The Heir Boxed Set

by Kyra Gregory

  Pietros cocked his head to one side, mustering a smile. “There’s no place for traitors,” he said. “Certainly not in a place like this.”

  “Your brother has chosen to keep you,” he said, “and that should count for something.”

  The words proved to be of little comfort. He remained trusted to some extent—possibly because Niles knew Pietros had been right all along—but nothing had been the same. He’d been treated with contempt all the way up until the day they left Ludorum, and it seemed nothing had changed since then. “He’s found himself without many allies,” he said. “Holding onto those with blood ties seems to be about all he has left.”

  His mouth fell open with a reply, about to remind him that blood ties meant little to families who turned on one other frequently. When Pietros lifted his gaze at the sight of another stepping out of the palace, a figure that exited beside the Queen, his lingering stare gained Riffin’s attention.

  Castor Bates’s significance had always been debatable. He understood his mother when she said that his presence provided context to the state of Ludorum, much like how having Deros in Lionessa helped her rule Evrad, and how having Gyles in Azura helped reduce the tension and keep rebellion at bay.

  He’d wondered long and hard about how she’d come across him, what purpose he might have had in aiding her. Seeing the way Pietros glanced his way, recalling his mother’s words in Ludorum, he understood now.

  “Wouldn’t the two of you be happier here?” Riffin asked.

  Pietros hung his head, clearing his throat. “We’ll be happier together,” he said.

  “And will your brother allow that?” he asked. “Being together?”

  Pietros smirked. “My brother will have to learn to concede to the right people if he hopes to repair what’s been broken,” he said.

  That was true but, equally true, Riffin didn’t think Pietros had it in him to take that sort of stand. In a time when all the brothers could do was rely on each other having that connection severed, added to the remarkable power imbalance, put Pietros in a worse place than when he was one kind-heart prince in a family of tyrants.

  Castor descended the steps along with the Queen, accompanying her as she said her goodbyes to Niles’s wife, as well as the children she had grown used to residing in the palace.

  Riffin grabbed Pietros’s arm, as well as his attention. “You have a place here waiting for you, if you want it,” he said.

  A smile of gratitude flashed onto Pietros’s lips, lasting just a second before it became one of respect as he greeted Meryl and the children.

  Stepping aside, allowing them to pass and make their way towards their carriages, Malia and his mother came to stand beside him, watching with well-placed smiles on each of their faces. “Did you tell him?” his mother asked.

  Riffin nodded subtly. “If his brother is fool enough to fail to see his worth, we will,” he said.

  “Good,” his mother quipped, waving gleefully at the children as they climbed the steps of the carriage. “Pietros has proved himself a greater ally than the kingdom himself,” she said. “If we can continue to deal with him instead, we’ll be better for it.”

  Riffin sighed, shifting his weight but maintaining his smile. “I think I agree with father,” he said. “I think we might’ve been better pushing for a substitution.”

  “Your father speaks out of ample resentment for Niles and you know it,” she said.

  “Which isn’t reason enough to make such a drastic change at a time when we should be showing a display of unity,” Malia added.

  “I know,” he said.

  With her goodbyes said and the end of the discussion, his mother turned on her heel and returned to the palace.

  Once Meryl and the children safely in the carriage, awaiting the start of their long journey home, Pietros and Castor came to a stop outside, taking a moment for themselves.

  “How long have you known?” Riffin asked Malia.

  Arms crossed over her chest, Malia shrugged a shoulder, “I suspected it,” she said. “Castor always spoke highly of Pietros—defensively, even. Although Pietros sent him ahead with your mother to see that he survived, I think Castor’s intention had always been to separate the man he loved from the actions of an exploited king.”

  “I would say he succeeded,” he murmured.

  “Pietros did that on his own,” she declared. “Despite how we might have treated him at the height of everything, I don’t think he had a hand in any of it.”

  One final time, Pietros and Castor approached. Each quiet and sheepish in their own way, shifting with a growing discomfort, they kept their goodbyes short.

  Licking his lips before offering a weary smile, Castor extended his hand to Riffin. “Thank you,” he said, “for it all.”

  A thanks for not doubting him. A thanks for staying out of his way. A thanks he didn’t owe to him.

  Riffin grasped his hand. “A thanks you owe to my wife,” he said.

  Castor nodded with a growing smile, turning to Malia and bowing his head.

  Riffin looked between the two. “I have said it once and I’ll say it again,” he started, “if there is so much as a breath of trouble—”

  “You will be the first to know about it,” Pietros said, extending his hand to him and cutting him short. “You have my word.”

