Chapter 1 - Ty (Part 1)

Tiberius Everly, Duke-apparent of the Beyond, was pissed. The day had gone all wrong. The Trooping the Sword ceremony was laughable at best and appalling at worst. The Valley Kings hadn’t even deigned to show up. He knew for a fact they had received individualized invitations to the ceremony for the first time in decades, and yet they still blew it off. That fact alone was the hardest for him to wrap his head around. He didn’t understand what could lead a person to make such a selfish decision. It was basic diplomacy to show up at military parades. It was a free gesture of goodwill. All they had to do was pay respects to the servicemen and women, rub shoulders with the other nobles at the event, and then leave feeling smug and content. 

His hands shook as he buttoned his cufflinks. The anger simmering in his blood made it hard to focus. Even he couldn't deny that the Valley Kings’ emissaries got the networking part of the event down. The representatives of the three Valley Kingdoms hadn’t bothered to look up once from their meal. Their heads stayed bent together in a conspiratorial manner the whole day.

What he wouldn’t pay to know what was discussed during the parade. What could have been so important that they couldn’t even bother to face—let alone stand for—the troops passing by?

“Hey, Ty.”

Ty’s head snapped up fast enough to give him whiplash. So focused was he on his indignation that he hadn’t heard Kenna Aurelia, Queen of the Mountains and Beyond, step into the sitting room.

“Kenna.” He turned away from the mirror, hastily clasping the final link and hoping it was correct. She looked tired. Her eyes were missing their usual gleeful glow, and the corners of her mouth were downturned. Though normally resplendent in evening wear, tonight, even the plethora of diamonds and sapphires clinging to her wasn’t enough to revive the sparkle in her eyes and glow to her skin. The skin around her mouth, too, seemed peaked.

He looked away from her mouth and cleared his throat. “How was your evening?”

“Oh, it was fine.” She collapsed into his red upholstered armchair and let her head fall back. “When I got back to my rooms, I laid down and didn’t move for half an hour. My arm feels like lead.” She lifted it and let it thud back to the armrest as a demonstration. 

 Ty moved to face her and leaned a shoulder against the mantle. He folded his arms to hide the way his hands still shook with abating anger at the whole situation. Of course she was exhausted. The whole day was spent trying to save face, and they hadn’t even made it to the State Dinner yet. That would be the biggest hurdle of the whole day. Dining and making friends with the emissaries while also trying to hold them accountable for their actions today. She needed to be sharp for that, her mind quick and ready. The woman trying to melt into the chair before him did not look up to that task. He tried not to let his worry show too much when he asked, “Why do you look so beat up, then?”

She lifted her head and peered at him through half-lowered lashes. “Is it really that obvious?”

He shifted his stance under the weight of her stare. “I wouldn’t have called you out on it if it wasn’t.”

She closed her eyes, and a pang went through his heart at the sight. God, she looked so, so tired.

Ty grabbed his glass from the mantle and took a shaky sip. He opened his mouth to say something—what, he didn’t know, but Kenna’s soft voice spoke first.

“The kings didn’t come, Ty. Not one. It would have been less cruel to slap me in the face than stand me up in front of my people and military like that.”

The rage came crashing over him again in waves, hot and fresh. “They’re cowards, the whole lot of them. You would have to be a little man to purposefully not attend a commemoration parade.” He swallowed before he could say something he’d regret. “It is inexcusable, what they did. And that information will spread. And it will reflect poorly on them and their kingdoms. Not on you and yours. You did everything right.”

Kenna sat up and splayed her hands in the air. “Then why do I feel so foolish? God, I mean, I showed up in full regalia. I held a salute for hours. Ty—” She looked him in the eyes for the first time tonight, and his stomach exited his body. “No monarch has ever shown up to a commemoration parade before. And I tried to be the one to change that. I’m the one who tried to rewrite the status quo. Whereas they followed the precedent. They looked like they were adhering to tradition while I’m the stupid new queen who doesn’t know what events she should and shouldn’t show up to.”

Ty took a step toward her before his brain could catch up with his body and stop him. The anger was good. It was better than the defeat and depression in her voice just a few minutes before. The fire had returned to her gaze, and he could see his friend whom he knew so well slowly returning to herself. 

