“Now go be the best damn queen Wylan has ever seen,” Keir added with a smirk.
Someone brought the queen’s crown to Winston. With as wide and shocked eyes as the rest of us, he was ready to place it upon my head.
Keir moved to get out of the way, but I stepped forward to hug him once more, tugging Krew with me.
Krew and I were king and queen. Not because Krew had been born first, but because Keir believed we were ready and capable. He believed in us. So he’d simply given it to us.
And in that act, I knew that both sons of Theon Valanova could not be more different than their father.
My crown was swapped out for the queen’s while I stood there suspended in shock. I had just been nursing the wounds of disappointment a minute before. Now I was... I wasqueen?
Winston stepped forward to speak saying, “I am just as rattled as the rest of you, but please allow me the honor of introducing our new king and queen.”
The crowd hushed as Krew reached a hand out for me.
“King Krewan Everett Aiken Valanova and Queen Jorah Collette Demir Valanova. Justly may they serve, long may they reign!”
Minutes or hours later, I wasn’t sure, we were back in the empty ballroom. Only guards present, otherwise to ourselves. Crowns on our heads, the coronation to be held the following day.
Krew pulled me by the hand and brought me in close. “Which item from our never-ending list would you like to do first, My Queen?”
As if it were even a question. “Let’s go get our little boy.”
EPILOGUE
“Race ya!”
Krew and Warrick took off for the meadow, sprinting through the knee-length grass.
I laughed, a basket and blanket in one hand while reaching down to feel the tips of the green grass with my other.
“I can take that for you, My Queen,” my new guard offered.
I batted him away. “No thank you, Alejandro. I have it.” I wasn’t yet used to a guard being so kind and... less bossy.
It had taken time for Krew to convince Owen to train others to guard us. The only reason it had actually worked was that Krew had convinced Owen he knew us too well and was too close to us, therefore compromised as a guard. So Owen was now a general and working in training, but also as an advisor to the king and queen of Wylan. He’d personally chosen and trained the three guards who followed me everywhere I went. And he’d breathed down their necks for weeks before trusting them enough to leave my side.
We still saw Owen every single day though. Often times he’d linger and play with Warrick at night. It went without saying that Owen was a part of our family, blood or not. He was always welcome wherever we were.
It had been months since we arrived in Nerede to retrieve Warrick, my mother, and even Flora. The announcement of Warrick being Krew’s son came the following day, a special announcement sent out to all levels of Wylan.
Celebrations of our coronation and also Warrick’s princedom had happened for weeks afterward, Nerede’s being larger and longer than the rest. Nerede had raised a queenandthe next prince, after all.
I took a deep breath and stretched my neck, feeling the tension lingering in-between my shoulder blades. We’d only reigned a few months, and there was still so much to be done. Parliament sessions were painful, as the parliament members were finding out just how opposite from Theon we truly were. We only had to forcibly remove two parliament members who had been loyal to the former king thus far, but we knew more unrest in Savaryn was brewing. Not everyone was happy to have a queen from the lower levels of the kingdom. They called me “Queen of Rags” thinking they would insult me. I rather chose to take it as a compliment instead.
The walls had been opened the day of the announcement of the new king and then stayed open, much to the Enchanted’s dismay. It would be an uncomfortable few years while we all adjusted to a new normal. Any requests to move up levels in the kingdom were being taken on by an advisory board we’d set up. We couldn’t just have the entire country up and moving into Savaryn. It was a painstakingly slow process, but it was progress.
We were even trying to reach out to the other countries about the disease, detailing that we feared the dead king was responsible. I didn’t know what we could do to help the other countries, but if Theon was responsible for their struggles, we had to do something. We had to try.
And that was how Theon was always referred to by the people now. Never “may he rest” or “the former king” or any other reverent sayings. He was always just “the dead king.”
Since he’d killed the forest with his greed, I felt it was only fair.
I took a deep breath. The evening air felt crisp. Fall was coming whether we liked it or not.
I looked toward the setting sun across the meadow, green with growth. I had healed over half of the forest. It was a long and tedious process, but I was still running with the wolves and healing the forest day by day. I’d seen a bee just last week, giving me hope that the birds and other small animals would return soon too.
I finally caught up to the other two, as they were directing me to the spot with the best view for our picnic.
