Three days before the wedding, Mom saw the perfect opportunity in what would hopefully be my final dress fitting to corner me and have The Wife Talk. I'd suffered through to awkward talks with my mom in my life. One was the Your Changing Body talk, the second was the usual Birds and the Bees. No one ever mentions that a woman typically gets a third talk. The talk about being a good wife and meeting your husbands 'needs'.

"I know you two have figured things out and are already sexually active," she had said, both us wincing. I had blushed and tried to pretend that Hale wasn't making the tiniest last-minute adjustments to my dress. "Just, please use your honeymoon wisely. You'll have your whole lives to ravage each other. Don't spend the three days you have in France away from work in bed. Go out, have fun, drink wine, and just be a normal married couple."

"Normal married couples don't honeymoon in a private chateau personally lent to them by the future queen of France," I had reminded her.

"Well even kings and queens have limits to their energy. Try to spend all three days in bed, I dare you, and you'll be exhausted by the first night."

I always hated admitting it when my mother was right but she was right. By the second morning of waking up in France, I was exhausted (and sore). "What do prince consorts do with their queens on their honeymoon?" Eikko asked, biting into a piece of toast as we ate breakfast on the balcony of the master suite.

I considered, looking out over the sea. If I kept my chin lifted enough I just barely lost sight of the guards patrolling the perimeter of the grounds below us. "Going out in public is probably out of the question," I said, crossing my arms. "And my parents were pretty serious about being careful to not have pictures of us taken while on our honeymoon. Plus it would mean dressing up."

"What's so wrong with what we're wearing now? I am rather fond of your outfit." He smirked, his eyes slowly lowering to where my silk robe (the only thing I was wearing) was opened low over my breastbone, exposing a bit of cleavage.

"When in Rome," I joked.

"Eadlyn, c'mon, this is France. Did you miss your geography lessons growing up?" I rolled my eyes at his bad joke. "In all seriousness, what are we going to do? I refuse to spend our honeymoon playing chess."

"We could play hide-and-go-seek," I proposed, fiddling with the tie of my robe thoughtfully.

It was Eikko's turn to roll his eyes. "Eadlyn."

"When Ahren and I were younger, we would play our own version of hide-and-go-seek. The version where we hide and the guards seek."

"So you mean sneak away?" I nodded slowly, a mischievous smile creeping across my face. His eyes met it, sparking with excitement. "And where would we sneak away to?" I shrugged, like it was the universe's answer. "Let's do it."

We sprung up from the table and dashed inside our room. He threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and I dressed quickly in a bikini and cover-up. I told Eikko to find a bottle of wine and some snacks while I went to the sports room in search of a backpack. I found one and took it up to the kitchen where Eikko had a bottle and some hunks of bread and cheese waiting. He slipped it in and looked to me, waiting for me to move. "How should we make our getaway?" he asked breathlessly.

"Do you know how to drive?" I asked him.

"Of course."

He followed me down to the basement of the chateau and through the heavy door that took us into a room of sticky sea air. We could hear water chopping close by our feet but I couldn't see much in the darkness. "Where are we?" he whispered.

I felt along the wall and found a hook with a key on it. Taking Eikko's hand in mine, I guided it further up on the wall to a switch. "When I tell you, flip that switch."

"Why are we in the dark?" he asked as I let go of his hand and felt for the hard, grainy surface I was looking for.

"Because this is a getaway and being sneaky is key to its success." My hand found the edge of the boat and I quickly climbed on, my eyes finally adjusting to the darkness. I climbed the small ladder to the top of the boat where the steering wheel was and where I assumed the ignition was located. "Okay, ready?"

"Sure."

"Flip the switch and come meet me up here. We'll probably have thirty seconds between you hitting that switch and guards finding us."

"Got it."

I positioned the key at the mouth for it and shouted, "Go!"

The door behind the boat rumbled and slowly slid upward. As light started to flood in, Eikko sprinted onto the boat and climbed up to meet me.

"A boat? We're stealing a boat?"

"We're not stealing it," I said, starting the engine. "You said you know how to drive?"

"Cars! You know, those things with wheels that you drive around on land?"

"This is essentially the same thing. It's already in reverse. All you need to do is back out. And trust me, there's far less chance of you hitting something in the open water than on a road."

"How do you know it's in reverse? How do we even move?" His voice was rising with panic and I could see his hands start to shake. He gripped the steering wheel, waiting for me to tell him what to do next. I didn't know what to do though. All I wanted was for us to have a little bit of fun and suddenly Eikko was on the verge of an anxiety attack and we were about to be found by the guards before we could even really run.

