Neena couldn't have had better timing.

I was just getting to my office from breakfast when she emerged from a secret passage, a bag of goodies tucked under her arm. I sat down and started perusing my morning agenda when she spilled the contents of said bag onto my desk.

"Okay, ma'am. We have crackers, breath mints, seltzer water, and cinnamon gum," she said, listing off the items for me as she presented them. "Did I forget anything?"

"You did well, Neena. What would I do without you?"

"Promote Eloise," she said quickly, smiling. She put everything back in her bag and left it leaning against my desk as she went about organizing my office.

"Neena, believe me, Kile could care less how my study looks. Have you seen his room? Really, this place could be trashed and he wouldn't care either way. All he cares about is getting proper funding for his projects," I told her.

She pouted to me. "That had some bite to it, ma'am."

I sighed and rubbed my face. "I'm sorry. I can't control it," I groaned. "The advisers probably think that I've just turned into a complete sociopath lately."

"It will make sense to them once they hear you're pregnant," she assured me. "Speaking of, does Josie know yet? Because Kaden let it slip that you were off of fish for the time being and she was a little too curious."

"Dammit. I knew we had forgotten to tell someone." I waved my hand. "Don't tell Josie yet. Lord knows she'll keep it a secret for all of five seconds. Then the whole world will know and the world will not know until seven weeks from now when I'm fourteen weeks along and it's safe to tell everyone without them doing the math and figuring out that this baby was conceived pre-wedding."

"Of course, Your Majesty," Neena said, curtsying.

Brice came in, coffee mug in one hand and a stack of folders in the other. "We'll do the most exciting things first," she said by way of greeting. "Pictures from the Halloween ball need your approval as well as the article that will be released in Majesty Weekly." She placed a leather bound portfolio in front of me, right on top of my other work.

"Great," I said sarcastically. The Halloween ball almost felt like an afterthought with the wedding being only five weeks prior to it. The holiday also was mainly propagated in my family by Mom and Dad but with Mom recovering from heart surgery, they weren't taking part in the festivities this year. Eikko and I didn't dress in any costumes in particular; we simply wore formal wear that we would wear for any other ball. With everything going on lately, we didn't have the time to focus on costumes. It was surreal in a way. All night as we danced and mingled, we both shared secret smiles that communicated how excited we already were for the next year when we would be celebrating Halloween with our baby.

"Also, when you get the chance, your brother left a message for you."

"My brother? Which one?" I asked. Kaden had gone east to visit Uncle James and our cousins. It was a way of Mom and Dad lightening their load of responsibilities while Mom recovered.

"The prince consort," Brice answered. My smile fell. "He didn't say anything in his message except for wanting you to respond. I don't think he appreciates your isolation."

I nodded. "Of course he doesn't." I lifted my phone from its holder and dialed Ahren's number, doing the mental math of what time it was in France. It was hard for me to focus though as Eikko had just walked in, looking impossibly handsome in a navy suit. Brice took a post-it note and wrote Ahren's time on it for me. Unlike me, Eikko had no problem figuring out from the time that I was calling my twin.

"You've reached the desk of His Majesty Prince Ahren, how may I help you?" a woman asked in a heavy French accent. I was startled and double-checked that I had the right number. It was definitely his personal office line, the one I had called a dozen times already and had him answer immediately. Maybe he was in a meeting and was unable to answer his phone.

"This is Queen Eadlyn, Ahren's sister," I said slowly. "He said he wanted me to call him back."

"Of course, Your Majesty." There were a few beeps as she transferred me to another line. Eikko leaned against my desk beside me, his fingers brushing against mine.

"Hello?" Ahren answered breathlessly.

"You have a secretary now?" I asked him in a light voice, trying to start things off on a somewhat good note.

He sighed, sounding impatient. "We've been swamped by phone calls lately. Her job is solely to intercept anyone that gets my personal number and isn't on the list of people that security said are allowed to talk to me on this phone."

"Security? They're censoring your phone calls now? Tell me they're at least letting you eat. Or are you eating but sleeping in the stables?" I asked, smiling slightly at the image of my brother sleeping in a bed of hay.

Ahren wasn't laughing though. "We're at war, Eadlyn. We've had to change a few things."

"Right. Of course." I tried not to sound hurt but it was hard for me to not feel personally attacked in some way with the way he was talking to me. It was like he didn't even see me as his sister or best friend. I was just another annoying queen that he had to talk to while working.

"I called you earlier but you didn't answer."

"Well, it was probably when I was still asleep."

"What if it had been an emergency?"

I rolled my eyes. "Someone would have notified me if it was an emergency. Besides, if there was an emergency, would you have really called me personally?"

"Maybe." Both of us knew I was right. "Anyway, I called you this morning to speak to you about this war."

