People in the crowd started erupting into shouting at the queen.
“What do you have to say for yourself?”
“You don’t want your son to be in love?”
“Change the rules! Change the rules!”
It was like watching pebbles being thrown at a snowy mountain, though. Nothing seemed to phase the queen. She just scanned the crowd, assessing it coldly.
She didn’t care. She just wanted to make an appearance.
I finally pushed my way to the front of the circle surrounding Sebastian. He was staring at the queen intently, with fire in his eyes.
I’d never seen him look like that. He looked like a wolf, ready to pounce. Something was going to happen.
Right as I was going to reach out and take his hand, he turned around, grabbing the megaphone from Genoveve. He fiddled with the buttons, turning it on. I was so close now that I could see his fingers shaking as he held the megaphone to his mouth.
“Enough,” he said, his voice echoing loudly across the crowd, the road, all the way up to the queen.
The crowd applauded for him and then they went silent, expecting a speech.
“I have—I have nothing to say,” he told them, looking around and shaking his head. “We can’t win. In the face of this power. Of her power. We don’t stand a chance.”
The people erupted into booing and chatter.
“We want King Sebastian!” someone shouted, and then suddenly we were surrounded by chants of “King Sebastian! King Sebastian!”
“I will never be your king,” he said, sorrow filling his eyes. “Because the man I love is not royalty. And I don’t want to be with anyone else, for the rest of my life.”
People applauded.
“But even if I don’t rule, it doesn’t mean I can’t be yours. I am abdicating my right to the throne. Today. But it is my promise to you, that I will never leave these villages. I will never leave you behind, even if I won’t rule.”
The crowd was pure chaos now. Sebastian dropped the megaphone to his side, looking more lost than I’d ever seen him. He turned, and then finally, he saw me, and a single tear dropped down his cheek.
He tossed the megaphone to the side and reached out to me. Suddenly I was being pulled in his direction, and the crowd started to push me toward him.
And then something happened that I never imagined could happen.
I got up on the small wall ledge next to Sebastian.
He wrapped his arms around me.
And then he leaned in, kissing me, completely fearlessly. He held me close, not pulling away. In front of hundreds of people. In front of the press and cameras. And in front of his mother.
A cold breeze whipped past, giving me goosebumps. The wind was suddenly so strong that it rustled through all the trees in a rush of noise that almost sounded like waves on the ocean.
And then afterward, it felt warmer. Maybe just a little bit. Almost imperceptible, maybe only a few degrees different.
But it was warmer. Like a blanket of ice had been lifted away from Frostmonte.
Sebastian’s legacy was forever changed. His heart would ache forever for it. But we had each other, and the support of the villages and the people, even if we had nothing else.
When we pulled apart, the queen was staring at us, her eyes emptier than ever. The wind blew past in one last gust, shaking the fabric of her gown. And then she left in a flash, disappearing into the black car behind her. Soon, all of the cars disappeared, back up toward the castle.
All that was left down here was us.
16
Sebastian
It was another three hours before I was able to make it up and into the castle. The crowd had slowly dispersed, disappointed but accepting that there was no changing the queen.
When I stepped into the castle, I was alone.
Henry and Genoveve had wanted to stay with me. I was pretty sure Henry might have truly thought my own mother would kill me if I walked into the castle, but I assured him it wasn’t the case.
As I went inside, I knew it was the last time I would ever walk the halls of Frostmonte. This home that never felt like a home. That was a prison for so long. And of course, now, I only felt exhausted.
I jumped when I saw that my mother was already waiting, right in the first great room, sitting on the sofa. The chandelier above her cast her in a strange light.
For the first time, I felt like I was seeing my mother as a person, instead of a symbol of power. Power over me and over everyone around her.
She looked frail, almost.
“I’ve tried for a long time, you know, Sebastian,” she said, lifting her eyes to meet mine.
I stood frozen in place.
She’d been crying. A lot, apparently, from the look of her eyes. They were sunken and swollen around the lids. My mother almost never cried, let alone showed any emotion.
Something was different.
“Come. Sit,” she said, nodding at the sofa opposite her. I walked over slowly, sitting down.
“I’m not going to change my mind,” I said, hating that there was a slight tremble in my voice.
“Oh, you might not change your mind,” she said. “But everything else has changed.”
“What are you talking about? I know you aren’t going to change your mind about the decree.”
She nodded once. “I never will, no,” she said.
“Then we have nothing to discuss,” I said. “I’m giving up my right to the throne.”
“It might be harder for you to give it up when you feel how good it is to sit in it,” she said. Her blue eyes held so much sadness.
“What?”
“This place is no longer mine,” she said. “It was made abundantly clear, today. Frostmonte must be yours, and no one else’s.”
I swallowed, my throat tight.
“I don’t understand.”
“You’ll understand very soon.”
“Tell me what you’re planning,” I said, my voice stern.
She let out a defeated laugh. “Everything that I was planning is over now,” she said. “So I am going to make you king.”
I was silent. Frozen in place. I watched her with suspicion, not believing a word she said.
“Why?” I whispered.
She swallowed, searching my face for a moment as if she was finally seeing me for the first time.
“When your father died, I was so lost,” she said, shaking her head slightly. “It was so long ago, now, but to me it feels like just yesterday. I didn’t know how to rule anything. I didn’t know what to do. I felt like nobody, from nowhere, and suddenly I was all alone and expected to represent an entire kingdom.”
“I thought you loved the power.”
“I would do anything to protect Frostmonte,” she said. “But I didn’t love being Queen.”
“You certainly always acted the part,” I said bitterly.
“I struck a deal,” she said forcefully.
“What?”
She looked out the window, her eyes somewhere far away. “The night I found you and Henry in the park, I was down in the village for a reason, Sebastian. I was alone in the church your father loved so much, the one he attended every Sunday with your aunt and uncle.”
I furrowed my brow. “I didn’t know you ever still went to the church.”