Twin Heirs to His Throne(26)

Leonid just then noticed her and rushed to her, his expression trying to warm, and failing.

Heart thudding, she asked, “Anything wrong?”

He waved. “A trivial dispute. Olga already doesn’t approve of my policy making. She’ll come around.”

Then, kissing her, he promised he’d be there for dinner as usual, excused himself and rushed away.

After watching him until he disappeared, she walked back slowly, wrestling with tremors all the way back to her quarters. It had to be that time of the month making her morose, making her find normal things distressing.

But...if this was normal, why had Leonid lied?

For she had no doubt that he had.

Was there anything else he could have lied about? Like the reason he hadn’t been sleeping with her since they’d announced their coming wedding ten days ago?

Had her intuition that nothing could be this perfect been right?

As the girls received her with their usual fanfare, she tried to shake those insidious, malignant doubts.

But they’d already taken root.





Ten

“I so hope Princess Olga will get over her disappointment soon.”

Kassandra’s hands froze over the gold-and-black costumes she’d designed for Eva and Zoya for the ceremonies.

Anya’s words brought images of the incredibly beautiful and regal Olga assailing her. Standing toe-to-toe with Leonid, looking like his female counterpart, every line in her majestic body taut with emotion.

Did Olga’s disappointment have to do with Leonid’s impending wedding to her? Was that why she’d shot her that antagonistic look? Was she what stood between Olga and the man she wanted?

Forcing herself to sound normal, she asked, “Disappointment over what?”

“That she won’t be queen.”

That was the first time she’d heard that. No one around here, including Leonid, had told her the details of what had led to him being announced the future king. Even in the news, when other candidates were said to exist, they were never named, since Leonid was the only one who mattered, the one with the global fame and clout.

“So she was one of the candidates for the throne?”

Anya, who Leonid had appointed as her lady-in-waiting, nodded. “She was actually the preferred one. Not only has Zorya always preferred female monarchs, since its birth at the hands of a queen and under the mantle of two goddesses, but Olga is the spitting image of Esfir, Zorya’s founder and first queen. Many believe she’s her reincarnation.”

Kassandra’s heart started to thud. “So what happened?”

Oblivious to her condition, Anya handed her another needle threaded with the last color Kassandra needed to finish embroidering Zorya’s emblem on Eva’s skirt.

“Prince Leonid was always the better candidate, logically speaking, outstripping Olga, and anyone in Zorya for that matter, in wealth and influence by light years. But everyone in Zorya would have overlooked all that because of Olga answering Zorya’s specific criteria better. We are a land steeped in tradition and legend, and our beliefs in what makes us Zoryan rule supreme. Olga was an omen, representing our founding queen, a return to the glory days, a rebirth. But then Prince Leonid produced something even better. Nonidentical twin daughters, the very personification of our patron goddesses. That made the scale crash in his favor. The representatives of the people and the new royal council were unanimous that it was a sign from the fates. You, my lady, naming them both names meaning life, heralding a new life for the kingdom, was, as you Americans say, the cherry on top.”

Kassandra tried not to stare at Anya as if she’d just shot her. But the woman’s next words felt like more bullets.

“Before Prince Leonid announced the existence of the royal twins and his marriage to you, Princess Olga’s supporters advised her to marry him, so Zorya would have him and his power as the queen’s consort. So you can understand her disappointment that she not only won’t have the title, but won’t have the best man on earth as a husband. I only hope she gets over her displeasure and starts collaborating with Prince Leonid. Zorya needs them both.”



Three hours and endless details later, Anya left her only when the girls’ costumes were done.

Still in an uproar over the revelations, which Leonid hadn’t once hinted at, Kassandra continued her efforts to distract herself, now having the girls try on the costumes they’d just finished.

Looking at her daughters in the ornate dresses she’d designed to reflect their new home’s history, their new roles as the kingdom’s icons, she couldn’t help but believe they were born to wear them, to be princesses, with a legacy rooted in tradition and legend.

