Reality

1

Litha

“I’m so sorry about the noise.” I smile to the reporter, picking Dewy up and putting him in my lap, where he makes himself comfortable, his head on my chest, his fingers burrowing into my shirt. The poor guy is still so shy when there are strangers around, it’s kind of cute, but sometimes also hard when we’ve got to work.

“Not a problem.” The reporter smiles, her dark red lips curling up, showing off a set of perfectly straight white teeth. Everything about her is perfect, from her hair which is ‘nonchalantly bouncy’ around her angelic face, to the way she sits with the notepad in her lap, a recorder on the table next to her. “It must be quite a change, to move into this place, so much bigger than the place you’ve lived in for most of the last year, even if it’s not fully finished yet. What has your experience been?”

I shrug slightly as I look around the room, not sure how to answer her. How do you describe one change when your life has been nothing but changes since the start of the school year last summer?

We’re in my office, which is on the first floor of one of the wings of our new ‘house’. It’s really more of a palace, to be honest. Since the house the princes were in before I met them really wasn’t big enough for our growing family, let alone big enough to be able to host events and receive official guests. Things we’ll have to do more and more often after this summer, when we’re all officially queen and kings…

So, for the last couple of months, a group of builders has been working overtime to make us a place to call ‘home’. One of the wings houses our living quarters and the bedrooms, and another wing is fully built to receive officials from the different countries, and this wing has ballrooms and whatever on the ground floor and on the first floor are our offices.

We all have our own offices, since, you know, different kingdoms and everything, but also because we really need a place to be able to work, between taking classes at college, learning how to run the kingdoms, actually running the kingdoms, and taking care of our family. It’s been busy, really busy, and it’s only going to get worse in the coming months… I’m not looking forward to it, I’m really hoping that we can get a week or two off before the next college year starts, because we’re going to need it.

“Well, we only really moved in last week, and as you can hear and see, they’re still working on the place. But, I have to admit, it’s a huge change. I like having my own office though.” I laugh and the reporter lets out a light laugh, it’s almost real.

“I can imagine.” She nods. “Last summer, you lived in the human world, thinking you were a simple human, and now you’re the witch queen, ruling over multiple kingdoms. What has that been like?”

I smile. “Well, I’m still learning the ropes of it all. Finding out you’re a witch, and then that you’re part of some prophecy, that was a shock, definitely. And then I met my mates, and before I knew it, the war had started. It was one thing after another, and I didn’t really get time to get used to all of it. And then, of course, as soon as the war was over, I was crowned queen, while Rune and Finn were crowned kings and we had to start rebuilding a very broken kingdom. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it, being a queen. I think I was raised in a way that things like this will never be ‘normal’ for me.”

“Let’s hope that’s the case.” The reporter lets out a short laugh, more real this time. “We need someone level-headed in charge right now. Talking about different kingdoms… What are your plans for the wedding? Do you know where it will be held yet?”

I give the woman a wink and a smile. “You know that I can’t tell you yet. We’re working on it, but I can’t reveal anything for now. Sorry.”

“Are you sure? I won’t tell anyone. Off the record?” She hovers her hand over the recorder.

“Still a no.” I laugh. “Whatever we come up with has to go through like a hundred different people before anyone hears about it. It’s no use for me to talk about it, it probably won’t look anything like whatever I’d tell you anyway.” I pull Dewy into my lap more. The little guy is getting big, he’s growing fast, but he still wants to sit in our laps. I don’t mind it, I kind of like it, but it’s a little uncomfortable when he starts to slide too far down and you have to keep dragging him up.

Everyone is asking about the upcoming wedding. Everyone. Every newspaper, every magazine. Everyone wants to know about the big event. And we’re still just trying to keep our head above the water, which hasn’t been easy. And the wedding is still a few months away…

* * *

There’s knocking on the door of my office and I look up. “Come on in.” I glance at the clock on my computer screen and realise that it’s time for dinner. No wonder someone is looking for me.

I’ve been studying for my herbology exam ever since the interview ended. The exam is in two weeks and I’m so not ready for it. Since not everyone has returned to the college for the second half of the year, they’ve only been hosting a handful of classes, and we’ve all been taking two classes, to make our class load easier next year, when we’ll be first years all over again since the first half of the year didn’t happen.

Bane opens the door and steps inside, smiling as he looks at me, his eyes warm, soft. “Still working?”

“Studying.” I sigh, pushing my notes away from me. “I had no idea how many plants look very similar, and how mixing them up could lead to disastrous effects.”

I sit back, not able to stop my eyes from wandering over my werewolf prince, though, soon to be werewolf king. He was sexy when I met him last year, great body, amazing abs, but the last year has made him grow up, he’s leaner now, more muscled, and he looks more mature too. I definitely don’t mind the change.

He lets out a low laugh as he saunters over to me, reaching out and putting his fingers under my chin, tipping it up, before taking my lips in a hard kiss. Fucking hell, he’s a great kisser, and he’s only gotten better. Then he breaks away, his laugh going husky. “I couldn’t resist, with the way you were looking at me. But we don’t have time for a quicky. Dinner is on the table and we’ve got responsibilities after that.”

I groan as I let him pull me up, wrapping my arms around him, my head on his shoulder for a few moments. “Any news on when we get a break from it all? I just need a week away. Even a long weekend would be a blessing.”

He laughs again, his arms sliding around my waist as he pulls me against him tighter. “I’ve been working on that. I promise. I’m trying to get us a couple of days off after the wedding and before the crownings. I heard that Kit’s biological father has been conspiring with his old magic teacher to hopefully get us a place away from it all. Something about time at the beach, without us getting disturbed. Does that sound like a plan?”

I nod. “Anything sounds like a plan right now. You could probably dump me in the middle of the mountains and I’d love it.”

“I know how you feel.” He starts tugging me to the door. “But we have to keep going for a little while longer. It should get easier at some point.”

“Tell me when you’ve found the moment it does, will you?” I quickly turn the lights off as we leave my office.

All our offices are mostly unpacked and everything, but the hallways are still pretty much bare, undecorated. Something else we have to take care of… Something else we have to do… Just another thing on the long list of things we have to do, the never-ending list.

I don’t know what I expected would happen after I became the queen and the guys would be kings, but I definitely did not expect everything to be this exhausting. We’re working from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed. We barely get time together, without others around, anymore.

It was already busy before last midwinter, but since January, everything has just gotten busier and busier. It wasn’t until the new year that we were fully dunked into our new positions, and even though Bane and Kit are technically still princes, they’ve been largely running their kingdoms since then too, sharing the responsibilities with Bane’s uncle and Kit’s mum.

We’ve been getting more and more responsibilities, and while we’ve been getting a lot of help, it’s been a lot for us to get used to. Even for Bane, Kit, Rune, Finn and Phoenix, who’ve all been brought up to one day rule their kingdoms, or in Phoenix’ case, rule the highest witch coven, it’s been a lot to deal with. Okay, the three young dragons we’ve adopted, and the fact that we’re taking college classes probably hasn’t helped…

Bane guides me down the hallway, before slipping through a couple of doors, leading us through the guest quarters, before ending up in our own living area. The place is massive. I’ll probably get used to it all at some point, and it’s nothing in comparison to the old witch castle that used to be here, which is currently buried under layers and layers of earth.

But it’s still much bigger than I’ve ever seen before, and it’s my house, well our house… So it would be good if I would get used to it at some point, if possible. Just another thing I’ll have to get used to as a queen, I guess.