73. Kristina

73

KRISTINA

I knew, straight away, what Garrett would want me to do. He’d want me to do the heroic thing. The brave thing. The right thing. He’d want me to sacrifice him.

But I just wanted him! I wanted the one man who made me feel safe, who wrapped me up in his strong arms and made the nightmares stop. The man I could trust, who’d stuck with me right to the end. Who’d never let me go. He’d saved me so many times. I couldn’t abandon him now.

I looked at him. Our eyes locked.

And he nodded.

This went beyond love. He’d followed me because he believed in me. He believed I was a good leader. He’d trusted me and he was asking me to trust him, that he knew what he was doing.

I took a deep breath and looked into the camera. I still didn’t know what I was going to say.

Then I saw my own reflection in the camera lens. My hair was matted and filthy. I was dressed in military fatigues, I was bruised and scraped. I’d never looked less like a royal.

But I still was one. And my father’s words rang in my head one last time. Being royal isn’t about doing what you want. It’s about doing what your people need.

I knew what I had to do.

“You have been lied to,” I told the cameras.

Silvas Lukin’s face went wild with fury. He looked right into my eyes and I saw his forearm tense, about to slash Garrett’s throat.

Garrett’s hand flashed up under Lukin’s armpit. The knife clattered to the floor and Lukin looked down in shock at his suddenly numb arm.

Lukin looked up just in time to get Garrett’s fist in his face. A good, old-fashioned, meaty punch that had the full force of Garrett’s anger behind it. Lukin crashed to the floor, out cold.

General Novak reached for his rifle, but Garrett snatched up Lukin’s knife and held the tip to the General’s throat. “ Don’t,” he growled.

The soldiers around him all swung their rifles to point right at Garrett. My heart nearly stopped.

I stabbed my finger at Aleksander. “This man has conspired with General Novak to assassinate my father and me, to overthrow our country and to start a war with Garmania.” I wasn’t looking at the cameras, anymore. I was looking right into the eyes of the soldiers. This wasn’t about leaders and politicians now. It was about them: the grunts, as Garrett called them. It was what they did in the next few seconds that would decide everyone’s fate. “He’s willing to sacrifice you, and your wives and your children. He’s going to wipe out a nation , but Garmania is not our enemy, not anymore.” I took a deep breath. “There’s still time to shut this thing off. But I need your help. I need you to arrest these two men and put me back in charge!”

“Shoot her!” snapped General Novak. “She’s a traitor! Garmania’s launched its bombers, they’re already on their way!”

“I can save us,” I told them. “I can save our country. But I can’t do it alone.”

“Follow orders!” bawled the General.

“Save those people!” I yelled.

“I am your commander!”

“ I am your Queen!”

The soldiers all looked at me.

And then every one of them turned to point their rifles at General Novak and Aleksander.

I scanned the assembled military officials and found the one I needed. “Air Marshall Trathers!” I yelled. “Turn our bombers around!”

He whipped out his phone and started snapping orders.

“Someone give me a phone!” I said frantically. Emerik ran down from the control room and threw me one and I dialed the palace switchboard, then asked to be connected to the Garmanian Prime Minister. When he answered, the hate and distrust in his voice made my stomach twist. What if he didn’t listen?

“Mr. Prime Minister,” I said, “there is a great deal to tell you and very little time. We have both been the victim of a plot to spark war between our countries. I know now that the attempts on my life and my father’s life were not your doing. The men responsible are in custody. I have turned around the bombers that were heading for your country. I ask you please to do the same.”

There was no reply. I could hear his breathing, shaky with rage.

“ Sir,” I said. “I know you don’t like me. But I need you to trust me. I know I didn’t trust you. I should have listened, when you called me. Everyone told me that you just wanted war and I believed it, I let them convince me that you were different to me. But now I think you’re just the same.” I looked at the soldiers. “You want to save your people.”

Still only silence, but his breathing had changed.

“We have one chance to stop this, Mr. Prime Minister. One. Or our children will grow up hating each other.”

There was a long silence. Then, “For a young woman, you have an old head, Your Majesty. I think your father would be proud.” He sighed. “I have ordered my bombers home.”

I closed my eyes. “Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister.”

I ended the call and suddenly it all rolled towards me in a black wave: the days of barely any sleep, the emotional drain, the constant tension. I swayed and had to grab the podium to keep from falling over. “Is that it?” I asked weakly. I didn’t even know who I was asking: I didn’t have a lead advisor, anymore. “Is there anything else I need to do?”

And then a big, warm presence was behind me. My feet left the floor and I was scooped up into his arms. He turned me to face him and I looked up into those clear, Texas-blue eyes.

“Just one,” he said. And he kissed me, long and deep and true.