My heart constricted and my eyes flicked up to meet Eikko's. He frowned at my expression and knelt down beside me, leaning his head close to my shoulder so that he could hear Ahren. "What about the war?" I asked nonchalantly. Brice was tense as she stood across from me.

"The fact that the world's next major war is breaking out and you're ignoring it."

"I'm not ignoring the war, Ahren. I know it's going on. We discuss it several times a week."

"Really? And what could you possibly have to talk about in those meetings, Eadlyn? It's not like you're playing any part in the fighting. You're not involved at all."

"And we're staying that way," I said quickly. "We can't afford to get in a war right now." Eikko rubbed my shoulder sympathetically.

"Neither can France," Ahren reminded me.

I shrugged. "Maybe your wife should have thought about that before she declared war on one of her closest allies."

He gasped. It was a low blow, attacking Camille like that, but I wasn't wrong. She had made a bad call and was acting rashly, listening to her advisers without considering the consequences down the line of her actions. "We're doing the best we can," he said angrily. "We're struggling though. We need the assistance of our allies if we're going to survive this war."

"I can't help you, Ahren."

"Why not?"

"North Africa is an ally to Illéa, just like it was to France. We can't turn our backs on one ally. The effects would be just as detrimental to us as they are to France now."

"I'm your brother, Eadlyn."

I snapped. "It doesn't matter that you're my brother, Ahren, don't you see that? You're a king and that's all you are to me right now, at this moment. I can't tell you why we aren't picking sides but we just can't be involved in this. If you were really my brother, you would understand that." I genuinely couldn't tell him my reasoning behind this. Not only would the effects be disastrous for the economy and our global relationships, we couldn't afford to start a war when I would be having an heir soon. It wasn't safe for my health or the baby's for me to be engaging in a war. Unfortunately, I was bound by law to not share the news over the phone until it was public knowledge.

"If you were really my sister, you wouldn't leave me helpless here, Eads."

"Look, Ahren, I do care about you but right now, my country is more important. I need to think about the future of my country and my people and right now, there is just too much going on over here for us to lend a hand anywhere else."

There was a long pause but I could tell Ahren was fuming. "I don't get you, Eadlyn."

"What don't you get?" I fired back at him.

"You've turned into the queen that doesn't care about her family. There have been countless other families that had relatives as kings and queens throughout the world that they would have helped. Somehow, though, you've become the one that could care less. You're no better than Uncle Kota."

I sat back in my chair, my mind trying desperately to derive some other meaning of what he had just said. Eikko moved closer and put his arm around me as I started shivering. I wanted to break down and cry and apologize to Ahren for things I wasn't even sorry for. Anything to erase the last ten seconds. I couldn't do that though, not without going back in my resolve to remain neutral in this war. "You left us, remember? You abandoned your family and went off to marry your girlfriend without even considering us on the most important day of your life. If I were you, I wouldn't be judging others on their actions toward their families." With that, I slammed the phone back onto its holder.

My study fell into a stunned silence as everyone just stood and stared at me, waiting for me to act. "Eadlyn…" Eikko whispered but he was at a loss for words. After all, they had just witnessed possibly the greatest fallout amongst relatives since the day that Dad and August Illéa had their blow up.

"Don't you all have work to do?" I asked everyone in a placid voice, keeping my eyes trained on my desk as they all snapped to attention and went about their daily tasks.

Eikko didn't move though. "Eadlyn, look, I know that sometimes it's tough, having to deal with siblings that you don't always agree with. It's hard to know that they don't need you anymore. Maybe that's why—"

"Eikko, I really don't care about whatever shrink-type words of comfort you have for me concerning your relationship with your sister," I said quickly, knowing where we was going with his speech. "She's not a queen and you're not a king. It's different."

He bowed his head, darkness flickering in his eyes. "I'm not a king?" he asked in a tense but sad voice.

I sighed. "I didn't mean it like that. It came out wrong. Of course you're a king, you're just not…" I didn't have any way of salvaging this conversation. I had dug a hole for myself and I was stuck.

"I'm not the king, right?" He stood and walked to my doors, letting himself out of my office. "Well, if you happen to have any work for your lowly peasant of a husband to do, let me know. Otherwise, I'll be in the stables working with the rest of the servants." The door slammed shut behind him.

It felt like there wasn't enough air in the room. Everything had escalated so quickly. First Ahren, then Eikko. All of the most important men in my life were leaving and suddenly I wasn't sure if being queen was worth all of this trouble. What good was it, being queen, when I didn't have family or loved ones to support me? And not only support me, but to have people to run to when things got hard. To have people whom I could depend upon while they leaned on me.

