Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 117920 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117920 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
He reaches into his suit jacket pocket and pulls out a gleaming ring.
I’m stunned.
Stunned.
It’s beautiful, he’s beautiful, oh my god, this is happening.
“All I want on this earth is for you to share my life and my children and my throne,” he says, voice shaking now, hands trembling. He’s not so steady now. “All I want is for you to be my queen. And, I think you’d be really, really wonderful at it. Aurora, will you be my equal, my queen? Will you marry me?”
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Now there’s no more secrets.
Now there’s no more past to hold us down.
Now we’re both free.
Every doubt and fear I had has been erased by going straight through the fire.
And at the other end, I choose him.
Forever.
“Yes,” I cry out. “Ja! Ja!”
He grins at me, beautiful, perfect Aksel, and a tear slips from his eye.
He puts the ring on my finger where it sparkles and glows.
Then he gets up and pulls me close, kissing me in front of the cameras even though we’re both back into that world built for two.
This man is my king.
And, reader, I will marry him.
Chapter 24
Aksel
“With a snarf snarf here and a snarf snarf there, here a snarf, there a snarf, everywhere a snarf snarf!”
Normally that variation of “Old MacDonald” burrows into my brain like an earworm, but today it sounds like pure heaven to my ears.
Well, almost. I swear Clara’s singing has gotten even worse. It’s too bad you can’t auto-tune your own children.
“I’m surprised this isn’t bugging you,” Aurora comments, watching as Clara and Freja chase Snarf Snarf around the living room, singing at the top of their lungs. The pig has one of the few tennis balls he hasn’t actually eaten in his mouth in a game of fetch that escalated into a game of keep-away.
Normally the pig isn’t allowed in this room, which I consider one of my last true domains, but because we’re all celebrating the engagement, and I’m feeling on top of the world, I’m allowing it.
For now.
As if on cue, Snarf Snarf barrels into the side of an end table, knocking over a vase. We all watch in slow motion as the vase rolls off and tumbles onto the rug below.
Everyone gasps.
It doesn’t break.
“Okay,” I say under my breath, about to get up from the couch. “That’s enough.”
“Aksel,” Aurora says to me, putting her arm across my chest to hold me back. “Let the girls have their fun.”
I narrow my eyes at her playfully. “Are you on Team Aksel or Team Snarf Snarf?”
“Team Snarf Snarf, obviously.”
“Team Snarf Snarf!” the girls yell in unison, running past us after the pig.
“Okay, here we are,” Stella says, coming into the room holding a tray with four glasses and a bottle of Dom on it. “Time for a toast. Maja, get in here!” she yells as she puts the tray down on the coffee table.
It’s only been a few hours since I proposed to Aurora, and we’ve escaped from the media circus that’s still outside the palace, to relative peace and quiet inside. Or, it would be, if not for that damned swine.
Stella was set to leave back to England yesterday right after we got back but since I knew what I was planning to do—proposing to Aurora in front of my nation—I asked her to hang around. I know she wants to get back home to Anya, but the fact is, I don’t have any other family but her and Maja, and I wanted everyone close to me to be here.
“You could have Karla do that,” I point out as Stella tries to undo the cork.
“I’m fine,” she says, wrestling with the bottle. “Believe me, after a week in your shoes and acting as Regent, I’d like to go back to the simple life.”
The champagne cork goes pop, making everyone jump, and the cork goes flying across the room, almost smacking Maja in the head as she enters. She manages to duck in the nick of time. Our aunt is awfully spry.
“Trying to take me out?” Maja says to Stella, her brow raised. “I’ll remember that in my will.”
“Sorry,” Stella apologizes, though she looks a little happy about it. She pours the champagne into the four glasses, and hands them to us as Aurora and I get to our feet.
“Can I have some?” Clara asks, running over.
“You can have chocolate instead,” Aurora says. “If and only if, you and Freja take Snarf Snarf out of the room. Us adults need to talk.”
“Okay!” Clara yells happily. “I hope it’s Belgium chocolate,” she adds under her breath as she and Freja run out of the room, the pig following.
“What’s wrong with our chocolate?” I swear she’s getting pickier by the day.
“Okay. Well. Here’s to my dear brother, Aksel,” Stella says, raising her glass to me. “Even though you were always my big, big brother, I never felt any distance between us growing up. My fondest memories, my earliest memories, were always of you. I knew from the start you were meant to be a king and I knew that you would do the job better than anyone else. You have heart and morals, even if you hid all that by being cold and insufferable most of the time.” I give her the get on with it look.