Who here is surprised I made it to Chapter 10? I sure am. And it only took me, like, a month. And a half. Yay me. I hope y'all enjoy this "last" chapter- I banged out 3 drafts in the span of 3 hours tonight, so even if it's not GOOD, it's better than the first one. Trust me.

Leave a review or Clarkson's ghost will haunt you :-)

Eadlyn's POV

Against all odds, it was a quiet night.

I'd invited my five remaining Elite (Kile, Henri, Fox, Hale, and Ean) to hang out in the Women's Room for the evening because, quite frankly, hearing Mom and Marlee prattle on about the "good old days" was getting boring. Very boring. I wanted my Saturday night to be a little more interesting, thanks, but the boys hadn't really livened things up that much. Hale and Ean were on the loveseat by the window, their legs hooked over the armrests as they talked to each other quietly. It could not have been more obvious that they were a couple. I probably should have kicked them out by now.

On the other loveseat, Mom and Marlee were now arguing about something to do with a dog (I'd lost track of the specifics), and I myself was playing Battleship with Josie. If I beat her, she would have to put it in writing that she'd keep her paws of my tiaras for at least a month. If she beat me, then she got my third-favorite tiara for keeps. The stakes were high, clearly.

Fortunately, I had a bit of an advantage over Josie, but she didn't know about that, and it would probably be better if she didn't ever find out.

The remaining four (Kile, Henri, Henri's translator, and Fox) were playing some card game on the coffee table. I was pretty sure it was War, but could you even play War with four people? I wasn't sure.

"I-9," King Clarkson's ghost whispered to me, glancing over at Josie's board.

"Excellent," I whispered back.

"Huh?" said Josie, eyebrows raised.

"Oh, uh, I-9," I stammered.

She scowled at me and placed a pin on her ship. "How does she do that?" she muttered to herself, looking worried for the sake of her fleet.

"You suck at this," Clarkson told me sternly. "You're so lucky no one but you can see me."

"Shut up, Clark," I hissed. "Does it go sideways or up and down?"

He peered over the board again, but before he could answer me one way or another, I heard the coffee table being flipped (I'd heard this plenty of times before; I knew what it sounded like) and I think all of us whipped around to look at it. I didn't have a fast enough reaction time to actually see the table being flipped; I looked just in time to see Kile punching Erik straight in the face. "THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR CHEATING!"

"Erik has a girlfriend?" I murmured, confused.

Clarkson rolled his eyes. "At cards, idiot."

Oh. That made a little more sense. But that was kind of a secondary issue right now, because Kile had just punched Erik and shit was presumably about to go down.

Kile lowered his fist, though he didn't really look sorry. No, he wasn't even a little bit sorry. While Erik was lying on the ground (well, more so lying on the knocked-over table) with his hands over his face, Kile neatly plucked a trio of cards out of his sleeve. "All kings," he declared gravely. "Friends, family, I think we all know what this means."

"Thad you're a zygopath?" Erik exclaimed. His bloody nose really butchered the word 'psychopath'. "WHO PUNGES BEEBLE FOR CHEATING AT CARDSH?"

"Someone who was betting on the cards," Kile said solemnly. "Take him away, boys!"

I don't know when the guards had started obeying the Woodworks as well as the royal family, but a couple of them showed up to drag Erik to the dungeons or whatever. A maid came in to clean up the bloodstains. Erik's nose had really done a number on the carpet.

Fox pointed accusingly at Kile. "You have to kick him out now, right? RIGHT?"

"Well…" I trailed off. I didn't really want to kick Kile out, but I couldn't think of a way to make that, like, legal. "I can't kick Kile out because he's my favorite" was just not something a queen should say.

Fortunately, Hale stood up for Kile before I had to. "Oh, come on, Fox. Like there isn't a single one of us who hasn't wanted to punch Erik."

"It's sad but true," said Marlee.

"I'll just make sure it gets hushed up," my mom said wisely. She had plenty of experience with that sort of thing. "Everything will be fine."

I believed her. I pushed the game of Battleship aside (sorry, Josie) and picked up the cards Erik had left behind. "So," I said conversationally, sitting down across from Kile. "What's this about betting on War?"

…

Third Person POV

"I couldn't be more proud of her," America said quietly, squeezing her husband's hand.

Maxon nodded in agreement. They were in the background, for once, at the reception of their daughter's wedding. No one cared about the former king and queen when the new queen had just gotten married! Eadlyn was doing a brilliant job of everything- charming dignitaries, dancing with guests, and hugging person after person, just to name a few.

All with Kile by her side. Of course it was Kile; hadn't it been obvious from the start? There had been a time when America had worried that Eadlyn would make the wrong choice or, more likely, refused to make a choice at all. But Eady had rose to the challenge. She'd followed her heart, even when it didn't seem to know where it was going.

"She did good," said Maxon, voicing Mer's thoughts. "Not as good as us, maybe, but our girl did awfully good."

Congrats kids, you made it to the "end" of my first fic that's NOT just a one shot. I salute you. I hope you enjoyed this "last" chapter- I kinda tried to please everyone with it, which did not Really Work, but you know. Effort.

I've got 1 solid idea for a bonus chapter and a couple additional shaky ones. I ALSO stumbled upon my first draft for Chapter 3 as I was editing this one, and uhhhhh I couldn't write an ending for it BUT IT'S COMEDY GOLD I TELL YA.

That's all I've got for this one. If the bonus chapters get canceled, I hope y'all know that I veryveryvery much appreciate all the reads I've gotten and I'm so glad people have stuck around til the end. Love, Liz