My fingers brushed against my dress, just below my navel. My baby that was no bigger than a blueberry, already destined to inheriting the very throne where I sat. Would the country be better when I left the throne than it had been when I arrived? I couldn't be sure of that anymore. All I knew was that I wanted Illéa to not only still be standing but be standing tall and proud when my baby became the ruler. And I wanted he or she to be surrounded by family at all times to ease the burden of ruling. I never wanted them to be alone.

Eikko hadn't made it very far down the hallway when I stuck my head out of my office door. In fact, he was standing at the end of the corridor, speaking with Brice. As I approached them, Brice nodded to me to signal that they weren't alone anymore. Eikko turned and pursed his lips when his eyes fell on me. "Brice, could you give us a moment?" I asked politely. She curtsied and continued on her way to a conference room. I faced my husband, heart pounding in my chest. We hadn't fought like this before. It was bound to happen eventually but it didn't stop me from being terrified. "I'm really good at hurting the people I love, in case you couldn't tell."

"I can tell," he said in a cool voice.

"But I'm even better at pretending I don't care about them. It's probably one of my biggest flaws. Because I'm a queen. If I care too much, I can't lead. I can't decide which province is getting tax increases and who will have to go without food or clean water because we don't have the budget to sustain them…not if I'm a queen with a heart. But if I'm heartless, then I can't be a wife or daughter or sister or a mother," I said tentatively, looking around to make sure we wouldn't be overheard.

"Eadlyn." Eikko stepped closer to me and put his hands securely on my shoulders so that I had no choice but to stare right at him. "You can have a heart and still be a great queen.

I chewed on my lip. "Ahren said that to me."

"Well, he's a smart guy. What he said to you is wrong. though You know that if he had the whole story, he would understand why you can't get involved in this war."

"But what if we have to, Eikko? What if we are eventually forced to?"

"The only way that will happen is if we get attacked in some way, which General Leger won't let a fly into this palace if it's up to him. So why don't we worry about that when the time comes, okay? You worry enough as it is. Let's worry about things that we can actually deal with." He tucked my hair behind my ear and kissed my forehead tenderly. I leaned forward into his arms and rested my head over his heart. "And Eadlyn?"

"Hm?"

"Don't ever think that I'm below you again."

I laughed and leaned up to kiss him below his chin. "Got it."

I hadn't seen or heard from Kile since my trip to Panama and it was impossibly satisfying to have him under my roof again. In the last two months since the hurricane, Kile had made major progress in his new housing project – with Alice's help, of course. Now was the time for us to decide whether to continue funding him or to send him back to Bonita. Just judging from his stiff posture when he greeted me, I knew that neither of us was looking forward to this conversation.

In an effort to make things less formal though, I decided to meet him in the gardens and discuss things as we walked around. It had been a while since I had last walked around the gardens, months probably. I just didn't have the time to enjoy the outdoors unless it was for a meeting. Dr. Ashlar had stressed to me though that it would not be beneficial for me to remain static behind a desk while pregnant so I figured that walks around the gardens would have to become a necessary part of my daily routine.

"So how are you feeling about the progress you've made in Panama?" I asked him as we entered the hedge maze. I knew the maze by heart, as did he, and we didn't really need to pay attention to make it out safely.

"Hopeful. We've constructed thirteen homes from the ground up and two apartment buildings are still underway," he reported.

"And how is Alice's work coming along?"

His eyebrows pinched together. "Fine."

"Fine?" I repeated. "What about the people who don't have permanent housing yet? Her organization is still there supplying for them, correct?"

"Oh, yeah. She's there."

"Okay," I said slowly, trying to gauge his strange behavior. "So what do you need from us?"

Kile stopped walking and faced me. "That's just it. I really don't need anything as long as you keep me in Panama. However, I really think that Dominica could use my help. Their housing isn't much better off. If an earthquake were to strike there, they would have no help."

I held up a hand to stop him. "Kile, wait. Dominica isn't even in the top ten for impoverished provinces. It's mostly senior citizens and sailors. Even then, the sailors are seasonal residents so yes, damage costs would be high but they wouldn't be in the streets." Kile looked crestfallen. "And it's not like these people are in the streets to begin with, not like in Bonita. Earthquakes are rare in Dominica. I'm not saying that they don't happen but they are rather infrequent."

"I just really feel led to help the people there. I've met some people in Panama that have expressed their concerns—"

"Are any of those people funding you?" I asked him quickly.

"No, but I feel that since you banished me, I should at least have a little bit of say in where I go."

"It's just the opposite actually. I banished you to work for me. I supply you, you go where I tell you. It's that simple. You either choose Bonita or Panama but those are our two focuses right now."

He clenched his jaw and shook his head, clearly frustrated. "I'm trying to make your country a better place, Eadlyn. Don't you want me to help you?"

"Yes, but I have a plan for how you can help me. We have a budget and a schedule and half a dozen other factors to consider before you just spring a new idea on me."

"So I don't get any say in where I go or what I do? Am I your friend or your slave?"

