The heir and the spare

Break down the barrier

All rights go to Kiera Cass!

America POV 

"And it's led by Kriss" Maxon finished in a barely audible voice. My first instinct was to get up and go fight Kriss but, there were two flaws to that plan. One, Kriss wasn't in the palace. Two,  what happened between Kriss and I personally wouldn't sway people's opinions. Ever since I became queen I had been working on always coming up with a "royal" solution to put the crown on top. Silvia said I had really been improving when it came to the reports as well. It's been crazy, the last polls we ran I had a better rating than any queen of Illea ever. Even Amberly. As was awoken from my thoughts when Maxon got up and started pacing, I inhaled deeply before speaking up.

"Maxon, what can we do?"

"I don't know" then he mumbled something unintelligible. I could tell, however, from his expression that there was more to this story than he would let on. Even after years without his father he still held back a lot out of worry and I had only just begun to see how bad it really was. It was sad seeing this, we had just had our first kids, and now we're stressing over what will happen to our country.  He kept on mumbling and finally, I looked him in the eyes and gently spoke, "I want to help you, but you have to break down that barrier you've built. Then we can take this on. So let's start this again, what have you done? and how can I help"

He gave a weak smile, "I honestly think there's a bigger cause to this than wanting to keep their wealth."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean there were mainly two's and three's on that list but there were still lots of four's and fives. I am that crazy to believe there being blackmailed or something?" At first, the thought sounded crazy but then thinking about it when else would they have so many fives? I had grown up only around lower castes and knew hardly anyone below a three who was happy with their situation. 

"What did the advisors say?" 

This only sent more stress into his eyes, "half of them I fired for signing that petition, that reminds me, I made Aspen our new general." Even though the first part of his statement was terrible my eyes must've lit up when I heard about Aspen. I was so glad Maxon and him had become friends.

"Maxon I'm so sorry but I'm happy about Aspen."

He chuckled, "That's what we're all thinking." That's when I got an idea. What if we created a distraction, it worked for the most part with the selection, I'm sure it could work with the twins as well.

"What if we do a feature on the twins and then bring Kriss to the palace to negotiate. I also have a few less than kind words for her." He looked at me in agreement before sighing. 

"I don't know I hate to use them as decoys but I think it would work and get people distracted."

I bit my lip in concentration, "We would have had to show them off at some point and this is maybe just a little sooner than planned. " I reasoned

"Alright" he agreed, and just like that we had a plan, honestly I was excited to show the world my children and if it took any stress from Maxon this idea wasn't anything but good.

Thanks for reading! Sorry for such a short chapter, I was basically just trying to fill in a few blanks that are mentioned in the heir and set the story up for a longer chapter. I won't be able to update as often now that the school week is starting but I will try my best. Please comment ideas/suggestions

-Kate