She giggled, then straightened her skirt just in time for Jürgen to open the door. They slipped out of the car, and she took Leo’s hand as he led her up the sidewalk. The door opened as they approached, and a tall man with a graying beard stepped out to shake Leo’s hand before pulling him into a fatherly hug.
“And you must be Skye,” the professor said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you after so long. Our Leo used to talk about you all the time.”
“Did he?” She shot a mischievous glance toward Leo. “You’ll have … to tell me everything he … said.”
If the professor noticed her slurred speech, he didn’t show it. Instead, he simply took her arm and led her inside. “It will be my pleasure.”
They only had an hour for cocktails and conversation before the limo was set to whisk them to the award venue, but within ten minutes, Skye knew it wasn’t nearly long enough. She was about to say as much when Jürgen pulled Leo aside. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she knew it was bad from the expression on Leo’s face.
“What?” she asked when he returned. She put her hand on his arm and held fast, somehow certain that it would be a mistake to let him go.
“My father,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “He’s had another heart attack. They don’t expect him to survive. I’m so sorry, Professor. I have to go.”
“Of course.” Professor Malkin put his hand on Leo’s shoulder. “If there’s anything I can do.”
“Thank you.” He shook his head. “I wish there was.”
“Sire,” Jürgen said. “The press is already gathering.”
Skye frowned, only then realizing that of course some members of the press had followed the limo to the professor’s house. And if the news of the king’s heart attack was public, the pack of reporters would increase exponentially by the second.
“Skye,” Leo said, his hands on her shoulders. “I have to go. I left you once without saying goodbye. This time, I’m asking you to come with me.”
Her mouth went dry. Outside, she heard the clatter and shouts of the waiting press, already stifling even from behind the closed doors. She felt her chest tighten at the thought of seeing them. At having them shout out to her, even though they cared only about Leo. Of having to move through them. Speak to them.
“I … I don’t think I … can. And … what would I be to you … there?” The new king’s girlfriend? His mistress? She could have no role in his homeland, and they both knew it.
He touched her face. “I want to beg, my love, but I don’t have time to convince you. I need to go.”
She nodded, but didn’t leave his side as he hurried to the door. Maybe she could do this. Maybe she could go with him, and—
Jürgen pulled the door open, and she was assaulted with the cries of reporters and the flashes of cameras. Leo turned and looked at her, and she could see from his face that he knew better than to ask again. She felt trapped. And suddenly the deer in a headlight expression made so much sense.
Then Leo was there, kissing her sweetly. “It’s only goodbye for now,” he said, though she knew that was only a platitude.
“Leo—I’m so sorry.” She meant about his father, but the words held so much more meaning than that.
He squeezed her hand. “I have to go.”
She heard the pain in his voice and nodded, then bit her lip as tears started to fall. She felt the professor’s hand close over her shoulder as they watched Jürgen’s security team surround Leo and lead him to a waiting Town Car. Then he was gone, the limo left behind to take her and the professor on to the ceremony.
“I’m so sorry, my dear,” Professor Malkin said, after he’d gently closed the door.
She managed a watery smile, then worked on her breathing until she was confident she could form words. “The multiverse,” she said. “That’s a … physics thing … isn’t it?”
His brow furrowed, but he nodded.
“So maybe there’s … another Leo and Skye … together in a universe … where I chose to go … with him.”
The professor’s eyes seemed as sad as her own. “Perhaps there is, my dear. But the only universe you’ll know is the one you make.”
Chapter Nineteen
Leo spent the fifteen hours on the jet from Austin to Avelle-am-see trying to sleep so that he would be awake when he saw his father. It was a fitful sleep, though, as his fear that his father would pass away before he made it home tormented Leo.
“He’s not looking good,” Gisele told him when they spoke on the sat phone. “I miss you, little brother.”
“He can’t die,” Leo said. “I’m not ready to have both our parents gone.”
“No one ever is,” Gisele said, understanding that he meant more than just the loss of their parents. He also wasn’t ready to be the king. “But we must all rise to the challenge. You, my brother, will be fine.”
“Only because you’ll be at my side.” He closed his eyes, forcing himself not to say that it should be her who would ascend. They both knew he felt that way, just as they both knew that there was no time to push through any changes. Not unless a miracle befell their father.
“I will be wherever you need me,” Gisele said. “I’ll always have your back.”
“I love you,” he said, speaking the words in English instead of the native tongue they’d been talking in. He didn’t know what possessed him, but the words made him think of Skye. Not that he’d stopped thinking of Skye. He wished she were with him, but he hadn’t been surprised when she’d declined.
“I’m sorry Skye declined to come,” Gisele said, making Leo smile.
“Reading my mind will be an asset since you’ll be my closest advisor.”
“Perhaps you are too easy to read, Your Highness.”
He snorted.
“Truly,” she said more gently. “I only know her through you, but I am sorry, Leo. Love isn’t easy to find, and it’s often harder to keep.”
“Thank you,” he said, wondering if his sister had ever found love. He didn’t think so, and that realization made him sad. Then again, she didn’t have to feel the loss he was now feeling, and he wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone. “She doesn’t understand the strength inside her,” he said. “But I also can’t blame her. She can’t be my wife, and she has no desire for a public life. It’s only in fairy tales that love conquers all. Usually, it’s much more difficult to tame.”
“You sound very wise. Just as a king should. Hurry home, brother. I’m afraid that the throne may be yours before you even arrive.”
They ended the call, and he spent the remainder of the flight praying that he’d see his father one last time. His mother had died in childbirth when he’d been ten, proving to him once and for all that being a royal wasn’t that special after all. How could it be when you could so easily lose the people you loved?
The airfield was twenty minutes from the palace and the royal motorcade rushed through the emptied streets, lights flashing, the nearby mountains seeming to loom in, trapping them in a nightmare. Citizens stood on sidewalks, already wearing mourning badges, and the gate around the palace was littered with flowers.