The two remaining Officials requested a meeting with me in a newly finished wing of the palace, and I obliged, not bothering to keep the annoyance off my face as I walked into their office.

One was in his mid-fifties, with short cut graying hair and matching goatee. The other was older with a shining bald head, the white hair that he had left seemed to have migrated to his eyebrows. They were both in suits, one blue, one gray, and they were seated at their desks, the third one still sitting empty.

I spotted a decanter in a corner of the room and went to it. "What is it that you need?" I asked, taking the top off and pouring a drink. I threw it back, and sighed. It was aged brandy, its burn and complex flavor relaxing the part inside of me that I hated.

"There is a most troubling matter to discuss, Supreme Leader." The younger one said.

I poured another drink. "Such as?"

"Your wife."

I froze, the drink stopping halfway to my mouth. Ap'lek's words from the night before radiated in my head, along with my insistence that I could stop this on my own. "What about her?" I emptied the glass in one gulp, proving him right.

The older one spoke. "News of her pregnancy has spread throughout the galaxy."

Guilt rattled in me so fiercely, I had to hold onto the table to stay upright. Her pregnancy. My stomach twisted. The pregnancy that I'd already missed most of. Though I wanted to deny what Ap'lek had said, I knew, deep in the marrow of my bones, that he'd been right, that it was my drinking that Rey was avoiding. That it was my addiction that had driven a wedge between us.

I should have been able to stop, but I was just starting to accept that I couldn't. Not by myself.

"And?" I demanded, when neither of them went on.

The younger one folded his hands together in front of him and looked up. "Brendol is claiming that the child she's carrying is his heir."

A rush of heat flooded my face, my chest, and I ground my teeth together so hard that my jaw ached. "It isn't" I growled, having to stop myself from saying 'she' isn't. I'd be damned before I'd willingly tell those bastards that Rey was carrying a girl.

"He's arguing that conception happened on or near the day that she was married to Armitage."

"He can argue all he wants, the baby is mine." My tone dropped, the threat clear in my voice when I told them, "End of discussion."

I turned toward the door.

"He's gone to the Allied Kings." One of them said, and my steps halted. "He's filed an official notion to have her returned to Arkanis until the paternity can be confirmed."

Panic seized me, wrapping icy claws around my heart, stealing my breath. "No." I whirled, not bothering to hide the agonized terror that was no doubt on my face, in my eyes. I didn't care that they could see it, I was past any delusion that they didn't already know what she meant to me. "Rey isn't going anywhere."

I felt a tug, like a string was tied to my chest, but deeper, rooted to everything that made me what I was, who I was. And on the other end of that string was something that I recognized, but didn't know. Me, and yet not me, its presence soothing and terrifying at the same time.

I laid a hand over my sternum, rubbing at the phantom pull, not sure if I should reinforce my shields, or open myself more.

"You have to understand the position you've put us in." The younger one argued, pulling my attention back to him. "An Official's role is to ensure that the King is doing what is best for the Kingdom, yet for the past few months, you've let your second rule for you while you've gone on this crusade."

"A crusade that we've had to clean up after." The older one cut in.

"You put yourselves in this position, and you started this crusade when you sold my wife to another man." I reminded them, caustically.

"She's a contract-" One of them started, and the flimsy hold I had on my patience snapped. I charged toward him, my fingers curling into tight fists at my sides, and ran into the invisible barrier around him, the wards stopping me from moving closer.

"She is not a contract!" I yelled. "She's not a thing for you to barter or bargain with!" I felt a shift in the Force, but ignored it, too angry to focus on anything else.

The younger official pushed himself up to stand, meeting my gaze, squarely. "Yes, she is." He seethed.

Searing pain bolted through my hand and up my arm and it wasn't until after that I realized it was because I'd punched the shield.

"You know what she is, yet you insist on giving her titles and letting her play dress up as if that will change anything." His eyebrows rose. "The fact that you were foolish enough to fall in love with her is your problem, not ours."

"We are already at war with Arkanis." The old one added. "And, the fact is that we can't be sure whose child she carries."

"The child she's carrying is mine!" I practically screamed, bringing both of my fists down on the top of the desk. It splintered and buckled, and the bastard had the balls to give me an annoyed glare.

"Can you prove it?" He asked. "And, not in a few months, when the baby is born. Now."

I recoiled. Prove it now? I knew the baby was mine because of her Force signature but fuck if I was going to offer that information. Not when they would use it in the contracts they would no doubt try to arrange for her.

"The baby can't be his." I told him. "Her marriage with Hux wasn't consummated."

"What?" The old one gasped in outrage.

"That was the entire reason you dragged us into this war and now you're saying it didn't happen?"

I looked over at him. "If you are in anyway implying that you are disappointed my wife wasn't raped by Hux," It took every fraying thread of my self control to keep myself in check. "I will find a way to cut your fucking throat in your sleep, do you understand me?"

