"It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things." – Henry David Thoreau

Maxon paced nervously in the small room, rubbing his jaw occasionally. I held Abel and fed him as Queen Amberly attended to some letters that she needed to read and reply to. Sometimes if I had limited time I would give her my correspondences and make her answer them for me.

"We killed Rebecca and Marlee. Where are these rebels from?" he asked me.

I shook my head. "Maxon, we're not going to know anything until this is over."

He sighed and sat down next to me for a few seconds before standing back up in aggravation. "There's no way that these rebels are just normal citizens, right?"

"It's not an impossibility with all of the discontent in the lower castes right now," I answered patiently. "Maxon, please, you're starting to worry me."

"What if this is an attack from Italy disguised as a rebel attack?" he pondered.

I looked over at Queen Amberly and rolled my eyes at her behind his back. He turned back to me as the vault door opened and the guard announced that it was safe. Maxon practically ran out, followed quickly by Amberly and myself. When we got to the hallway we all stopped short.

Everything was still in pristine condition. Nothing looked out of place. Maxon turned to General Artois, who appeared from a safe room around the corner. "What's going on?"

General Artois handed Maxon a stack of documents. "We may want to take this somewhere more private." He nodded toward Amberly.

Maxon seemed to understand something that I didn't and nodded. "Of course."

They disappeared and were gone for the rest of the day. When Maxon finally emerged from his study and came to join me in our bedroom, Abel was already asleep and I was barely awake. He laid down next to me, still fully dressed and pressed the solid lines of his body against me as he pulled me into a passionate kiss. I smiled against his lips. "Good evening," I cooed.

He pulled away and I could see the fear in his eyes. "What's going on?" I demanded, sitting up on my elbows.

"I was with the war advisers all afternoon. We have reason to believe that my father has amassed a rebel army."

I shook my head, fear pouring into me like an avalanche. "There's no way."

"Actually, there is. We exiled him but he's found some connection. There's evidence of telegraphs being passed between him and some older rebels from before. They want to overthrow us."

"What do we do?" I asked, sitting up straighter.

He hesitated. "Okay, so my father's influence has spread over the entire eastern region, excluding Carolina of course. But that's not to say that Carolina is safe. Your family will be moved here to the palace for safety purposes," he paused and took a deep breath, "and the advisers feel that we need something positive to happen to kind of get those still loyal to rally behind us and start enlisting in the army so we can fight off the rebels."

"Something positive?" I repeated, already knowing where this was going.

"Something positive like…another heir." He barely waited for my reaction to start trying to give me their side. "It's logical but there's no way to ensure that we'll have another boy and I know that we talked about having another baby yesterday but if it's too soon, I'll tell them that. We don't have to listen to my advisers. We can find a way to stall them."

I shook my head. "Maxon, it makes sense."

"But I don't want to have a baby because someone told us to," he admitted.

"So what if someone told us to?" I asked. "It'll still be our love that creates this child. Nothing will ever change that."

Maxon swept a hand through my hair and kissed my forehead lightly, letting his lips linger. Finally, he must have overcome some sort of internal argument because he grabbed my waist roughly and through me down on my back, his body covering mine. He pinned my hands above my head and looked at me with passion burning in his eyes.

Slowly, with so much concentration that it resembled an artist working on a masterpiece sculpture, he undressed me and tossed our clothes to the side. We loved slowly, eventually building to a passionate and ecstatic release that left us both breathless. It had been months since we made love and we both felt so relieved and satiated that for several minutes are bodies were too weighed down with happiness to move.

It had been six months. Twenty-seven attacks on the palace. My family had moved into the palace. Abel had started walking and had most of his teeth. We had no idea why it took so long for me to get pregnant for the third time but maybe it was just that – it was the third time.

The rebels had only spread, now covering half of the country. When I was pregnant with the twins, it wasn't as joyous as with Abel and Libby. Not only was it a tougher pregnancy, leaving me with little energy and forcing me to take naps during the day, but even with the support of my family there were so many emotions leaving me unable to look forward to these new additions to our little family.

As things in Illéa grew more unstable and the danger level creeped up for Ones, I started questioning the wisdom in our decision to have more kids. Even if it was what the advisers were hoping would simmer the rebels a little bit, I didn't want to think about the world my children would be living in.

In addition to the emotional turmoil, to make matters worse, Aspen returned from Italy. I was woken one night by a loud knock. Maxon had gone away for a couple days to visit a neighboring province to discuss some strategies with the governor so I was alone except for the guards situated outside my door and Abel, who I started to bring in to sleep with me like I had done with Libby when Maxon was in New Asia.

I wrapped a robe around my big belly and answered the door. "Your Highness, His Majesty told us to inform you immediately on any developments concerning Officer Leger. He was delivered here just a few moments ago. A guard found him on the front steps of the palace."

"Thank you so much Officer James. May I go see him?" I asked, thrilled by Aspen's homecoming. I didn't want to believe it though until I could hug him and feel him in my arms.

I was led to the hospital where Dr. Macky was checking him over. He had lost an incredible amount of weight and it looked like the doctor was stitching a large laceration on his chest but he was alive. When he saw me he practically jumped off the bed with excitement.

Without a thought I hugged him tight, stroking the back of his neck. When I pulled away I asked, "Are you okay?"

He nodded and I saw that there was something different in his eyes. Like a wounded animal almost. "Just glad to be home." He smiled at me but I was unconvinced. "Do you think we could talk in my study?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," he agreed, waiting for Dr. Macky to finish before following me back upstairs. I sat down in my large leather chair and stared at him with any shame, soaking him up. It had been so long since I'd seen him. "Congratulations," he offered, gesturing to my stomach.

I smiled and blushed a little bit. "Twins," I whispered.

"Twins?" he exclaimed. "Wow, that's…that's great." His voice was a little weak at the end, making his cheery voice sound anything but cheery.

"Aspen, you know you have to tell me what happened to you there, right?" I asked. "We can't even let you back into rank until we are one hundred percent sure that you aren't bugged in any way."

He shook his head. "Mer, there's just one thing I need to tell you. They sent me here with a message."

"What?" I asked him.

"I have to kill Maxon. If I don't, they're going to come here and kill me, kill you, kill your husband and your children and who knows how many others." He paused and looked at me with anguished eyes. "Mer, I'm so sorry. I'm not going to…I would never dream of killing your family."

I rolled my eyes. "There's a relief." My eyes flicked up to look at him. "How long do you have?"

"A year. They understand that it takes time to plan an assassination."

I nodded and bit down on my lip, my hand almost instinctively moving to my stomach. Most days I woke up and just wanted to run away, get as far away from the rebels as possible just to protect my children. I was ashamed to admit that I would even leave Maxon if I could. "That's more than enough time to plan our next move. Why'd they send you at the risk of you telling me everything?"

"I'm going to spare you the gruesome details but I went through a lot to ensure that they believed I was converted to their side."

"For the time being, I'm sending you to a secret room that you don't know about and you'll stay there until Maxon gets home – which will be soon – and will be under heavy guard until we've deemed it safe for you to join us again. I don't want to do it, but I have to."

He nodded and bowed. "Of course." He let the guards take him away and I ended up staying in my study, working until the sky lightened outside. A plan was starting to develop but I needed Maxon to make sure it would work.

Christian Benjamin Schreave and Sophie Anne Schreave were born three weeks before they were due but both were healthy and thriving within weeks of their birth. The same could not be said about the country.

I updated as soon as I could. I just got home from the beach this morning. I hope y'all liked it and please review!