by Zara Zenia
Pralmav shook his head. “We’re fine, thank you,” he said. “Perhaps it's best if you . . .”
“Yes, we should go,” Draklan said.
Margot squeezed her sister-in-law's shoulder and Milinna gave her a grateful look as Margot got up.
“Feel better,” Margot said as Draklan led her away. As soon as they safely out of earshot, Margot turned to her new husband. “Whoa,” she said. “That was . . . .terrifying.”
“I think it’s more terrifying the first few times you see it,” he said.
“You've seen her fall before?”
“Usually, Pralmav is always in the room,” Draklan replied. “So it's not as . . . he's well-versed and always remains calm.”
“I wish I could be that calm,” Margot said. “I didn't know what to do. I'm so glad he helped her.”
“Yes,” Draklan replied. Their conversation was awkward and stilted because anywhere they walked, people dropped everything and bowed to them. Margot felt like she should acknowledge it, at least, but Draklan kept walking as if it didn't matter in the slightest. She knew if they didn't bow to him, it would be more of an issue. She had seen him stop and stare down someone who clearly didn't recognize him as a prince.
“Is that why your mother doesn't . . .” she chose her words carefully. “Bother them as much for an heir? Does she know?”
“I don't know if she does,” Draklan replied. “If she does know, it would be a miracle that she hasn't declared Milinna an unsuitable princess. She may feel as if their contribution to science is enough, but . . . .somehow, I don't think my mother can see the bigger picture.”
“How was your meeting?” Margot suddenly remembered that he had met with his staff and she had previously been waiting with bated breath. “Did you find out anything?”
Draklan chose his words carefully. “Yes,” he said. “We found her.”
“You found her?” Margot shrieked and then remembered everyone was watching them. She lowered her voice. “Oh, my goodness. So what does this mean? Can you bring her in? Can you question her?”
“There are many courses of action we could take,” Draklan replied. “But I would not like to bring her here.”
“Why not?” Margot asked, confused.
“I think it would be best if we serve her with justice in her own environment,” Draklan replied. “So that she suffers more for what she has done. We are not the only couple she has done this to, Margot. It appears she just matches together any two applicants who apply, in the order they are received, without even considering who they might be.”
“And then taking the fee and running?” Margot asked.
Draklan nodded.
“Well, that's horrible. That's not a matchmaker. That's just stapling applications together and calling them marriages.”
“That's one way of describing it, yes,” he said. “We can get information on other couples she has matched together, so I'd like to speak to them first and see if we can move as one force.”
“That's a good idea,” Margot replied. “But you are a prince, Draklan. Do you think anyone's word would be as powerful as yours?”
“I don't know,” he admitted. “For all I know, she's matched all the royals of the universe. I'm going to see what my security team can come up with. For now, I've put surveillance on her so she can't escape.”
“All right,” Margot replied. “I trust you. But please keep me posted. I don't like to be kept in the dark.”
“I will,” he promised her. If they were a little closer, a little more well-versed with each other, he might have kissed her on the cheek and left. Instead, she stood there awkwardly for a moment and then nodded before she headed in the other direction.
Her trust didn’t make Draklan feel good. Although they were getting along, it was mostly on the surface, out of politeness. They were two radically different people who should have never been matched together, and he felt like they were playing roles in order to attempt to build a life together.
The fact that he knew their marriage was invalid played on his mind the rest of the day. With an invalid marriage, he could technically start over. However, that would mean that he would be back in a position of possibly losing his inheritance, and his mother would be on his back worse than she was now. He knew exactly what would happen if he told his mother their marriage was invalid and that Drax was a liar. She would lose her mind and find him another unsuitable match. If no woman had interested him before, there wasn't going to be one who magically popped up now.
He was between a rock and a hard place, and revealing the truth meant not only ruining his life but also Margot's. She had nowhere else to go. He had seen the ridiculous video messages her ex kept sending, and it was enough to make him want to go down to Earth and punch the guy in the face. He saw how her shoulders tensed every time she spoke of him or watched the messages. He couldn't send her back to that. It wasn't her fault that she was here. He just didn't know how to find a way to make it work so that everyone was happy, including himself. Someone's happiness had to be sacrificed, and at the moment, he wasn't sure who could bear that.
Chapter 9
Margot
“Wait, what do I do with this?” Margot asked Draklan, confused. They were preparing for a state dinner, and it seemed like there were a hundred things on the table that she had no idea what to do with.
“That's a . . .” he paused, thinking of the Earth word. “It's a fork.”
“That's a fork?” she raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “That is not what I would call a fork. A fork has four prongs, maybe three. This has . . .” she counted it. “Eight, and two them are coming out the side. You have normal forks. I've seen them at every other dinner.”
“These are for fancy occasions,” he replied.
“Fancy occasions when you dislike your guests?” she asked.
