Not really how I had originally planned for this to end, and it's a bit rushed, but you know how I am with endings. And it's not even technically the end...

Enjoy!

"You know you could have warned me ahead of time that a stable boy was going to be in my chambers for the night." Eddie murmured to Amber as they stood at the end of the aisle while the clergy spoke.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that." Amber winced behind her veil.

"I could've killed him."

"Thank you for not drawing your sword."

"I never said I didn't draw my sword. I held it to his throat while I had him tell me who he was."

"Thank you for not killing him, then."

"Well, you talked about him so often and in such vivid detail, I would've known him in a room full of stable boys."

Amber bit her lip to silence a giggle.

"…or forever hold your peace." The clergy finished, and the room was silent.

Eddie swallowed thickly, locking eyes with Peter. He didn't say a word.

But Amber cleared her throat, let go of Eddie's hands, and pushed her veil back. "I won't marry Eddie."

Eddie felt Peter's gaze on him get heavier.

Amber smiled, turning to the wedding guests. "I am Amber Millington, the heiress to the throne of Votram. This betrothal was made to form an alliance with Legayn. When I first came here, I had accepted that I was going to marry someone I didn't love to protect my country. But since then, I've come to love Eddie, but only as a friend. Eddie is in love with someone else. I am in love with someone else. Eddie has given up his happiness for the good of his country.

"I come from a country where you don't need a spouse to rule. My mother ruled for almost twenty years before she married my father for love, not for an army. Therefore, I won't marry Eddie. I will rule by myself, just as my mother had, until I can marry the one I love. When I'm queen, Legayn will have full access to our soldiers and resources without a marriage."

Jerome stepped forward immediately, discreetly squeezing Eddie's arm supportively. "When I'm king, Legayn's military and resources will be available to you as well."

Amber smiled brightly at her audience. "Thank you for coming. Now why don't we all go to the ballroom for cake and champagne to celebrate that the wedding is off!"

"That was too simple. No way was it that simple." Eddie fretted.

John sighed softly. "We just needed the reinforcements. Amber offered that to us without a marriage."

"Why the reinforcements?" Jerome demanded.

John straightened and cleared his throat. "Jerome—"

"No, don't keep this from me—"

"This is a happy time, darling, let's not ruin it—" Joan tried.

"Please," her son ground out.

Mara put a hand on Jerome's shoulder to calm him down. "We just want to know what is so important that you've had to plan two betrothals. You need three armies? For what?"

Eddie eyed the group for a moment before taking a deep breath. "I'm gonna go..."

John was silent as Eddie walked away from them, and then he motioned to the ballroom exit. "Let's take this to my study, shall we?"

Eddie tugged on his horse's reins, coming to a stop at pier. He dismounted and hurried down the pier, eyes sweeping over the many people that were getting on and off boats of different sizes. When he spotted Patricia's familiar auburn hair, he rushed toward her. "Yacker!"

Her head whipped around at her nickname and her face morphed into confusion at seeing Eddie. "What are you doing here?"

"Don't get on that ship. Stay here—" Eddie said in between labored breaths.

"Um, no," She replied easily, turning back to the ship.

"Patricia, I'm not getting married." Eddie's hope strengthened when he saw that sentence had caught her attention. "Amber refused to marry me. We can be together, Patricia. Everything's gonna work out."

Patricia arched an eyebrow at him. "It can't be that simple."

"I know! But…I'm not gonna look for a reason it was that easy. I'm just gonna take it." Eddie reached out and gripped her arm. "Patricia, will you—"

"Don't ask me to marry you, Slimeball." She scoffed and shrugged. "Just do it."

Eddie smirked. "I just wanted to make sure you knew that it was gonna happen."

Amber held Alfie's hand tightly, leading him through the crowd of guests toward her father. "Father, this Alfie."

"Ah, yes, the stable boy," Andrew nodded. And then he looked at his daughter knowingly. "I should have known. You spent an awful lot of time at the stables, even when you couldn't ride."

Alfie's hand squeezed Amber's nervously and she smiled at him over her shoulder.

"Please understand, father." Amber said.

Andrew nodded. "I do."

"A very long time ago," John began, "There was a man that had created a horrible dark age by slaughtering hundreds of innocent people to get what he wanted. This happened long before your mother and I were even born. We never knew the pain that he had inflicted on so many lives. But there are a few people, I'm sure, that are old enough to remember him."

Joan spoke up, "One day all that pain just stopped, and everyone thought that the man was gone forever. The kingdom he was from had somehow frozen over—with him in it—and no one bothered with it. They were grateful that such a terrible fate had befallen him. That age of death was over. Until now."

"The ice melted," John stated, clenching his jaw, "and I'm afraid that the kingdom is once again living. He's alive, somewhere."

Jerome stared at his parents in shock, barely registering that Mara had taken his hand and held it against her chest to comfort him. "Why should I be king, then? Right before a war begins? I wouldn't do Legayn much good—"

"I fear that we won't make it through the war. See, our family, as well as many other royal families, had crossed him at one point or another. And if he remembers any of that—he might want revenge. Our family would be on the top of that list. Our ancestors had made many mistakes that will affect us greatly."

"What does he want? Power? Money? Land?"

"We don't know. That's why we still have to worry about him. He never got what he wanted." Joan explained.

"But if we haven't heard from him yet, maybe he's dead or given up?" Mara suggested.

"I'm afraid not, dear. This man was smart. He planned things to the very last detail."

Jerome exchanged a look with Mara.

"We can handle it, J."

"Your carriage is ready, Highness," the guard stated.

"Thank you," the queen murmured, carefully gripping her precious locket in the palm of her hand as she observed her kingdom from the window of her bedchamber.

"Are you okay?" the guard asked gently, like an old friend would.

The queen turned to him and smiled gently. "I'll be fine. Right now, I have more pressing matters than my feelings."

He nodded once, wishing he could tell her what he thought, and followed her out of the room. He helped her into the carriage and addressed the driver as he climbed in as well. "Take us to Legayn."

So...I've got faces for almost every character in the Second Chances series. Who'd want to see them?

"Out of the skies, I shaped the silence, and from the earth, I've carved these walls. A piece of the world was only mine, and then I said, I wanted more." -Madness, Sleeping With Sirens

-Rachel