will be a prince and one a princess.

There will be two children. For Hansen will have a child of his own as well. Hansen and Rhema’s child will live with them at the summer palace. The other will live in Renovia with me and Cal.

Both royal households will have a child. They will grow up apart but from the same family. For we are all family. My mother was wrong. There is a way to have love and duty. Perhaps when the children are old enough to run, we will visit them in the summers, when the fields are lush with golden grain, the hedgerows are alive with flowers, birds, and bees, and the children can play in the sun. At the height of summer, when the days are long, and everything seems possible.

The shadows don’t have to be a place of darkness, I’ve learned. They can be a place of peace, a place of escape. We can still feel the warmth of the sun. Cal and I can still love each other, Queen and Assassin, in secret, in the shadows, always.

Acknowledgments

So many thanks to the royal court at Penguin, first and foremost her majesty, my editor, Ari Lewin, and her noble assistant, Elise LeMassena; my queens Jen Klonsky and Jen Loja; PR princess Elyse Marshall; and copyedit czar Anne Heausler.

Thank you to my team at 3Arts, Richard Abate and Martha Stevens, and to Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and everyone at Gotham Group. Thank you to all my friends and family for all the support over the years. Thank you to my loyal readers.

About the Author

Melissa de la Cruz is the #1 New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Publishers Weekly internationally bestselling author of many critically acclaimed books for readers of all ages, including the Alex & Eliza trilogy, Disney's Descendants novels, the Blue Bloods series, and the Summer on East End series. Her books have sold over eight million copies, and the Witches of East End series became an hour-long television drama on the Lifetime network. Visit her at melissa-delacruz.com

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