30 Chapter 30: Annalise

Annalise was sitting the prayer garden of the palace, they had returned over a week ago, though she had given up on hoping for the Seven to save her. If he gods did exist, they had overlooked her. There was no other explanation for the torment that she had gone through since they moved back inside the walls of the crown city. For the last five days she'd been forced to undergo bridal training and Alion at nearly all of her meals. The usurper, and the thought of marrying him, made her sick to her stomach and so she hadn't been eating. Henry has scolded her for it this afternoon but there was nothing she could do. Being in the same room with Alion made her sick and she was going to be married to him. Perhaps, she'd just waste away. But if the Seven had overlooked her as she suspected than it wouldn't be so. She would live forever at that man's side. Her wedding was two days away and just the thought alone stole the life from her. Alion had taken to touching her constantly, and leering at her like he never had before. She couldn't help but wonder if she really had changed so much during the war, or if she had always been ignorant to her uncle's inappropriateness. Not that she really spent much time with him to begin with. Her father had said it wasn't her place, to be among the men, even if she would one day rule over them. But she would have also had to marry. Perhaps her father never meant for her to do much of the ruling, intending to have her leave it all to her husband. The thought made her roll her eyes, Morea had seen many amazing, powerful, and fierce queens who had married out of love or alliance but not because they needed a man to make their decisions for them. In fact, Annalise's grandmother was the true Amell and had reigned for over six years before marrying her grandfather. But for whatever reason,

Annalise's father saw her, possibly all women, as incapable. But this was also a man who had sold his daughter for an uncomfortable chair and a crown that made his head look to small for his body. She giggled to herself, remembering how she and Cailan used to joke about how the crown who pull his head to one side or the other and made him look like a toddler wearing a man's hat. They would giggle until someone who glare at them while her father gave his addresses.

Those were truly wonderful times. Her father at the podium, and Annalise and Cailan behind him in the shadows with whatever privileged nobles her father had chosen to honor. She wondered what Jameson might have been doing during all those speeches but she didn't have to wonder long. She knew, he was probably at his post. While Cailan had become a knight as soon as possible, Jameson had become a soldier. Jameson saw the brutal ways of undeclared war before he was sixteen. While Annalise was still playing with dolls, Jameson was on the front lines. Amberyn and Althea had been invading through the swamps of Thorngate for decades, hence why the For was built. It was the last line of defense separating the puppet country Amberyn from Morea. But still Althea's prince, the puppeteer, had no problem sending Amberyn's army to die at the base of Thorngate's walls. If they even made it past the swamp and deadly plants and predators that called the swamp home.

Jameson rose their the ranks quickly, mosty based on his talent and dedication but the Amerthine name had no hindrance. The Amerthine family was in charge of training the Morean armies. They excelled at swordplay and warfare, had funded the crown for centuries, and were a family just as old as the Amells. In fact, when Morea was created by Alexor, the Father, for his demigod daughter Claeo, she had married an Amerthine. Forever tying the two families together. If one couldn't be an Amell, an Amerthine was the next best thing.

Which was another reason Annalise had truly thought that her father would approve of her relationship with Jameson. He was far beyond qualified for the position as her husband and king. And with his expertise and experience he would an asset to defending Morea. It wasn't often that the king had to raise through the ranks to sit on the throne, but had Jameson not done the work to become General... Annalise was sure that they wouldn't have gotten to chance to get to know each other like they had.

Of course, they had known each other all of their lives but how well do children know each other. And by the time Annalise was old enough, Jameson was always wherever the bloodshed was. They saw each other perhaps a dozen times a year and typically always at dinner parties or balls where all the single noble women were fighting for his attention and she was being the princess, not Annalise.

She sighed, the next time she saw Jameson it would would be as the princess, and Alion's wife, not Annalise. She didn't want to think about how horrible their first meeting after her wedding would be. Would he be angry with her? Would he still love her? Would he still want her? Not that it would matter, she would be married. And as much as she loathed Alion, she would be faithful. She only wished that she and Jameson had laid together before he left. Just once she would have liked to be with a man out of love... not obligation. She would have...

Annalise had been so lost in thought she hadn't even realized that she wasn't alone in the garden until she left the cold chill of a thin metal cord being wrapped around her throat. She tensed instantly, panic stealing away her breath, her ability to react. She just stood there as the arms wrapped around her. And then all of her fear left her body, she would known his heat, his smell, anywhere. She spun his arms burying her face in his chest. "Jameson, what are you doing here?"