I study Aurelio carefully as he takes in his surroundings. His eyes sparkle with that same child-like wonder as he stares at the lush, raised beds of herbs swishing in a magical wind; the towering trees shaking their bows overhead; and the myriad of exotic-looking trees, shrubs, flowers, herbs, and grasses before us. A shiny golden dust flickers through the air here, so when the sun shines, it envelops this place in a beautiful golden haze.
Unfortunately, that means Aurelio himself is also glowing, which makes him far too attractive for his own good. I struggle to tear my gaze away from the beautiful sight of his skin glowing copper-gold, his eyes turning a stunning hazel. With only an open button-up covering his upper body, I can see every one of his abs, every curve of his arms, and the definition in his chest. He appears as one of our gods come to Earth.
Stop staring, stop staring, stop staring—!
To my surprise, instead of running off to inspect the plants like I thought he would, Aurelio plops down on the worn cobblestone pathway, stretches out his arms, then lays down with a sigh, closing his eyes against the bright sunlight. My train of thought comes to a screeching halt as he speaks again.
“Now, this is what I imagined royalty feels like,” he says quietly.
I stare at him in confusion. “What are you doing?”
“My favorite thing to do: absolutely nothing.”
“Doesn’t that hurt your back?”
“Come down here and find out for yourself.”
I frown, contemplating his teasing tone, but disregard it as his playful attitude. I lay back on the cobblestone and find it does, in fact, hurt a little. But it’s not as sharp a pain as I thought it would be. With the stones worn down, much of the soil has compacted between them, so it’s just soft enough to lie on, and sturdy enough to be therapeutic on my back. I feel some of the tension in my muscles from this morning let go as I exhale. With the warm sunlight on my skin, the hum of nearby honey bees at work, and the scent of fresh-grown herbs on the breeze, I feel like I could take a long nap right here on the ground and wake up just as refreshed as I would sleeping in my bed.
“This is…actually kind of nice,” I admit.
“See? You wouldn’t have taken my word for it.”
“Maybe I would have. You don’t know that,” I scoff.
Aurelio shrugs. “Experiencing it for yourself is much better, though, isn’t it?”
I want to fight him on anything he says, but I concede the point. Letting out a disappointed exhale, I sit up, poking Aurelio with my shoe.
“Get up. I’m not letting you lie around all day. We’ve got things to do and people to meet.”
Aurelio groans. “Why? I’m having a rough first day.”
“You are most certainly not having a rough first day. You’ve done nothing productive since you woke up. You should be accompanying me everywhere as the future king of Celestia.”
“Who said I had to be productive?” Aurelio points out.
“I do. And as queen of Celestia, you have to follow my orders.”
Aurelio sits up, deadpanning at me. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. And even if you don’t accompany me to meetings as much as you should, I need you to design a public opinion campaign meant to win over the trust of the citizens. Just because we’re succeeding my father’s generation doesn’t mean we automatically gain all the trust they earned. We have our own work to do.”
Aurelio folds his arms over his chest. “I don’t want to.”
“You’re going to.”
“You can’t make me.”
My skin prickling with irritation, I grab Aurelio’s wrist, and yank him to his feet before dragging him out of the garden.
“I absolutely can,” I say pointedly.
Aurelio struggles to get away, but can’t break my grip. I hear him chuckle quietly to himself.
“Wow. What they say about imperial humans is true, then.”
I stop dead in my tracks. “What was that?”