He had the good sense to look away.

"Brendol already has sympathizers within our Allies." The young one said. "This revelation could have them joining him against us."

"Ignoring an official decree for her return," The old one added. "Could also cause a shift in our Allies."

"Decree or not, she's not going anywhere." I snarled. "I don't care what shift it causes."

"You've made that much perfectly clear." The young one snapped.

My darkness shook the room, but he stared at me, completely unfazed, knowing it couldn't touch him.

"There is a procedure." The other said. "To prove legitimacy."

My head whipped around to look at him, my anger cooling into numbness.

"Procedure?"

"Yes," The Official in front of me said, drawing my attention back to him. "Fluid is taken from the sack and tested. It would be irrefutable."

From the sack? What sack?

My eyes widened in horror as I finally understood his meaning. Fluid would be taken from the amniotic sack, and tested, to prove that the baby was mine. They would subject Rey to that? I stood frozen for a moment because I already knew the answer. Of course they'd subject Rey to that. They'd already subjected her to much, much worse. I shook my head. "The risk-"

"Is not greater than the risk of our Allies joining Brendol in this war." The older man said, his voice grave.

I gave him an incredulous look. "Something could happen to the baby." Hadn't he done all of this for an heir?

"And she can make you another one." The younger Official spat.

His cruelty, his heartlessness, it was a solid punch to my chest, and it rendered me speechless. Then, molten hot anger flashed through my veins, and my power, that hungry, consuming darkness came crashing out of me

That phantom tug nudged at me again, pulling me back from the murderous rage that swelled in me.

I blinked, taken aback by how quickly the wrath had vanished. I blew out a breath, knowing that if I stayed in the room with them any longer, I'd wreck the new wing of the palace. "We're done." I said, walking toward the door. I grabbed the decanter bottle by its neck, taking it with me.

Long after the sun had sunk into the horizon and the lights of my city twinkled out, I sat on the roof of the townhouse with my head in my hands.

I'd known Brendol was a desperate old man, but I hadn't expected him to file a notion with my Allies. Sending Rey to Arkanis wasn't an option, not even a consideration, but ignoring him could, in fact, tip the scales in his favor. My city had barely recovered from the first attack, I couldn't risk a second one. I'd already caused too much pain and blood and death to last a hundred lifetimes, and I was tired. I was so sick and tired of fighting, of war, of politics and plotting.

The door opened, then closed, and the smell of orange blossom hit me.

"Thought I'd find you up here." Beau said, sitting next to me. She crossed her legs and leaned forward, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Didn't know anyone was looking for me." I said, running my fingers through my hair.

"Ap'lek was telling Trugden that you had a meeting with the Officials, and that it was brutal." Her eyes searched mine for a moment. "Was it about Rey?"

I nodded.

"Bad?" She asked.

I nodded again and brought the decanter bottle up to take a long drink.

"Why do you insist on those crystal bottles?" She wanted to know. "We all know what's in there."

"I actually stole this." I admitted. "From the Official's office."

A smile tugged at the corners of her full lips. "That's one way to stick it to The Man."

"Definitely not the way I'd want to stick it to him, but-" I shrugged, taking another drink.

Silence fell over us before she snorted. "I'm going to regret this, but how do you want to stick it to him?"

"With the sharp end after I break it." I told her.

"Yep." She popped the p at the end. "I'm sorry I asked." She took the bottle from me, and turned it up, taking a drink. Her face scrunched up as she swallowed. "Bleh!" She gasped, and stuck her tongue out. "That's spicy."

Despite the gigantic cluster fuck my life had turned into, I smiled, watching her. She blew out a breath, her eyes watering, and handed the bottle back to me.

"I need to talk to you." She said, after she'd recovered.

I took a drink. "I'm listening."

There was a long, silent moment. "I don't want to live here anymore."

I stopped, my head snapping to the side to look at her. "What?"

She frowned, her gaze falling.

"I mean, of course you're free to go wherever you want I just thought that you and Vic-"

"Yeah, that's all everyone thinks. Me and Vic." She scoffed, and shook her head.

But, from the sound of it, and the look on her face, we were wrong. "Obviously I'm missing something."

She raised a red eyebrow. "No, you were there, you know exactly what happened."

"I was where?" I tried to remember the last time I was in the same room with both of them. "At the meeting with your father?"

She nodded, her eyes unfocused as she stared at nothing, lost in thought.

"And you're angry with Vic?" I asked, my forehead lining. "He got you out of the contracts your father lined up-"

"Yeah, he did." She agreed. "And now I can never see my mother again because of it." Her eyes misted, and she furiously blinked the tears away.

Understanding clicked together. I remembered talking with Rey about all that Beau had gained, and whether or not it was worth the steep price she had to pay. Apparently, it wasn't.

