Epilogue 5

When he led her down the stairs, she eyed Marie, who was biting her lips and giving her a conspiratory look. An hour later, she was in his mansion, having lost the crowd at last. Marc and Loyd arrived with Marie, Both whining they would have come sooner if they had known.

In the garden, they sat down for dinner, five of them. Reign asked Mr. Hacke to join and the old man cried before he took a seat at the table.

“You’re coming with me back to the kingdom, my darling,” he announced, in the middle of their noisy chats.

“Am I? Why?” she set down her fork. “Are you…giving me orders? Already?”

He tilted his head, candle lights half-shadowing his face. “If you’d love to stay behind, of course you can. I’m not giving you an order. Chaos could break out soon without me or you with the remnants of…” he halted as though searching for words, “my enemy. I simply thought you’d agree with me to come along.”

She looked down at her plate.

“I’m sorry I brought this up at our engagement dinner.” He k