Chapter 223 Morning Wardrobe Malfunction
ADRIANA
The drums woke me before my alarm did.
I lay there for a moment in the dark, listening to them carry through the walls of the house, deep and rhythmic and completely certain of themselves. The Moonlight Celebration. Elijah’s coronation anniversary. Our wedding anniversary.
The first one I’d face without him standing next to me.
I sat up.
The dress was the first problem. I’d had it fitted months ago, before the pregnancy weight had fully shifted, and I’d simply not had the time or the mental space to think about it. The maid had it laid out when I came out of the bathroom and I knew immediately from the look on her face that we were in trouble.
“My Queen, the corset—”
“Just try.”
She tried. It didn’t close. I stood there in my room on my wedding anniversary at seven in the morning, unable to fit into my own dress, and made a decision to not add this to the list of things I was going to cry about today.
“What else is in the wardrobe?”
“Nothing formal enough for today, My Queen. Your formal pieces from before the pregnancy—”
“I know.” I pressed my fingers to my eyes. “Leave it. I’ll figure something out.”
Leo appeared in the doorway, took one look at the situation, and disappeared. He was back inside two minutes.
“Dad’s delivery came last week,” he said, holding up a garment bag. “The suit and trousers he had custom made. I don’t think he’ll mind.”
I looked at him for a moment. Then I crossed the room and took the bag.
The suit was deep navy, beautifully cut, clearly made for someone broader and taller than me, and somehow it worked. The maids belted and adjusted and pinned, and when I stood in front of the mirror, I looked like myself in a way I hadn’t expected. Strong. Present. Intentional.
Elijah was going to find this story absolutely hilarious when he woke up.
“You look good,” Leo said from behind me.
“Tell your father that when he opens his eyes.”
I watched something move across his face. He nodded, just once, and stepped back.
Hazel appeared at the door with the printed speech and a coffee. She handed me both, looked me up and down, and said: “That actually works.”
“I know.”
“Are you nervous?” her eyes slanted at the edges, letting me see her concern.
I thought about it honestly. “No. Uncomfortable. There’s a difference.”
She understood that. I’d spoken to the people before, in smaller contexts, in controlled settings. But this was the Moonlight Celebration. This was the gathering that Elijah had anchored every year with his presence, his voice, his way of making a stadium full of people feel like he was speaking directly to each of them. I was not going to replicate that. I wasn’t going to try. But I was going to show up.
“Leo will be by my side,” I said. “Crown Prince position. Hazel, you and Aiden behind me.”
“Already arranged.”
I needed five minutes before we left. Just five.
I slipped out of the room and went upstairs.
The guard stepped aside when he saw me coming. I’d been making this walk more frequently now, each time a little less like I was bracing for impact.
I pushed the door open quietly. The monitor. The cool air. The smell I was slowly learning to associate with hope instead of dread, because he was still here, still breathing, still fighting in whatever way a person fights when they’re somewhere the rest of us can’t reach.
I stood at the foot of the bed and looked at him.
“I’m wearing your clothes,” I said. “In case you were wondering what you’d be waking up to today. I couldn’t fit into my dress and Leo suggested it and honestly it was a good idea, which I’ll never stop finding annoying.”
I moved to the side of the bed and took his hand.
“It’s the Moonlight Celebration. Our anniversary.” I felt my throat tighten and breathed through it. “I kept hoping. Every morning I woke up this week, I thought maybe today would be the day. Maybe I’d come up here and you’d be sitting up asking why it was so dark in here.” I pressed his hand against my face. “I’m going to go speak to our people today in your place. I’m going to tell them you’re coming back. And I need that to be true. I need you to make that true.”
I set his hand down gently and straightened up.
“Happy anniversary, Elijah. I love you. Come home.”
The gathering was enormous.
I’d known it would be, I’d seen the numbers from previous years, but standing on the balcony and looking out at all of them — the color, the drums still going somewhere below, the sheer mass of people who had come because this celebration meant something to them — it still hit me somewhere I hadn’t fully prepared for.
Leo stood to my left, straight-backed, quiet. I could feel Hazel and Aiden behind me.
I raised the sceptre.
The drums stopped. The crowd stilled. Thousands of faces turned upward.
I looked down at the paper in my hand for exactly one second. Then I set it on the ledge in front of me.
“You came.” My voice carried across the square and the silence that answered it was its own kind of sound. “Every year you come, and every year this kingdom reminds itself why it’s worth fighting for. That hasn’t changed.” I paused. “Your King couldn’t be here today. I know you feel that. I feel it too, every single day. But he asked me to hold this place until he comes back, and so that’s what I’m doing. On his behalf and on your behalf, I want to thank you. For your patience. For your loyalty. For showing up today when it would have been easier to stay home.” My voice almost broke on the next part and I caught it just in time. “He’s coming back. I’m asking you to believe that with me.”
The cheer that came up was overwhelming. It rolled through the square in a wave and I stood in it and let it hold me for a moment.
Leo’s hand found the top of my head. Just resting there, light and warm.
I looked at him. He was watching the crowd, that steady expression on his face.
“Dad does this when you do something right,” he said, not looking at me. “I’ve seen him do it a hundred times. I don’t know why but it always seems to help.”
My eyes burned. I blinked it back.
“It does,” I said. “It really does.”
I was still standing there when the sound came from somewhere in the crowd below — sharp, wrong, completely out of place among the celebration. I turned toward it instinctively.
The bullet caught me before I could understand what I was turning to look at. The impact spun me sideways, a burning line across my side, close enough to my heart that for one suspended moment I didn’t know how close.
Then Leo was grabbing me and Hazel was shouting and the crowd below erupted into chaos.
And the last thing I thought before the noise swallowed everything was that Elijah was going to be furious when he woke up.