She went on. "And now, because they all know, everyone is assuming that I'm just going to fall on my back with my legs in the air."

"That's not what any of us think." I tried to tell her.

"Yes, it is." She insisted, flatly. "And now, I'm branded as a war camp whore throughout the galaxy when I'm as much of a virgin now as I was when I was sent here. I've never even been kissed, and now I never will be."

"I'm sure that's not true." I reasoned, shifting in my seat.

"Have you not been listening?" She snapped. "I'm a whore to everyone in the galaxy, but here, I'm his."

The lines in my forehead deepened with confusion.

"Vic is your War-Chief and he claimed me like some chest beating barbarian." She explained with a sigh. "You think there's anyone who would come near me now?"

My eyes narrowed. "Claimed you?" I asked.

"Is that what you think he did?"

"What do you mean 'think' Kylo?" She took the bottle from me and turned it up, grimacing as she swallowed. "He could have told my father anything, but he chose to say that I'd gone to bed with him, and he did it because he didn't want anyone else to marry me."

"That's not-" I shook my head. While I was absolutely certain Vic wouldn't like the idea of Beau marrying anyone else, I also knew that his motive hadn't been taking that choice from her. "Vic would never."

"He has." Liquor sloshed as she took another drink. "And I am left with absolutely nothing." She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and passed the bottle back to me. "I am just so exhausted, having to live my life with everyone else making my decisions for me."

I looked at her for a long moment. Maybe I'd been wrong about their relationship, or at least, wrong about her interest or intent with Vic. She obviously had no idea who he was, if she thought him capable of this. "If you want to live somewhere else, I can arrange that."

"Thank you." She moved to stand, then headed toward the door.

"I will make a request." I added, and she stopped, turning to look at me. "Just hear him out, please?"

Her eyebrows shot up and her chin lowered, leveling a glare at me that told me I'd just fucked up. "What did you say to me?" She seethed, her voice like cruel death. "I know that you did not just tell me to hear somebody out when Vic and Ap'lek have both been trying to tell you the same thing for weeks."

I set my jaw. "It was a request, Beau." I growled, my pride stinging from her blow.

"Well, since we are two people who can make such requests about things that are absolutely none of our business, I have a little request of my own." She crossed her arms over her chest.

Oh, fuck.

"You have what I've spent my entire life wanting." She said, "You have friends who love you, all six of your Knights love you, all in different ways, but all exactly the same. And, they are trying to save you."

"I don't need saving." I cut in.

She held up a finger. "I'm speaking." She curtly reminded me. "And, yes the fuck you do. That's the entire reason Vic and the others left, to save you because your grief and guilt and rage was eating you alive. It still is, and instead of facing it, you try to drown it, but spoiler alert, Kylo! That's not how this fucking works!"

I opened my mouth to speak.

"I'm not done." She snapped. "But, aside from friends who would literally die for you, you're married to someone who actually wants to be married to you. Who wants to have your babies, instead of being contractually forced to, and there is not another King in this galaxy who can say the same. Not one. She is so excited, and she is so in love with you, and fuck, she misses you so much Kylo and you are fucking throwing all of that away with both hands."

My entire body jerked as something deep in me cracked, all of my defenses and walls cleaving in two. Her words stripped me so bare that I shivered, and even through the haze of the whiskey coursing in my veins, all the guilt that I'd been ignoring came roaring into my head, seeking its revenge. Rey's excitement about her pregnancy, her love, her willingness to let me back in, I was throwing that away, choosing my addiction, and to be miserable, over her.

And, I was making a mistake.

"So, my request," Beau said. "Is for you to get your head out of your ass."

"I will." I promised, and watched her turn toward the door again. But, my stupid, selfish brain wouldn't let that be that, and before I could stop the words, venom came hissing out of my mouth. "As soon as you get the fuck over yourself."

She halted, and slowly cut her eyes back to me. "Excuse me?" Each syllable was a razor's edge.

"Vic did exactly what you begged me to do, which was get you out of being sold again, and now you're pissed because it didn't go exactly how you wanted." I ground out, my voice like gravel. "If you have nothing, it's because your father is a fucking sociopath. Blame him, don't blame Vic."

I was expecting her to be cold and bitter, hurt by my words as hers had hurt me, but it was worse. Instead of rage, her face softened into a look of pity, like she felt sorry for me, and it sent me reeling.

"And when you wake up and have nothing," She said, her words flaying me open in a way I could have never been prepared for. "Don't blame anyone but yourself."

One minute, my heart was thumping dully in my chest, the next, it was gone, having been ripped out by her warning. I stared at her, my mouth open as guilt and grief filled the empty, hollow ache she'd torn through me.

She put her hand on the handle, and pulled the door open, and then she was gone, leaving me gasping, no - choking for air.