How to Catch a Queen (Runaway Royals #1) - Alyssa Cole Page 0,112

said with a shake of his head. “And I’ve always wondered if I was more like my mother than my father, so maybe I was right.” Then he smiled. “Thank you for telling me more about Njaza’s past, and my own. I would like”—he looked at Shanti—“to focus on Njaza’s future. And mine.”

Anise nodded. “And what will you do about the past that has been hidden and now revealed?”

“Shanti uncovered this, so I think she should do what she was going to do—go to the Royal Unity Weekend and share this discovery.”

“I finished the first draft of my slide show this morning,” she said. “So I’m glad we’re in agreement on at least one thing.”

He chuckled, then looked to Anise. “When you talked about bringing balance to the kingdom, and I have to ask. Is my, er, is Shanti touched by Okwagalena?”

The woman rolled her eyes. “I told you gender doesn’t matter. Listen when I speak! How can you not see this woman is touched by Amageez?”

“What?” Shanti asked.

“My goodness,” Ajira said. “Of course you are.”

“Why do you think you clashed with Musoke so much?” Josiane asked with a roll of her eyes.

Shanti blinked, taking in this new view of herself from the kingdom she’d be queen of for only a few days more. “What about Lumu?”

Anise laughed. “That boy is not only touched by Okwagalena, he may as well be an acolyte. He would have been had I not sent him to the palace for school.”

“Lumu is your grandson?” Sanyu almost shouted.

“My great-grandson,” she said proudly. “He cares for you very much and wanted to tell you the truth about me earlier. But you couldn’t accept that truth without first accepting love. Do you see? Don’t be mad at him. The blessings of the three gods are not always aligned, but when they are, great change may come from it.”

LATER THAT NIGHT, Shanti sat on a bench behind the temple, looking up at the cloudy sky. A cool breeze blew through her thin nightgown and the bathrobe she wore over it, but she hadn’t brought a heavier jacket.

She was used to being awake with Sanyu at this time, hashing out plans to change Njaza. She wished she could sleep; being awake without him, especially with him in the same small building, was lonely now.

“I know we’re not in the palace, but I think our agreement still stands.”

Shanti sucked in a breath at the sound of his voice behind her, then the sound of sandal on dried peat as he approached.

“Our agreement was that I would come to you at night,” he said. “It’s nighttime, and I’m here.”

She didn’t say anything. Just kept staring at the sky that was a wall of dark gray. The clouds parted a bit, as if revealing a tunnel to another world full of bright stars, and then Sanyu stood before her blocking the view. He had an apprehensive expression on his face—that’s what it was. Apprehension. The look of a man who spent his entire life being told he was wrong, so that whether he was or he wasn’t became almost secondary.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“How angry I am at you,” she answered truthfully.

Sanyu sighed and lowered himself to his knees before her, his face at the same level as hers. “I’ve already apologized for what I did at the meeting, but I will apologize again. And again. Some would call me weak, but I’m fine with this particular weakness.”

Her heart began to beat faster.

“I’m not mad about the meeting,” she said, looking into his eyes. “I’m mad because I have an incredible first draft of my presentation for the event this weekend. I know it’s going to be the talk of the conference—it’s impressive. My hero, Queen Ramatla, will listen and be proud. My parents, who I’ll be seeing for the first time in months, will be vindicated for having faith in me. But I can’t even be happy because I don’t know if I’ll be coming back to Njaza. To you.”

She was furious. This was why she’d been fine with a marriage based only on cooperation and respect—more than that and your goals started to go fuzzy at the edges and distractions started to sink in. Was it really worth it?

Sanyu smiled at her. “Of course your presentation will be the talk of the conference. You’re incredible. In less than four months, you’ve put in motion things that will change the course of Njaza’s history forever, and you did it