No wonder the people whose beliefs were based on the lore of the two goddesses thought them a sign from the fates.

But those same people bowed to tradition so much, they’d still refused to sanction such signs’ legitimacy based on an undocumented marriage, and had demanded a new wedding. That had been what Kassandra wanted most in life. To marry her beloved Leonid on the same day he became king.

At least, it was what she’d wanted until a few hours ago.

But now...now...she didn’t know what to think.

Actually, she did know. And it was...terrible.

If Leonid had needed Eva and Zoya to win the race for the crown, if this is why he’d come for them, it changed everything.

It meant he hadn’t come back for them as his daughters. He’d only needed them as his ace, which would trump anyone else’s claim, even the preferred heir. But what about her?

Had everything that had happened between them been second to attaining his goal? Was he now marrying her because it was the one way to seal the deal? Or was it far worse than that?

Could it be Olga had always been his preferred choice, but he wouldn’t accept anything less than being king himself, with her by his side as his queen consort? Could Kassandra be simply the more convenient choice, a means to make the best of a terrible situation, since he adamantly believed that he and the girls were what was best for the kingdom?

Could he be that driven to become king, over anybody’s hearts and lives, including his own? Could it be all that passion, all those emotions, all the things he’d told her, had all been him doing whatever it took to fulfill his duty, to claim his destiny?

From then on her projections grew even more morbid. Maybe he was biding his time until after the coronation and the wedding, when his need for her would end, so he could leave her for the woman he wanted for real.

If so, was what he’d told her that day in his hospital room the truth after all? That he’d never cared for her, hated her clinging and couldn’t wait to be rid of her?

It all made sense in a macabre way. For if it didn’t, why had he come back for the girls, and according to him for her, too, only when Zorya had announced its secession and its revival of the monarchy? Why hadn’t he told her anything about Olga or his need for the girls to secure the throne before? Was he really as preoccupied as he appeared, or was he only unable to feign desire for her anymore?

If any of that was real, how could she go through with the wedding? How could she give him every right to the girls?

If any of those horrible suspicions were true, it made him a monster.



“Yes, sir, I understand.”

This statement, or variations of it, had been all that Leonid got to say for the past half hour, as Kassandra’s father gave him a winded lecture, liberally peppered with ill-veiled threats, about manhood, marriage and family life.

At least it seemed his total submission to the man’s badgering and his unqualified acceptance of his menacing directives appeased the proud and forceful Greek man. Now Leonid decided to put his mind to rest completely.

“I assure you, Kyrie Stavros, I left Kassandra only because I thought my life was over after the accident, and I believed it was for the best not to tie her life, and the twins’, to someone as damaged as I was. But I’ve since been restored more than I dreamed possible, and Kassandra, and Eva and Zoya, have completed my healing. Kassandra is my heart, my everything, and I’d give my life without a second thought to never hurt her again. I will give my life to make her happy.”

Loukas Stavros’s eyes had widened with every word, seemingly impressed by Leonid’s impassioned declaration, which he clearly hadn’t expected.

Reeling back his surprise, Stavros tried to pin austerity back on his face. “As long as we understand each other.”

Fiercely glad that Kassandra, and the twins, had such a man, such a family to love and protect them so fiercely, Leonid’s lips spread in a grin. “We certainly do. And thanks for your restraint. If it was me talking to the man who left either Eva or Zoya pregnant and heartbroken, I would have taken him apart first, then given him the lecture.”

The man flung his arms at him in a see-what-I-mean gesture. “I told her that! But she threatened she’d ban me from ever entering Zorya if I didn’t give my word to take it easy on you!”

Leonid laughed, his gaze seeking Kassandra. His golden goddess was fierce in her protectiveness of him.

Finding her nowhere, he turned his attention to Stavros. “That sounds very much like our indomitable Kassandra. I’m only glad you complied so you can attend the wedding, and give her away as is your, and her, right. But if you want to discipline me afterward, I’m at your service.”