He set his glass back down on the mantle. “A Queen who gives her troops the respect they deserve is not a foolish one, Kenna,” he said. “She is a dangerous one. The fools are all the monarchs who came before you and didn’t properly recognize their troops. Respectfully, of course.” He hastily added the last part in response to her raised eyebrow, remembering too late that her parents and grandparents would have fallen into that category.

But she brushed his apology off, at last rising from her chair. She massaged the back of her neck, wincing at some phantom sensation he could not feel. “What’s done is done. I don’t want to dwell on it. We have a feast of celebration to look forward to.”

He extended his arm and pivoted toward the door without a second thought, like it was pure instinct. Like it was something he had done a million times before and would do a million times more. She lightly placed her hand on his forearm and smiled up at him.

It was a soft smile, a tired smile. One that dowsed the fire and brought the sparkle back to her gaze—however temporary—and revealed the genuine kindness beneath the polished exterior. The slight crinkle at the corner of her eyes made Ty’s heart skip in his chest. The warmth in her gaze was enough to invigorate him, even after a day as trying as today.

He patted her arm. “Not necessarily, you know. You can still give the Valley Kings’ emissaries hell at dinner if you so wish. Rip them a new one for their behavior before they even sit down. You’re the host. They’re bound to the rules of propriety when they’re under your roof.”

Her head shook back with laughter. The diamond pendants fastened around her throat glittered as they bobbed up and down along her neck—

He cleared his throat again. “Speaking of dinner, are you ready to head down? I’ll escort you.”

Another smile. She was so quick with them when they were in private together. It was small and closed-lipped, and yet personal. They were brief glimpses of herself she didn’t offer to most outside these doors.

Ty marveled at her as they left his chambers. She was so reserved out in public. She never voiced complaints or worries or feelings like that when anyone else was around. Be they servants or members of her hand-picked court, she had crafted an image of keeping her hand close to her chest. Never letting those outside her closest circle be privy to any inner thought or decision.

That was why he treasured moments like the one they’d just shared. Moments veiled in privacy where she felt comfortable and safe enough to let her guard down and let him in. He’d spent his entire life working to become her closest confidant and advisor—someone who got to see behind the wall of cool indifference. He'd spent years proving himself as someone she could unwind with and trust no matter the situation. And moments like that in his room made him feel like all his hard work had been worth it.

They rounded a bend in the hallway, footsteps silent on the plush red carpet. Their walk was a silent one, but of a comfortable rather than an awkward kind. Her hand was steady on his arm, even though her warm gaze was far away from there. Firelight from the sconces on the wall brought out the warm hues in her brown eyes. The golds and ambers one wouldn’t know to look for unless—

“Why are you staring at me?” Small eyes peered up at him with one part questioning and one part teasing.

Ty wrenched his face forward as his cheeks grew impossibly warm. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be.”

She squeezed his arm lightly as they descended the grand spiral marble staircase. Her other hand gathered swaths of skirt and raised it high above the steps. Ty slowed their pace so she wouldn’t trip as they descended. Her private guard awaited them at the bottom of the steps. They fell into place around Ty and Kenna as they all exited the residential wing of the palace and entered the stately hall.

“Thank you for making me feel better earlier,” she began. “I appreciate it. You didn’t have to do that.”

Ty chanced a look down at her, purposefully studying the top of her head this time. “Well, I do believe that’s what you keep me around for.”

A small smirk. “Amongst other things.”

“Oh, glad to hear I’m good for more than one use.”

There was no answering smile this time. They had reached the dining room doors, and that stony mask of indifference was settling itself over her features. Her eyes dimmed and cooled as the smile fell from her face. Ty took a deep breath.

Show time.

Kenna squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “Open.”

Two servants heaved against the giant oak doors. Slow like a leaf dies in the autumn, the ancient wooden doors creaked open. A shudder escaped through the hand on Ty’s arm, and when he chanced a look down, Kenna pulled back her hand like he’d burned her.