I turned the boat off and my shoulders slumped in defeat. "We'll just have a picnic by the pool," I told him, withdrawing the key from the ignition.

"Are you sure?" We pretended not to hear the relief in his voice.

"Yeah. It'll be great."

I pressed the button on our way out of the room to lower the garage door again and pulled the door shut tight behind us. I held Eikko's hand as we walked back up to the back deck and pool patio. He stopped along the way to get two wine glasses and I got to work with spreading blankets out on the pavement for us to sit on.

There was a crash from within the house and my head snapped up to try to peer inside the glass doors. "Eikko?" I called. There was another crash and I bolted straight for the door, pulling it open and coming face to face with a guard. Without any word of explanation, he grabbed me and started pulling me to the side door that led to the car garage, past the spot in the kitchen where two wine glasses lay shattered on the floor. "What's going on?" I demanded.

"We'll explain when we're on the way, Your Majesty," he said vaguely.

Eikko was in the driveway with some other guards that I knew from being members of my personal security detail for years, one of them climbing into a helicopter behind Eikko. The guard that had been holding me let go and pushed me into the helicopter, blades spinning above us.

"Eadlyn, what's happening?" Eikko asked me in a terrified whisper.

"Officer State, where are we going? Why the helicopter?" I asked, fastening the seat belt over my lap.

"We're on direct orders from General Leger to get you to the royal safe house in Monaco," he told us, handing us two headsets.

The helicopter lifted off suddenly, making my stomach swoop. I folded my legs so that my knees were just barely touching Eikko's and our hands connected between us. "You're extracting us," I realized, watching the chateau disappear beneath us as we flew higher.

"Extracting us? What? What does that mean?"

"They're moving us to a secure location because something has happened. It only happens when we're directly threatened and we are not in the palace. But…what about my parents?"

"They're, well…they are not being extracted."

I frowned. "Why not?"

"Actually, ma'am, it's not your family that's been threatened."

A cold hand wrapped around my stomach as everything clicked into place. The urgency to get us back to Monaco, the reason my parents weren't sitting in a safe room at that very moment… "Ahren."

"He is safe, ma'am. As is Princess Camille."

"Then what is going on?"

"Queen Daphne's plane was attacked upon landing in Saudi. Those are the early reports. We know nothing about the queen's current status; communication has been cut from them."

Eikko reached over and placed his hand on my thigh, squeezing it tightly. There was nothing else to discuss, nothing else to do but worry and wait to arrive in Monaco. Halfway through our flight, I realized that we were flanked by two other helicopters and there was very little doubt in my mind that both helicopters had enough ammo on them to supply a small country for a war.

We touched down on the roof of the palace in Monaco and Illéan and French guards immediately swarmed around us, holding their arms and hands and even a couple riot shields above my and Eikko's heads as we went inside. There was very little time to waste once we were inside. The French guards gave orders to the Illéan guards as we descended a steep and dark set of steps that seemed to be built into the palace as a last-minute thought.

The tunnels underneath the palace seemed to go on forever. Halfway through the tunnel, a guard put a satellite phone in my hand. "King Maxon," he told me as he passed it to me.

"Dad?" I answered, slightly breathless from half-running for what felt like miles.

"Eadlyn, thank goodness. Your mother and I were thinking we'd have to bribe General Leger to let us get a hold of you. You both are safe?" Dad asked.

"We're getting there," I told him.

"Good," he breathed out, clearly relieved.

I paused and looked at the guards around me, deciding that I had nothing to hide from them. "Daddy, are you okay?" I asked him. He and Daphne had always had a unique relationship. Mom told me that Daphne expressed interest in him way back before the Selection and before he even knew Mom existed. Somehow they had reconciled and were back to being good friends. They had only gotten closer as friends since Ahren and Camille started dating.

It was a moment before he answered. "Don't worry about me love. Give your brother a hug for me." I hung up, seeing that this was the end of the conversation.

We finally made it to a heavy metal door that slid open without any obvious indication from any of the guards. Within seconds we were inside the safe room and the door was sliding shut behind us, Officer State the only member of Illéa's guard in the safe room with us.

Camille was in Ahren's lap on a small couch while King Regis paced the length of the room. "Eadlyn," my twin said, his eyes landing on us first.

My sister-in-law sniffed and looked up at me with watery eyes. "You made it," she said in a tearful voice. She moved away from Ahren and dashed to me, hugging me close. "Have they told you anything about my mother?"

