Page 97 of Fit for a King

“You can’t even be expected to be one smile, one time, lately.” Gabriel shook his head. “You’re scaring the staff.”

I let out a sigh and leaned back in the throne. A headache was forming behind my eyes. “I don’t know how to get out of it.”

“What?”

“This…this funk I’m in.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’m aware I have not exactly been the nicest person to be around lately⁠—”

Gabriel snorted, and I glared at him.

“—but I don’t know how to get over it. Get over him.”

I closed my eyes and pictured Noah’s face: his soft hazel eyes, his smiling mouth, the lighter strands of hair that threaded through his thick brown waves.

“Who says you have to get over him?”

I opened my eyes to see Gabriel looking at me, brow arched. “I’m betrothed to another man. Not to mention, I’m the king and he’s⁠—”

“A mere mortal, yes, yes, I’m aware. There are rules and protocols, traditions handed down for centuries. One of which stated you were supposed to marry a female and have a son. If the poor firstborn was a girl, whoops, she went missing. Both of these archaic mindsets were replaced, history changed. So why is the thought of a royal and a commoner any different?”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“Not the last time I checked. But you might be.” Gabriel walked up the stairs of the dais until he was directly in front of me. “Why are you making this so hard on yourself, brother?”

My heart thundered as I stared up at my twin, wondering if I could do what he was suggesting, wanting to do it with every fiber of my being.

But when I merely stared at him, Gabriel’s lips lifted in a crooked smile.

“Do you love him?”

“Yes,” I said without any thought.

“Then I think you need to go and change history, don’t you?”

I couldn’t do that…could I? Just decide to buck tradition and follow my heart instead? Marry whom I wanted and not whom I was told?

Why hadn’t I considered that before? It felt like a rebellious act that Gabriel would follow through on, not me. I’d always followed the rules, done what had been asked of me.

But what if I didn’t have to give Noah up? What if I decided being with him was worth the ramifications? I’d spent all this time telling him I was the king, but what good was being the king if I couldn’t rule beside the one man who made me better?

Just imagining it made a weight lift off my shoulders and hope spark in my chest.

Was I really going to do this?

The answer was as simple as it was complicated, but nothing worth fighting for was ever easy.

I pushed to my feet and took hold of Gabriel’s hands with my silent request, and he nodded.

“I’ve got you.”

I pulled him into a hug and thumped him on the back. “Thank you, brother.”

“You don’t have to thank me.” He grinned as we pulled apart. “You just need to swap clothes with me.”

I clapped him on the shoulder and, after a quick change, headed toward the double doors. Gabriel called out, “Side door! Take the side door. No one will see you.”

Then I disappeared out the side door.

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