She marched forward, alone, taking deeper and deeper breaths still. Ty followed a few steps behind. His heart clenched. She was overwhelmed. He knew that. Today had been too much, and clearly, he hadn’t done enough to help her calm down after all. That was why she’d jumped when the doors opened wide enough to peer through. She hadn’t left him behind because of cruelty in her heart. He knew that, deep down.

It was okay. She needed to be a picture of strength and power during this dinner with the Valley Kings’ emissaries. If she needed to be alone to convey that image, then so be it. Some of the best support he had ever offered was from six steps behind or to the side.

Ty followed a few steps behind as they rounded the long rectangular banquet table pushed to the front of the grand ballroom. The freshly waxed marble floors distorted their reflections and muddled their faces. The grand crystal chandelier Kenna’s mother commissioned glittered like a star over the center of the room. It cast fractals of light that bounced off every surface. The sapphire pins holding up Kenna’s hair glittered in the refracted light. Servants lined up trays at each place setting and polished up the table settings—the final touches applied.

Kenna and Ty were the first to arrive, just like always. The perfect hostess, ready to receive her guests at a moment’s notice. Ty hurried around her and pulled out her hand-carved chair at the center of the long table.

She took a moment to arrange her skirts to her liking and check that no jewelry or strand of hair was out of place.

“Do you have your ring?” she murmured as Ty pushed her chair back in.

Ty let her grab his hand to see that the unassuming ivory band was in its rightful place. In truth, he had never taken off the simple band. After he slipped it on that first day she’d appointed him as advisor, it had never come off again. He wasn’t even sure it could at this point. It had been so long ago; he doubted the small band would fit over his knuckle.

Kenna didn’t know that, though. She probably thought he took the band off every night after retiring to his rooms, just as he had seen her do countless times. She thought he protected it from getting wet or whatever else she did with hers. And he respected her practices. Ty understood wanting to breathe and be inaccessible to the outside world, however superfluous that feeling may be. But he could never do that. The thought of being inaccessible to her—that she could need him and he wouldn’t be around to answer—was the singular reason he’d never take the band off.

“Testing, Testing.” Ty touched his hand to the band as he thought the words, sending the message directly to Kenna’s sister ring.

She nodded. “I hear you. Collins, teams one and two, do you hear?”

“Loud and clear, my queen.” Collins, the head of Kenna’s private guard, nodded at them from across the room, his thumb on his own identical ring. A chorus of private guards chimed in, too.

The echo of their voices in Ty’s head faded. He looked down at Kenna, his witty quip dead on his tongue as she still gripped his hand in hers.

The side of her thumb rotated the ring along Ty’s finger, and his heart stalled in his chest. Little zaps of electricity danced where her fingers ghosted along his hand. Her touch was light as she studied the ring, either unaware or uncaring of the clamp restricting Ty’s heart as he stared at her, utterly at a loss for words.

She squeezed his hand lightly. “Still wearing your ring on your wedding finger, I see.” She tsked. “Your mother will have a heart attack one day when she finds out.”

Ty forced himself to withdraw his hand from hers before the lack of oxygen to his brain made him do something stupid. Her hand fluttered lifelessly back to her lap as Ty replied, “How many times must I remind you that my ring placement is symbolic. I am married to this job; it is my one true love.”

Lies.

But Kenna nodded. “That’s right, you lone wolf.” There was a lilt to her words that hadn’t been there before. “Come on, sit down. The servants are going to think your hovering is weird soon. I’d hate to have to make your excuses again.” She patted the seat to her left, and Ty slid in effortlessly, like he’d done his whole life.

He took a big gulp of water from the crystal chalice before him. The oak doors again groaned on their hinges as servants pushed them open. The herald announced the first dinner guests. Kenna sat up straighter beside him, and he mimicked the movements. It was time. Let the State Dinner and sleazy politicking commence. 

End Chapter One Part One

About the Author

Madeline is a third-year student at the University of Iowa. When not focused on classwork, she can be found watching football and enjoying a mug of coffee. Madeline loves hanging out with her friends, reading anything fantasy-related, and is inspired by TikTok edits and cheesy Pinterest posts. 

Instagram: @Madeline_hussey, @madelinehusseywrites

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