Our voices had been rising steadily but I only had just noticed that we were close to shouting. I bowed my head, thinking of my argument that morning with Ahren. "Kile, I really can't stand to lose a relationship with another friend now. Please, just do me this one favor and choose either Bonita or Panama. Maybe, seeing how things unfold in Europe and our position in the war, we can revisit the topic of you moving to Dominica next year."

"Next year?" he repeated in shock. "That's next year."

"That's my best offer."

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I feel established in Panama. It would be nice to have some continuity by working there longer but at the same time, if you need me in Bonita, I could get people started there and travel between the two. What do the finances look like?"

"Technically, staying in Panama wouldn't change anything. We've been moving money from your Bonita budget and using it to supply you in Panama. If you work in both Bonita and Panama, you'll risk being slowed because your budgets will be stretched more."

The wheels were clearly spinning in his head as he considered his options. "I'll stay in Panama, then. Who knows? Maybe I can find some tourist tycoon to sponsor me and give me a boost in budget." He gave me a small smile, clearly resigning himself to the fact that he was stuck in Panama for the immediate future.

We resumed our path around the gardens, my arm tucked in his, just enjoying the fresh air and noon sun when I finally decided to ask, "Your sudden interest in Dominica wouldn't have anything to do with Alice moving there, would it?"

"How do you know about that?" he asked, not denying or confirming it.

"I've been intrigued by her organization lately. I'm considering offering her the grant at the end of the year for exceptional entrepreneurship and development so I have been doing some research." Kile gave me a pointed look. "Okay, Neena has been doing research but she gives me the highlights."

"She's only going there for a few weeks anyway to help at a medical facility opening on the south coast. I don't know what I could do in that short amount of time."

"So you two are…"

He shook his head quickly. "No. We're not anything. Not officially, anyway. We haven't even kissed. I told her that I needed my space before I could get into another relationship and she respects that. After all, she is older and her aunt is an Elite. I'm sure she's heard stories. What's going on between you and Ahren?"

"Who said it was Ahren?"

"Eadlyn, I've known you your life. I know what it looks like when you and Ahren fight."

I shrugged. "We're just having a hard time separating family and state. Obviously I want the very best for him but at the same time, we can't afford to get into a war right now."

"Why not? I mean, I know that wars aren't something you just get into because you're bored but what is really stopping you?"

I looked around us, making sure we were alone. I could tell Kile. I could be completely honest with him but I wasn't sure if telling him that I'm pregnant so soon would just hurt him. After all, we were making out in his room only six months prior. It felt like ages but to him it had to still be fresh in his mind. Then again, Kile had been a confidante to me in the last few weeks of my Selection and I desperately needed a confidante that I wasn't married and related to. "Well, we're just saving up for a big project."

"A big project? That's a little vague. What's so big that you need to save so much?"

I took a deep breath. "An heir."

"An heir? You're already talking about that? Why could you possibly be talking about it so…" His eyes lit up with recognition. "Oh. Well then."

"Children are expensive, even for kings and queens. Security details, party funds, materials for possibly renovating for a new nursery, maybe even a Selection fund," I said, cringing slightly at the thought.

"You would make your son or daughter have a Selection?"

I shrugged. "I was skeptical at first too but now, I can't deny its success."

"You didn't even pick a Selected," he said, smiling slightly.

"But I wouldn't have met him without the Selection," I reminded him. "It's a secret, obviously."

"Obviously. When are you telling the public?"

"Around Christmas, when I'm fifteen weeks or so."

Kile's eyes widened and he started laughing. "Eadlyn Schreave, do you mean to tell me that you're lying to the public about how far along you are?" My jaw dropped but that was all the answer Kile needed. "You're in trouble if anyone ever finds out!"

"And no one will find out," I said pointedly, giving him a look that made it clear that he would die if he leaked the news to anyone.

"Of course not. Better check the hedges though for bugs. Who knows who Marid has working on the inside here." All humor left the conversation right at the moment as we both considered the enemy that was still lurking somewhere out there, holding a lot of confidential information. "What do you think he has?"

"What do you mean?"

"He's not staying quiet because he has nothing to say. He's quiet because he's waiting for the perfect time to spill something big. I just can't imagine what all he could have heard in that week or so that he could easily use against you."

I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly shivering. It wasn't from being cold though. "He had a microphone in the queen's study. It could be anything, honestly."

"Are you any closer to finding him?"

I shook my head. "General Leger is determined but the guy is a ghost. I'm sure his parents are using their contacts to help hide him but there's still no telling where he could be. He's officially off the grid."

"Until he reveals what kind of dirt he has on you."

"True. But maybe that's why he's waiting."

"I hope you catch him, Eadlyn, before he can do any real damage."

"Me too, Kile. Me too."