She took a deep breath. “Why does everyone always have to go?”
“I don’t know, but it sucks.”
“True that. Dammit, I told him to retire. I told him. I begged him. And when they go they leave us with all of this — you’re too young to be dealing with this bullshit war...”
I chuckled. “I’m a full grown man and a king, but yeah, this bullshit war. Feels like Da would have known how to deal with it, easily.”
“I don’t know if it would have been easy. And to be honest, a lot of the time he just waved his sword around hoping it would land, but he was lucky it landed on the target most of the time. Don’t let anyone know I said that. I do like that his legacy is that he was wise and always knew what to do. Only you and I know of the struggles, which is as it should be, I suppose. He made a good king.”
I said, “Without Da, without Quentin to guide me, I don’t know how to win this war.”
“Without Quentin, none of us know how to do anything.” She stood and I escorted her to the hospital wing.
At his bedside she clasped Quentin’s hand. “Quentin, can you hear me, Quentin?”
He was on life support and seemed lifeless. His hair now mostly gray, he looked old and weary. She looked at the doctor and he shook his head. “There’s nothing that can be done for him.”
“Oh,” she clutched Quentin’s hand. “You aren’t supposed to leave me. This is not fair. You’re supposed to be staying alive to take care of me. What about your promise to Magnus? You’re supposed to be here.”
The machines beeped and then the doctor asked, “Your Majesty, do you want me to take him off the machines?”
She sobbed and folded down over Quentin. Isla put a hand on Kaitlyn’s shoulder and nodded at the doctor.
The doctor waited for Kaitlyn to finish crying, then said, “Time of death, 3:29 pm, November 24.”
Kaitlyn looked up at me and then Isla. “What time?”
I said, “3:29 pm.”
She said, “Isn’t that unsettling?”
Isla nodded. “Yes, it’s the same time as Da...”
We all stood quietly for a moment, then Kaitlyn asked, “Did he say anything before he died, anything at all?”
The doctor shook his head.
I asked, “Like what?”
“I don’t know, a reason for today, for this time. Something like instructions, something important, a fucking guide of some kind, an instruction on how to live without him or Magnus?”
Isla said, “No mom, but it’s okay, he would’ve with more time.”
“Yeah, fucking perfect, we have to figure this shit out all by ourselves.”
The doctor asked, “Is there a next of kin?”
“No, only me.”
She gently lay down Quentin’s hand, smoothed her clothes, and stood. She bowed over Quentin and whispered something in his ear, kissed his cheek and then straightened, tears streaming down her face.
Isla offered to remain in the hospital to make arrangements, so wordlessly I led Kaitlyn, flanked always by guards, to her office.
She sat heavily at her desk.
“How am I to carry on?”
“I’m not sure.” I sat in the chair on the other side of the desk. “You’ll figure it out, this is a day for grieving...”
“Except there is a war...”
“There’s always a war.”
“Magnus has the fucking worst relatives.”
“Except for you of course.”
She said, “And you. I love you, Archie, I know I have said it before, but at this moment, when we are losing the people we love, I might need to tell you again. You have been one of the greatest loves of my life.”
“I could have been the worst thing that ever happened to you.”
“No way, I mean, yeah, maybe, but from that first moment I met you, I knew that loving you would be so much better than not.” She smiled a little. “And I have never been wrong.”
“You’ve been the best Kay-be I ever had.”
“Thank you for that.”
“There is something else I need to tell you.”
Her eyes went wide. “Be careful. This is the day that two of the greatest men I have ever known died, and you have that look on your face you get when you need to tell me something awful is happening. You’ve had that look ever since you were three, telling me you just bonked Ben on the head.”
“I miss him.”
She sighed.
I said, “Lord Philip’s—”
“You mean Piece of Shit’s.” She rolled her hand to tell me to keep going.