Page 78 of Striking
“What?” Atticus demands as the same question echoes around the room.
“I said that throne will always belong to a member of the house of Windsor. I didn’t say me. The same blood runs through my brother’s veins that runs through mine.”
“Don’t complicate the situation,” Lord Allington sputters, his red cheeks puffing up with indignation.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Atticus grits with unadulterated fear in his eyes. “Don’t complicate the situation.”
“The decision is yours, my lady and lords.” I look at Atticus with a silent apology. One I know he’ll never accept. One he’ll never forgive me for. “So vote.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Atticus yells, once we’re alone in my office minutes later. “I’m not a king.”
“I love her, brother.” I drop my head to my hands as the weight of the day threatens to crush my soul. Grandfather is no doubt rolling over in his grave.
“So do I, but you can’t give up the throne.” He grabs the crystal decanter from the corner of the room and doesn’t bother with a glass as he drinks straight from the bottle. “There has to be another way. I can’t be the fucking king, Rhys. This is your destiny, not mine.”
I watch as he has a whole conversation with himself and hear my mother’s weak voice in my head.“Give Atticus time to surprise you.”
“If it comes to that, you will be the greatest king this country has ever had, brother. Better than me.”
He swallows as the color drains from his face. “You’d have to leave.”
He gives words to the truth we both know.
You can’t have a former king living in the same country with the current king.
It would undermine his reign and confuse the country.
“But you knew that already.” He takes another sip as his shock morphs to anger. “You’d move to America. That’s your plan, isn’t it. You’re going to dump this on me and move across the fucking ocean. You can be Lennon’s neighbor, while I’m here ruling the country you should be ruling.”
He’s not wrong.
It’s not what I want, but if they force my fucking hand, it’s an option.
“Have you even discussed this with Bellamy?” He narrows his eyes. “You haven’t.” His words are slow and drawn out, and I watch as he snaps. “You just threatened to abdicate the fucking throne and didn’t discuss it with your wife. You’re almost as screwed as me.”
I groan and grab the decanter from his hands.
Fuck me.
Bellamy
“Do I really need a separate press secretary?” I whine. The idea that I need my own full staff still blows my mind. No matter what way Rhys and Joss try to spin it, it still just doesn’t seem real.
“You absolutely do. You and I can’t do it all, and trying to coordinate everything with Rhys’s office is a bigger job than I can do.” She looks down at her phone as another message comes in, and her eyes triple in size. “Oh shit, bee. Did you know?”
My heart sinks as all the possibilities flood me at once. “Know what?”
Joss hands me her phone. “The Murmuris saying Rhys just threatened to abdicate the throne.”
“He what?” I quickly scan the article and try to ignore the way my heart inches farther and farther up my throat until I can’t breathe. “He can’t do that.”
My voice is barely above a whisper.
Denial thick in my veins.
“He can’t give it up. Not for me.”
“Breathe, bee. We don’t know anything yet.” She takes the phone back, and her fingers fly across the screen. The phone pings before my next breath, and Joss looks up at me with pity in her eyes.