He actually chuckled at that. “Sometimes, I think every one of these fancy occasions are because we dislike our guests. We judge people for the smallest things, yet we all keep coming to these dinners.”
“So it will be all the other nobles?” she asked. “Just from Tamarax?”
“I believe it's just from Tamarax,” he answered. “We have had intergalactic dinners, but this is just the nobles who serve under us.”
“That's nice of you,” she said.
He shrugged. “It's about keeping the nobles happy. Although we sit on the throne, there have been many situations in many a planet's history where the nobles have rebelled. You want to keep them happy and keep open communication with them.”
“And the island?” she asked. “There are different nobles from there, right?”
“Yes,” he said. “But they still fall under our crown. If you want to think of it in Earth terms, I am the lower king of the islands, and any nobles whose titles stem from there answer to me, and I answer to the high crown.”
“Which will be Bhatraz when your mother passes,” she said.
“That's it,” Draklan replied, sitting beside her at the table with a sigh. At the moment, the entire room was empty, and their voices echoed through the large room. All the setup had been done early in the morning, and the rest of the preparations were being done in the kitchen, as well as through the front hall. Margot knew that Draklan had a hundred things to do, but she thought it was kind that he took the time to teach her something that anyone could have been ordered to teach her. He seemed upset, his shoulders tense, and she watched him, calculating her next move.
He’s attractive, she thought. He was insanely attractive, the type of person she thought would never look twice at her. However, his personality was often off, and she had seen him lose his temper more than once. She didn't fear him. She wasn't afraid that he was going to hurt her or anything of that nature. She also knew that he had a lot on his shoulders at the moment. She felt like she would be more attracted to him if she could really talk to him rather than agreeing about logical things.
“Is something the matter?” she asked at
last. She felt like he had been struggling with something new for the past few days, and she couldn't get him to open up.
He glanced at her, and it was clear that he wanted to share with her. However, she hadn't gotten him to open up until now.
“Draklan,” she said. “We're in this together.”
It seemed to be the words to crack him, and he turned to meet her eyes, lowering his voice.
“There is something that I haven't told you about the matchmaker,” he said.
She leaned in to be able to hear him. “You still know where she is, don't you?”
“Yes,” Draklan said. “It's nothing like that. We have her under surveillance, and her every move is reported to me.”
“Good,” Margot said. “What is it?”
He took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to word it. It took several tries, but eventually, he managed to convey to her that their marriage was invalid, and that they couldn't tell anyone.
Margot didn't say anything for a long moment. She got up from the table, pacing the floor behind them. She didn't say anything for so long that she knew from his expression that Draklan worried that she was about to explode.
“Margot,” he said quietly when she remained silent. “Please understand. There are so many things at stake if we reveal this. We'd both have to start over. You'd lose your sanctuary away from Earth, I'd lose my inheritance, and—”
Eventually, she took a deep breath and came to sit at the table beside him.
“Okay,” she said at last.
“Okay?” he asked, surprised.
“Yes,” she said. “I won't tell anyone. It's just one more thing that we have to pretend about.”
“I'm sorry,” he whispered.
She shook her head. “It's not really that surprising,” she said. “I mean, this matchmaker hasn't lived up to anything else we thought about her, so why should we be surprised that her credentials are also fake?” she whispered.
“You're not angry?” he asked.
“Oh, I'm angry,” she responded quietly. “But I'm not angry at you. You're the—”
Her phone beeped several times, and she looked at it, distracted for a second. Both of them could see from the preview screen that it was yet another video message from David. She instantly deleted it without even reading it.
“You know what?” she said with a smile. “Not even angry anymore. It's fine.”
“That's one way to look at it,” he said, grinning as he got up. “I should get back, but do you think you've got it?”
“Yeah, let me just . . . practice with this,” she said.
As soon as Draklan left, she sighed. There was already so much that she had to cover up, and now there was an invalid marriage on top of it.
Instead of leaving the Grand Hall right away, Margot decided to call her mother. They hadn't spoken much since she had left David. Her mother had been a huge fan of her and David and couldn't understand why she had left him, no matter how much Margot explained it.
“Hello, darling,” her mother said when she answered the phone, and Margot hoped she was in as good a mood as she appeared to be. “Oh, my goodness, where are you?”
“I'm, uh . . . in the Grand Hall,” Margot responded, looking around. “We have a state dinner later.”
When she had told her mother who Draklan was, her mother didn't believe her until she had given her a video tour of the palace. Then her mother was enthusiastic about it, happy that her daughter was a princess.
“Do you get to wear a crown?” her mother asked.
“Um, a tiara,” Margot said. “Because I'm not a queen.”
“Doesn’t being a princess mean you will be a queen?” her mother asked.
“Well, yes, a lower queen,” Margot said, using Draklan's terms.
“Oh,” her mother said. “I see, I think.”
“Mom . . .” Margot smiled. “How are you? Tell me about that.”
“I’m great,” her mother replied. “Although . . .”