"No, nothing. I know nothing. I'm so sorry," I told her, squeezing her shoulders.

"I'm sorry your honeymoon got cut short," she said, wiping her eyes. "Merde, I'm the queen…I mean, the future queen. I should be acting more proper than this."

"Your mother's life is in danger – you don't have to be acting like anything other than her daughter," I reminded her, thinking back to when my mother was lying in a hospital bed just a few months before. I would have started wars if it meant saving her. Power in the hands of grief was never a good thing.

Ahren hugged me then, not saying anything. It was impossibly comforting to have my twin brother hugging me. "Why would they do this, Eads? Is this what becomes of us? Is this how we all die? How could anyone do this to Daphne?" I could feel his confusion in the way his whole body was tensed. He had spent all night comforting Daphne and lending her his heart to make up for her broken one, but he needed the comfort too.

"I don't know, Ahren. I wish I knew how to explain this or find some rationale in all of this," I told him. "But we'll be okay. At the end of the day, today, we'll still have each other."

He squeezed me extra tight for another moment and then released me. Within seconds, Camille was back in his arms. As the initial frenzy of arriving in the safe room passed, I was able to look around a bit. Their safe room was cozier than ours in Illéa. Ours was never really meant to house us for more than a night or two. This one was obviously meant to double as a bunker and a permanent safe haven if the occasion ever arose. There were alcoves off of the main room we were in, each one with a bed inside. There was a table and chairs in one corner and sofas in the other. A bookshelf lined with classic novels sat against one of the walls. A television sat in front of the largest sofa.

I shivered slightly, realizing that I was still in my bikini and cover-up. It felt like years had passed since our attempted escapade on the boat. I brushed my hands up and down my arms, trying to warm myself up a bit. Eikko's hands replaced mine and his lips brushed against my hair.

Camille seemed to notice my discomfort and welcomed the distraction. "I have clothes stowed away down here. We can probably find something that fits you. Ahren has some too. He and Eikko look to be a similar size."

Eikko was a bit taller than Ahren but anything would be better than his swim shorts and t-shirt. Camille had some printed linen pants and a sweater that she thought would fit me. Her figure was much more petite than mine but both articles of clothing were loose enough on her that I could squeeze into them. It was weird to see Eikko in a shirt that I was used to seeing my brother wear around the palace on Sunday afternoons when he and Dad would watch football games together but he still looked good, nonetheless.

I sat cross-legged across from him on the bed we had chosen to use for our night in the safe room, both of us seeing that we probably weren't getting let out any time soon. We weren't interested in sleeping – we probably wouldn't be able to sleep – but it still was nice to have some semblance of privacy.

"I'm sorry this happened," I whispered so that no one else but Eikko would hear.

Our fingers were weaving together between us playfully. "Me too. But this is our world. Things like this happen in our world."

"I just wanted you to have a normal honeymoon."

"Why?" he asked as if that was a preposterous thing for me to say.

"Because nothing else we do is normal. Our wedding was an affair watched by millions of people and was immediately followed with you becoming my prince consort. Any date we go on will no doubt have some sort of political motivation behind it. And our kids? The press will be ferocious with us when we start a family—"

"Okay, stop," he said, a bit louder than the level we had both been speaking at before. Through the doorway, I saw Camille's head lift up slightly. "I don't care about any of that. Is it a nuisance? Somewhat. But I knew what I was signing on to when I agreed to be your husband. I didn't marry you because I wanted to be in the spotlight, I married you because I love you. I chose to be your husband because I want to be by your side through everything and find the new normal in everything we do. I don't know how many times I can say that I love you before you get it that I love you, not Queen Eadlyn."

My face fell and I had to turn my eyes away from him. I could look into his eyes forever but not with this feeling of shame enveloping me. "Sometimes I can't really tell them apart."

"Because you are the same people. What makes you a great queen comes from being a wonderful woman and vice versa. Queen Eadlyn is just a part of Eadlyn. I've already told you that no matter what, you are infinitely more meaningful to me than anyone else on this planet."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely." I crawled to his side and lay down so that my head was pillowed by his knee. He immediately started running his hand through my hair, gently trying to untangle it. "So, this extraction business. You seem to know a little bit about it."

I shrugged. "It's only been done for my family once before. When I was eight, Dad got into an argument with the Russian tzar and it apparently escalated to the point that he was threatening nuclear war. Of course, it was all empty threats. All the nations terminated their nuclear programs after the Fourth World War but we had no way of knowing for sure. My whole family was moved to a secure location somewhere in the extreme northern parts of Baffin."

