Page 5 of War Queen
“You can’t stay angry at her forever,” she said softly.
He took another drink from his chalice.
Norah rose and moved to the chair beside him, then reached across the corner of the table and took his hand. “Mikael. She spoke in a moment of anger that she’s deeply regretted ever since.”
“I’m not angry with her for speaking the truth. I’m angry with her for not speaking it sooner.”
“And when would she have done that? The longer you carry a secret, the harder it is to tell.”
“It should never have been a secret!”
Norah sighed. She didn’t disagree, but these things were never that simple. “It’s a mother’s job to protect her children. To love them.” She squeezed his hand. “And she loves you fiercely. Whether what she did was right, whether you agree with her choices, she made those choices with your well-being in her heart.”
His continued objection flashed in his eyes but remained unspoken on his lips. He pushed out a breath and covered her hand with his. “We don’t need to talk about me. You’ve endured so much more.”
“It’s not a competition.”
The muscle tightened along his jaw. “I haven’t even asked you how you’ve been. I’m sorry.”
She shook her head. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.” He rested his weight on his elbows and cupped her hand in his. “Tell me how you are.”
How she was—such a simple question, yet so complicated. She wanted to smile and tell him she was all right, mainly because if she spoke of what she was really feeling, it would bring a wave of emotion she couldn’t control.
“Tell me,” he said softly.
They had spoken of Mercia before, speculating on what might have happened after the coup, but only to a point and only of best-case scenarios—assuming that her grandmother was unharmed and that Alexander was all right.
Alexander.
Her heart still dropped like a rock every time she thought of him. Despite the harsh words between them when they last spoke, he would have never stood idle while Norah was attacked. And unlike her grandmother, an aged royal of Mercia easily overpowered, Alexander was a soldier. He would have fought. He would have come for her.
But he didn’t.
“I’m scared,” she whispered.
He nodded but didn’t speak. He only waited for her to continue.
“We know nothing. The council has surely crowned my cousin, Evangeline, logically. But I know nothing of my grandmother, if she’s well.” She paused as her voice caught in her throat. “If she’s even alive. And…” Her voice dropped off. She didn’t want to raise her fears for Alexander. Of course Mikael would know she had them, but she didn’t want to so openly lay them out before him.
He squeezed her hand tighter. “The Bear is alive,” he said, as if reading her mind, “and he’ll watch over your grandmother.”
“But what if he can’t?” Even if he hadn’t been killed in the coup, he was only one man, and a man in danger at that. He might be lord justice, but the balance of power had shifted. The council was in control now. Even if he’d made it through the takeover alive, he wouldn’t have stayed silent. He would have acted, with devastating consequences. The fact that she hadn’t heard from him made that scenario all the more likely.
“If the Bear had fallen, we would have heard,” Mikael said, trying to reassure her.
She’d like to think that, but her mind wouldn’t let her take comfort so easily. Instead, it lingered on the worst-case scenario—the most likely scenario.
Something had happened to him.
Norah swallowed. “I was thinking of writing to King Phillip.” She paused and waited for the reaction she knew was coming.
Mikael shifted his weight back.
“He would know what happened,” she added. “The council would have written him.”
“Salara, you cannot write the Aleon king.”