  A man’s word didn’t mean much to Riffin. A lot of people had given him their word and it never stopped them from betraying them. Nonetheless, Pietros was different. Though he said he gave him his word, the truth was, he gave them his loyalty—and that meant so much more.

  Chapter 29

  QUIETLY, RIFFIN CLIMBED THE stairs of the tallest tower in the palace. When guards weren’t posted at the doors to his mother’s chambers, nowhere to be seen near the throne room, he knew precisely where he could find her.

  Standing in the tower, her shoulder pressed against the arch of the window, she admired the view just as he always remembered her. In times of trouble, when the world all got a little bit too busy, he always knew he could find her here. Putting some distance between herself and the wants and desires of others, away from their influence, she would stand there and bring all the worlds troubles into perspective.

  That perspective often meant putting her own feelings aside. Capable of just peeking over the Capital’s walls, eyeing the homes and businesses of her people, the view forced her to consider them, above everyone else.

  Lingering on the steps, he knew he hadn’t been quiet enough not to disturb her. She peeked over her shoulder, having expected him to speak.

  “I tried coming up here, when I was King,” he said, softly, unwilling to disturb the peace of the sanctuary she had made for herself here. She smiled at the thought and he allowed himself to enter and get a better view. “I never quite found what you saw in it, to be honest,” he said with a hint of a chuckle, causing her to laugh.

  Resting her head against the wall, she glanced his way. “I trust you found something else that worked for you,” she said.

  Slowly, he nodded. “The nursery, some days,” he said. “The bed, some others,” he confessed.

  She laughed then, shaking her head, rolling her eyes even. “I am proud of you,” she said.

  He blinked, eyeing her with confusion.

  She hung her head, shifting with unease. “The way you worked yourself up when I returned—it had me thinking I may never have told you that enough,” she said. Enamoured by the view, a little enticed as the sun began to set on their kingdom, she continued, “As I stood in my cell the night we said goodbye, all the way up until my execution, I never doubted that I left behind a capable king.”

  “Not once?” he pried, offering her a smile.

  She broke into a smile, only for it to waver. “I didn’t fear it would break you,” she said. “My only fear was that it would make you hard—unfeeling to the plight of others.”

  “Your fear was almost correct,” he said. Vengeance had a way of blinding a man to the struggles
of others.

  “I trusted Malia to be able to get through to you,” she said. “Which is why I never doubted your union for even a second.”

  She’d been right all along. To worry and to know what he needed. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my time as Queen,” she said, absent the quiet, forlorn manner in which she had spoken until then. Her eyes were filled with pride, a joy he’d felt before. “The friends I made, the loved ones I cherished—that was never one of them.”

  She was right. Those she had chosen to love and cherish, those she had allowed into her life, those she had accepted with all her heart—they were the ones that had shown the most loyalty. They were the ones that could be counted on in times of strife. They were the ones that stood beside them and fought for them. Power and wealth did nothing, but love—love and an open heart had been the catalyst of their survival, and of their success.

  “You left me in the right hands,” he said, “and I’ll remember that for my own children.”

  Pursing his lips together, pulling himself away from the window, he took a step closer. Almost towering over her slumped figure against the window, he stared down at her with ample adoration. “I might not be King today, but I will in the future. I might not be perfect but I hope to be a good King.”

  She reached out, cupping his face in her hands. “And you will be,” she said.

  Breathing out a shaky sigh, she extended her arms and wrapped them around him. Held close, his fears for his future evaporated.

  His mother had suffered throughout the early years of her reign. His future might hold the same, but there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that he would overcome it. After all, he was his mother’s son.

  Parting, she took his face in her hand again, holding him still and taking in each of his features with the same admiration he had looked upon her with.

  When her gaze lingered a little too long, he squeezed her hand gently and shied out of her mothering touch. “The others will be waiting,” he said.

  Nodding curtly, she stood tall and took a deep breath. One last quick glance over her shoulder towards her kingdom, she moved to follow him down the spiral staircase that would return them to their world of loved ones.

  The atmosphere in the dining hall was unlike anything it had been in the last year. Entering and seating themselves for their meal had been a formality to the act of acquiring sustenance. They would meet together in an atmosphere unlike the throne room, seat themselves and devour what they could, weighted by their own exhaustion, with discussion non-existent or merely a continuation of the conversation they would have had in the throne room.

  Tonight was different. With Ludorum as settled as it would be for some time, and not quite as much of their problem as it once was, and with their Ludorum guests gone, the weight had lifted from their shoulders.

  Gyles and Lukas sat in the adjoining sitting area, as close as they could manage in a public space, conversing quietly between them and chuckling at the sight across from them.