"That must have been scary."

"It was," I confirmed. I thought about that night, being torn from my bed by General Leger himself, whose sole job that night seemed to be securing me. Forget Dad, forget my pregnant mother, forget my other siblings. It was all about me. That was the scariest part. Rushing off to some unfamiliar part of the country was bearable since I was surrounded by my family. It was the fact that everyone was giving me the extra protection, not my parents."

"Wasn't it that way all the time?" he asked, still threading his fingers through my hair. I could feel my eyelids starting to get heavy but I didn't want to waste a single second with him. Maybe we were being rude by not talking to my brother or sister-in-law but this was supposed to be our honeymoon.

"It wasn't so obvious as it was that night. I've always had the equal amount of protection as my parents, if not more. But that night, it was abundantly clear that if everyone died and only one of us survived, it was going to be me that made it." I shook my head to help clear it of the dread threatening to take over. "It's something that I've grown accustomed to but that doesn't mean that I'm okay with it. If my whole family did die and I was all that was left, I don't know how I'd survive."

Eikko seemed to sense my mood getting darker because next he said, "Lucky for you that I'm immortal and will never die." The tension broke then and I playfully slapped the forearm above my face.

"Camille could become queen in the next few hours," I whispered, watching her and Ahren. She wasn't crying anymore but she looked stunned, terrified, like she had been slapped in the face by life. "Right here in this very room, she could become queen."

"At least she's not alone," Eikko said, following my gaze to where Ahren was trying to persuade her to eat something.

I shook my head. "Becoming queen will be the least of her problems. If she becomes queen, it's because her mother can no longer rule."

"What about Regis?" We turned our heads to see where Regis was sitting alone on a sofa, staring at the wall in front of him.

"Camille is of age. Regis would only be the regent if she weren't older than eighteen. I can't fathom becoming queen from something violent."

"What would you do if you were in her position?"

I thought about my parents, how my dad did the very thing Camille was facing. He became king after his parents were suddenly killed by rebels, pulling Mom up with him before she could even be a princess. How they didn't crack and crumble under the pressure was beyond me. Mom said they fought a lot during her Selection. Maybe it was because of his rapid-fire ascension the necessity for them to be a team that made them stop fighting so much. "I don't know what I would do," I told him honestly. I shivered just thinking about it.

The door to the safe room swung open suddenly and we raced into the living area to see who it was. Judging by the badges on his uniform, it was one of the more elite members of the French guard. Camille asked him something quickly in French. I didn't understand his response but his voice was low and sorrowful. Regis still hadn't moved from his place on the sofa.

"There has to be something you can do," Ahren told the guard. "She shouldn't be locked up in some prison somewhere. She's the queen of France!"

"No, she's not," Regis said quietly.

We all looked at him, waiting for him to continue. Slowly, as if the night had aged him well beyond his years, he stood and faced Camille. "You are, ma cherie. We all know that your mother is not surviving this night."

"Père…" Camille sobbed, putting a hand over her mouth.

"I am the prince consort," Regis said, his voice firm as he addressed the guard. "My queen is not fit for rule. You have her location, yes? Envoyer nos forces aériennes. Détruire tout le monde à cet endroit et s'assurer qu'il n'y a aucun survivant."

Ahren and Camille both gasped. "Monsieur de Sauveterre, you can't."

"My queen deserves more than a slow, torturous death at the hand of rebels. Make it swift. She will forgive me."

"But you can't rescue her?" I suddenly interjected, realizing what they were talking about doing. It had been done before, kings killing their queens when they were being held hostage and there was no help of rescue. Presidents letting sending missiles in to kill spies that knew too much and were in the hands of the enemy. It made extraction plans look like child's play. I had missed whatever they were saying in French though; I didn't know how dire the situation was.

"It would take hours to coordinate that and we don't have the time," Ahren told me. It was easy to forget that France didn't have the military that Illéa had. They didn't fight in wars. They made a good ally but never would dare to start a war themselves. I knew that it was something Ahren hoped to improve as prince consort.

Regis nodded and looked at his guard. "If she's going to die, I want her to die for the sake of destroying just a few of these rebels. Not at the hands of the enemy."

"Très bien, Your Highness," the guard said, bowing his head. He didn't argue. He just accepted his orders and went off to kill the queen.

