“Who needs that?” Tracy joked.
“I’m still petitioning to get Sebastian to teach work out classes,” I said. “The townsfolk deserve to see the king in all his beautiful, muscley glory.”
“Never gonna happen,” he said.
“Never say never.”
“The taxpayer dollars aren’t going to go to frivolous trips and ballgowns anymore,” Sebastian said. “All of the classes will be free, first come, first served. The castle should be a part of the community, not a glass tower.”
Tracy pulled in a deep breath. She was clearly as proud of Sebastian as I was.
She turned to me, winking. “I told you so,” she said.
She had believed in him, when I thought I was the only person who did. We had seen behind his cold exterior to the true Sebastian deep inside.
“I’m going to go mingle,” Tracy said, looking back and forth between the two of us. “But I’m just letting you know right now: whenever a proposal happens, I better be the first to know.”
I smiled wide. “You’ll be the first to know,” I said. “Promise.”
Over the course of the next hour, the party blossomed as more and more people showed up. Sebastian had known that fully opening the castle to the public would attract a lot of visitors, but it was staggering to see the amount of people who showed up, dressed to the nines and ready to usher in a new era of Frostmonte.
There were people taking pictures left and right. I ran into dozens of people who I’d known as kids, who were now grown, some of them with their own children. It felt like slipping into another world, seeing Frostmonte Castle so open, so warm, so bustling.
It really was like a curse had been lifted. Frostmonte was alive again. For the first time in… as long as we’d been alive, at least.
Sebastian had only officially been king for just over twenty-four hours, but early this morning, he had put in place revisions to the royal decrees that would allow him to marry anyone he liked. He’d brought a copy of the decree to me in bed this morning, dropping it down next to a plate of fresh sliced tangerines, toast, and a warm mocha latte.
I couldn’t exactly say I was used to the royal lifestyle yet. But I sure as hell wasn’t complaining.
“Sir?” I heard Genoveve say from behind us. When we turned, she was there, a hesitant smile on her face. “Look who came to see you.”
“Princess Emma,” Sebastian said, a smile passing over his face. “I wasn’t sure… I didn’t know if you’d want to come—”
“Are you kidding me?” Princess Emma said in her beautiful accent. She looked even more relaxed than I’d ever seen her, like she felt better knowing she wasn’t going to marry Sebastian. “I wanted to be here. I cancelled meetings to be here.”
“It means a lot to me,” Sebastian said, reaching out and clasping her hand. “I’m so sorry, Emma, for the way things—”
“I’m happy, Sebastian,” she said. “Really happy.”
“Good,” he said.
“And I love the band you have here,” she said, gesturing to the quintet. “They’re playing all of the classics.”
“I specifically requested that they play a Metallica song, but I don’t think it’s going to go over well,” I said.
Emma laughed. “Maybe I’ll try to request a punk song.”
A caterer walked past with a tray full of mini tarts, and each of us grabbed a couple, clearing the plate immediately.
“I love good eaters,” the caterer said. “I’ll bring over another round.”
“This all must have been so expensive,” Princess Emma said. “You are doing well with money, right, Sebastian?”
She had a concerned look on her face. It was the kind of question only a super wealthy person could ask another super wealthy person. Anyone else would have been far too afraid to ask Sebastian how his money situation was, but Emma was simply genuinely interested.
“I’m doing okay,” he assured her. “This party was lavish, but it doesn’t even begin to compare to the expense of all of my mother’s private jet bills from last year.”
Emma and Sebastian launched into a lengthy conversation about the aspects of royal life they didn’t care for, and I just silently listened. I was enjoying myself more than I ever thought I could in the castle. Slowly, the champagne started to hit me, and I realized how good it felt to be in here, how different it felt to see the castle like this.
I loved it, now that it was Sebastian’s instead of Queen Charlotte’s.
“Oh God,” Sebastian said minutes later. “It’s time.”
“Time?” I asked from my champagne-buzzed pleasant haze.
He looked scared. “I have to make a speech.”
“You always act like it’s going to be awful, and then your speeches are perfect,” I said.
He leaned in and pressed a small kiss to my lips as the band quieted down, and Genoveve took to the small platform and announced Sebastian’s upcoming speech. Sebastian ascended onto the stage a few minutes later and Genoveve stepped away. The crowd applauded at first, then watched him, rapt, waiting for their king to talk.
“Thank you, thank you all,” Sebastian said. He held the microphone awkwardly, like he wasn’t really sure what to do. Even for someone who’d been in the public eye for his whole life, he still wasn’t quite used to it, and it was one of the things I loved most about him.
“I’m not really too big on speeches, as some of you know,” he said. “But I knew that tonight, it was important. Firstly, I need to thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for supporting me. Without you—the people of Frostmonte Kingdom—I wouldn’t be standing here today.”
The room erupted into applause and cheers. Sebastian held up his glass to the crowd before continuing.
“The transition to a new style of royal rule might not always be smooth. There will be some other kingdoms who will cut ties with us. But that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make, with all of you by my side. It is worth it. Frostmonte can be a symbol of something new. Something different.”
“And that’s the way we like it!” a young man in the middle of the crowd shouted. He was met with dozens of cheers in agreement.
“I am so humbled and so grateful to be standing here with you all tonight. And I’m making a promise to you that as king, I will always have your best interests at heart. Frostmonte Castle can be the hub of a community, not something closed-off and separate. So tonight, we celebrate. And there’s nowhere else I’d rather do it than here.”
He raised his glass another time, and everyone in the crowd followed suit, toasting to Frostmonte before cheering again. The band started back up and people resumed dancing as Sebastian made his way through the crowd, greeting people as he walked toward me.
“I love you,” I told him as he approached. “You did great.”
“Oh my God, I’m still so nervous every time I do public speaking,” he said, letting out a sigh. “Thank you.”
I grabbed his hand, pushing him into a dancing position and dipping him. He laughed, his eyes going wide.
“Henry,” he said. “I didn’t know you had moves like that.”