“What is it?” Margot asked. Her stomach instantly dropped and she was worried that she was a million miles away and about to hear some bad news. “Are you okay? Are you sick? Is there something wrong?”
“I’m okay,” she assured her. “It's just . . . David dropped by.”
“David dropped by?” she screeched. “David dropped by your house? Why? Why would he do that?”
“He wanted to know how you were doing,” her mother said. “I thought it was sweet. He's such a nice boy.”
“Mom, he has to drive an hour and a half to get to your house. He didn't just drop by. He went out of his way. And he did that because I haven't been replying to his messages.”
“Why not?” her mother asked. “That's not nice.”
“Mom . . .” Margot put her head in her hands. “You know what he did to me.”
“He loves you,” she said. “And he just wants—”
“What difference does it make?” Margot said. “I'm married now.”
“Yes, but . . .” her mother said. “Are you sure you are married?”
Margot froze. Given the information that she had just received from Draklan, she was a bit concerned.
“Of course, I'm married,” she said. “Did someone tell you otherwise?”
“No,” her mother said. “Except there have been some horror stories of these intergalactic matchmakers. I don't know why you felt you had to do that, dear. There are so many boys here on Earth.”
“I have to go,” Margot replied. “I'll call you later, okay?”
“Margot, don't avoid us,” her mother said. “We still love you, even if you've dedicated your life to an alien—”
“Bye, Mom,” she said and hung up. That was not the way she wanted the phone call to go.
The dining room felt far too large, and Margot decided that she didn't want to be alone in it any longer. Getting up, she headed to her room, where she thought she had time to do some landscaping. Her phone dinged again with a video call, and Margot assumed her mother was calling back. She pushed the Answer button without even thinking.
“What did you forget?” she asked.
“That's not the best way to greet me, my love,” said a voice that sent chills down her spine. She looked down at her phone and to her horror saw David's face staring back at her.
“What the . . . why are you calling me?” she managed to get out without sounding like she was ready to throw her phone.
“Why am I calling you?” David replied. “Don’t you know?”
“No?” she answered.
“It's our anniversary,” he answered.
She really did consider throwing her phone. “David,” she said, “no. It was our anniversary. But since we aren't a couple anymore, it isn't any longer.”
“Darling—” he started.
“I’m married now!” she said. “You have to stop calling. You have to stop leaving video messages. You have to stop all of this.”
“Then why did you answer?” he asked. “Something in your subconscious must have wanted you to answer me.”
“I thought you were my mother!” she cried.
“Why would I be your mother?” he asked. “By the way, have you been getting my video messages? I'm not sure what the signal is like up there.”
“Please stop calling,” she begged. “Please stop leaving me video messages.”
“Oh, so you have been getting my messages?”
“David, stop calling!” she shrieked.
“Just because you became a mail-order bride doesn't mean that you can't get out of it,” David said. “Just come home, baby, and everything will be fine.”
“This is my home now!” she practically screamed. “And I'm not coming back to you, so if you don't stop, I'll . . .”
“You'll what?” he asked. “You already don't answer my calls and messages. I miss you.”
“I don't miss you!” she said and hung up the phone.
Her chest was heaving and her heart rate was so high
that it felt like it was going to explode out of her chest.
“Are you all right, Your Grace?” a passing footman asked.
“Yes, yes, I'm fine,” Margot tried to assure him.
He looked like he didn't believe her, but he wasn't about to question a princess. Therefore, he stepped back, nodding.
Margot took a deep breath and kept walking, trying to keep her face serene as she walked. One of the hardest things she found about being a princess was that everyone watched her all the time. If she sneezed, she was told that the kingdom would be talking about it for days.
She still hadn't been allowed to see much of the city or the islands, and it bothered her. She wasn't a prisoner, she could go if she pleased, but everything was always so complicated that she often ran out of energy to deal with it. If she wanted to go into town, it required a whole plan and three different levels of council approval. She then had to be escorted by several guards and she couldn't deviate from her route. If there was a shop she wanted to go in that she hadn't mentioned, she couldn't go in unless they completely cleared it and deemed it safe, and that took over an hour sometimes. It was easier to just explore the palace and the grounds than deal with the town.
On the days when she wished for her old life, she remembered David and immediately was grateful she was here, even if the situation was incredibly complicated here as well.
She didn't know where to go or whom to call, so she headed to the lab. Ever since Milinna had collapsed in front of them, the pair had grown closer, as if they understood each other better now. Margot knew she was bothering them, but she saw it as a better alternative to spending endless hours alone when Draklan was busy.
She knew the passcode to the lab by now and let herself in, making sure to pick up a pair of disposable gloves on the way in, in case she touched something that would undo fifty years of research.
Milinna and Pralmav were side by side, both of them holding test tubes and staring at them in silence. Margot felt a bit bad for interrupting them, but Milinna looked up and smiled. Margot noted that she didn't move from her husband's side and thought it was adorable.