  Dione and Naeara stumbled about at a short distance from Malia, only for both to be plucked off the ground by Jared and Kara who doted on them as they would have their own daughter.

  Malia coddled Egan while watching the girls babble in her parents’ arms. “Is it too much to ask that they don’t grow any bigger than this?” she asked.

  Riffin walked up beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist. “There’s no keeping them young forever,” he said.

  His mother came to a stop beside his father. Stood apart from the rest of them, he slipped himself behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, perching his chin on her shoulder. The elation in their eyes and the satisfaction on their faces said it all.

  “There’s something to love about every age,” Jared said.

  Malia laughed, breathing a sigh as she flexed one of her arms. “Perhaps just a little older is fine—I might enjoy not having to carry them all the time,” she said. Turning to Thane beside her, she extended Egan to him with a cautious abruptness that had him holding his hands out without much thought. “Here,” she said, “you could use the practice.”

  With the remark coming as no surprise to him, Riffin resisted a laugh, biting back his amusement and lifting his hand to his mouth to swipe the smirk away.

  Not nearly as well-informed, Thane shook his head, staring wide-eyed at the child placed into his hands. “What are you doing?” he asked.

  Pursing her lips together, leaning into his side and stroking Egan’s cheek, Neyva avoided Thane’s oblivious stare, adding only a smile to the laughter of the rest.

  Thane’s mouth fell open with another protest, questions on his tongue, only to focus on adjusting his hold on Egan. Their laughter died down to a quiet, gentle appreciation of the moment before them, each touched by the sight in their own way.

  “It suits you,” Kara remarked.

  Egan stretched a little, arching his back in Thane’s arms, his features scrunching in an impending cry. “I’m not sure he agrees,” Thane said, looking to pawn him off on someone else, finding Neyva’s waiting hands.

  Their own arms empty, Riffin wrapped his around Malia’s waist, pressing a kiss to her temple. “I’ve missed this,” he whispered. She leaned into his embrace, draping her arms over his, with a smile that told him she agreed.

  A blanket of peace draped across the entire dining hall, smiles and laughter all around, everything was as it should’ve been. Gyles and Lukas, Jared and Kara, reunited in friendship and no less close than they were the days they schemed and worked together. Traces of the people they were, generals and traitors and pirates and fugitives, paled in comparison to who they were now—people. They were lovers and friends, embracing and kissing, conversing and laughing.

  His mother and father no longer stood there as a Queen and her husband, but as a man and wife devoted to one another, stood aside from the rest and admiring their life’s work. A Queen and an enemy General—nobody could’ve expected it to work. But they’d forged an alliance, developed an unbreakable bond they each would’ve gone to war to protect, and a trust that fostered a tight knit family.

  Neyva and Thane, separated by years and social constructs, found a happiness in each other they had long deprived themselves of. Years of marrying themselves to loyalty and duty, quietly fearful it was all they were capable of, led them to each other's arms and to explore all they'd missed. Putting aside their upbringings, none of it came easy, but it flourished beyond anything they could have ever imagined and beyond anything they ever thought they deserved. The heartache of what would one day come lingered, but they didn't let it put distance between them. Closer than they'd ever been, leaning into one another, they cherished the moment.

  One by one they seated themselves at the dining table, putting all thought to subjects closer attributed to the throne behind them. There wouldn't be an utterance of politics, not a harsh word between them.

  Looking around, taking in the beaming faces of each and every one of them there, a conclusion had been made. Having grown up to believe that being Heir to the throne was of utmost importance, he realised that being human reaped far, far greater reward.

  Wars weren't one with wealth, or power, and no one man or woman with a crown was capable of bringing it to an end. Love and unity—therein lay their victory.

  The End of Book 3

  All caught up with The Heir Series?

  Check out The Ascendant Series for Sybelle’s journey as a young Queen!

  Or, check out The Vagabond Series for Kara and Jared’s lives of piracy!

  Caught up on everything? Sign up to my newsletter over at www.kyragregory.com to find out about all upcoming releases!

  If you like this book, please consider leaving a review. Not only would I love to hear your thoughts, but reviews let other readers know if the series is worth their consideration—a great help for small authors like myself!

  Books In this Universe

  The Ascendant Series

  Ascendant

&
nbsp; Accustomed

  Atoned

  Allied

  The Vagabond Series

  Grounded

  Fugitive

  Conspirator

  The Heir Series

  Adolescent

  Adept

  Acceded

  For even more books in this universe, please subscribe to my mailing list over at www.kyragregory.com to be informed about future releases!

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