Part of me wanted to think that this was some sort of conspiracy to kill Queen Daphne but there was no faking the anguish Regis was trying to hide. He had married Daphne because her parents thought that he would make an excellent prince consort. A convenient arrangement eventually grew to a loving bond, according to my father. He always said that it was nearly impossible to share your life with someone and not love them. That was Dad though. He always chose to believe that everyone had some sort of love in them.

Camille turned on Regis. "Comment est-ce que vous pourriez faire cela? Ta femme, la mère de votre enfant… vous aime pas elle du tout?"

Ahren wrapped his hands around her upper arms, trying to hold her back. "Cam, love, c'mon. You don't want to do this."

"She's your wife," Camille growled at Regis, fighting against Ahren to get free. I didn't know what she would do if she got free. I wasn't sure if she knew either.

"I know she's my wife!" Regis exploded. "And I don't want her to suffer. These rebels have captured her and are torturing her right now as we speak. Ils ne vont pas sortir une reine." He lowered his voice and shook his head. "Ils ne veulent pas de notre argent, ma cherie. This is what Mère would do."

"I can't believe that," she said through her teeth. Regis stepped away from her and sat down on the sofa. "If you do this, I will never be able to look at you the same way again. There will be no forgiveness for you, no reconciliation between us. You do this, you lose both of us."

Regis grimaced. "I'm going to lose her either way—"

"So don't give up on me!" Camille pleaded.

"You're about to become queen, ma cherie. I will lose you then too."

Her face crumbled and she collapsed, pulling Ahren down to the floor with her. He stayed with her and didn't try to move her as she cried, clutching both of his arms to her. I wanted to turn away and leave to give them space, feeling like I was intruding on a wildly intimate moment in a family, but there was nowhere for me to run.

The door opened again and the same guard stepped through, his face pale. He was holding an electronic tablet in his hands tightly. "Your Highness, we have something for you," he said in a measured voice. "A video transmission. We believe it is the rebels, calling for you."

Regis sprung off the sofa and grabbed the tablet, accepting the video call. "Daphne?" he demanded as soon as the call went through. The guard carefully maneuvered Regis so that he was standing in a spot where his background wouldn't give away where we were.

"Prince Regis," a male voice purred from the other side of the call, though his voice was garbled and distorted. Obviously to keep his identity hidden. "By now you know we have your queen."

"What do you want?" Regis asked desperately. I cringed. My advisers would probably never let me speak face-to-face to a terrorist like this, let alone seem so willing while talking to them.

"Why don't we let your wife tell you?" the voice asked.

The camera view must have shifted because Regis gasped and ran his fingers down the screen. "Daphne, mon trésor. Que dois-je faire? me dire quoi faire. Are they asking for money? I will give money."

"Regis, listen to me." It was Daphne's voice but it sounded hoarse. I swallowed and willed myself to not imagine why it would sound like that. Eikko's hand ghosted over my back, trying to comfort me in any way he could but there was no safety in this night. "Regis, Camille will be queen, okay? And Maxon, you must tell him that the grass is greener." She was speaking quickly, trying to get it all out.

"No coded messages!" the voice shouted, making all of us jump.

Daphne sobbed quietly, making it sound more like a hiccup. "Camille, ma cherie, I love you. And Regis, you are my treasure. Please, do what you need to." She whimpered and the transmission cut out abruptly.

Camille made a dive for the tablet and Regis relinquished it. She tapped furiously at the screen but the call wasn't coming back. "Mom!" she was screaming over and over, crying over the tablet.

Ahren stood stock-still, his mind still reeling from the call. His eyes met Eikko's and my husband asked, "What now?"

"We wait," Ahren said in defeat, finally going to Camille and attempting to coax the tablet from her fingers.

Eikko and I went back to our bed but we still didn't sleep. I lay with my head on his stomach, both of us staring up at the ceiling. I made pictures in my mind with the tiny dots from the textured pattern of the concrete ceiling above our heads. Regis went back to pacing across the room and Eikko counted under his breath how many laps he did.

On lap seventeen, Camille and Ahren finally got up off the floor and relocated to a large leather chair. On lap fifty-one, I whispered to Eikko that I was hungry and he agreed. On lap one hundred eleven, I asked him what he thought the weather was like outside. Finally, just after his two hundredth lap, the guard came back inside.

His face was even paler than before and he was hunched over in despair. "Yes, soldier?" Regis asked, ceasing his pacing.

We all stood and waited for the news we all knew was coming. The guard drew himself up to his full height and reported, "At sixteen-hundred hours, Her Royal Majesty Queen Daphne of France was assassinated by the North African rebels."

Regis howled and fell to his knees.