The King's War

5. Together Apart

AVERY

Nate texted me to say that he wouldn't be coming to bed. Apparently he had 'pressing matters' that required his attention, so he'd be working all throughout the day. His office, like his bedchamber, had specialized shutters that blocked out the sun for just that purpose. So I had to sleep in his king sized bed all alone.

The white rays of the sun poured through the un-shuttered windows. It was morning, and the best time to call Lydia if I actually wanted to reach her. I picked my phone up from the nightstand and scrolled through my contacts. But I couldn't muster up the courage to hit the call button.

What if she was too upset with losing the competition? What if she resented me for not keeping in touch?

Come on, I reassured myself. It's Lydia. The two of us have been through a lot together, and I was giving her too little credit if I thought she'd be petty enough to end our friendship over a guy. A guy who happened to be king, but still. I hit call.

Lydia answered after two rings. I tried not to panic. "Hey, it's Avery," I said after Lydia's greeting. She'd been the one to give me her number, but she never got mine.

There was a pause on the other end that made my heart leap into my throat in fear. For a moment I thought Lydia would hang up in anger, but then I heard her familiar melodious laugh. "Hey! It's been so long. Why haven't you called?"

She didn't sound mad, so I felt more comfortable launching into an honest explanation for why I'd avoided her. It sounded like a pathetic series of excuses, and it was. I just hoped Lydia didn't think poorly of me being 'too busy' for her.

"So now you're busy with the king," Lydia replied slyly after I told her everything.

I froze. "How'd you know?"

Our relationship wasn't public knowledge. Nate kept his private life, well, private. The press were forbidden in Rosethorne Hall and he didn't even allow himself to be photographed. Given that his life was constantly under threat, his need for secrecy was more than understandable.

"I figured that after the competition as disbanded, you must have been the reason why," she said nonchalantly. "And the Duke may have let it slip that the two of you were vacationing in on a beach somewhere. How was that, by the way?"

So the Duke of New York was a bit of a gossip. "We went to Nantucket. It was absolutely beautiful. I never wanted to leave."

"Too bad it couldn't last forever, huh?"

"We'd have left sooner or later," I said with a sigh. "I just wish it wasn't sooner. And not under such terrible circumstances."

I'd glanced at the news briefly. Details were slim so as to not cause a panic. The need for secrecy was understandable. Revealing the existence of witches to the public would probably cause mass hysteria, much like it did when vampires first made themselves known. I wondered how many of the details Lydia knew. With the way her family was connected, I'd wager a lot.

"So, are you planning on getting hitched? Am I supposed to start calling you my queen now?" Lydia said with a giggle, startling me.

"No!" I replied with a bit more vehemence than I meant to. "Not yet. I don't know, really. Right now we're just taking things slow and figuring it out."

What were the odds of me being asked that same question twice in one day? Why was everyone so convinced I'd be walking down the aisle with Nate so quickly? Yeah, we'd known each other for longer than the two weeks we've been officially together, but I didn't really count the competition as part of our courtship since I'd been trying to distance myself from Nate for the entire duration of it. I wanted us to spend proper time together as a couple before I'd even consider marriage.