Life After Death

Llaraine/Juliet/Quinn: easier ways of doing things

{Llaraine}

The years after Mikaela and Juliet had come to Otherworld had been the most productive time since I had begun to work for the Crown. Mikaela was a terror to work with, however, despite her incessant chatter, her frightening illogic, and her obsessive tenacity, or perhaps, because of all that; she completed anything she set out to do. Only Juliet could actually harness that energy, but once she did, the government was an entirely new creature. Diplomats and embassies from all sorts of worlds were staying at Vercyne. Someone, and she wasn't me, had put Mikaela in charge of trade negotiations.

They were actually going quite well.

Dimitri was almost outdated, as he put moodily. With Mikaela so actively involved, he couldn't see which future was more likely. With her, everything was just as likely as the next brilliant or awful idea she came up with. I didn't mind though. Without anything to worry about, Dimitri and I could spend more time with each other. At the moment, we were in his chair in his office, looking at the report for the next meeting. We should have been working.

"Maewyn will be passing the throne on soon," I said.

"I'm surprised she's kept it this long," he replied. "But she doesn't trust Juliet and Mikaela to not slip away and return to Martel."

"Mikaela wouldn't," I remarked. "She's dating Quinn."

"He would go with them, obviously," Dimitri replied. "At any rate, Maewyn wants Adele to marry Quinn before she hands the throne over."

The door to Dimitri's office opened and Blaise came in.

"Don't you look all self righteous at us," Dimitri said. "You've been honeymooning for a while now."

Blaise blushed deeply, but still maintained the scowl on his face.

"Juliet's back," he said.

"We know."

I laced my fingers around Dimitri's neck, knowing it made Blaise uncomfortable. Silly, but so was his staunch conservatism. I supposed if I heard everyone's thoughts I would be more conservative.

"Did she tell you about her plan?" Blaise asked. "Quinn wants to propose to Mikaela."

"Which he can't do until Adele is married," Dimitri finished.

"Which she doesn't want to do in the first place," I added.

"Which is where Juliet comes in," Blaise said.

I winced. I remembered the fights I had had with Maewyn when we were still trying to convince her to get married. They had ended very poorly. Dimitri stroked his chin, and his brown eyes unfocused for a couple of minutes.

"We should have a ball," he said. "I know that they are archaic and silly, but people will come. Well, nobles will come. Juliet and Mikaela and Quinn will work it out from there. It'll work perfectly." Dimitri paused. "Hopefully. This is all dependent on Mikaela and her ability to be a good hostess."

"What are our odds?" I asked.

"Seven to three," Dimitri said. "Probably."

"And Maewyn's looking for you," Blaise added, as he left the room. "I'm going to find Juliet and explain to her what you saw."

"So Maewyn can't hunt you down?" I guessed.

Blaise grinned. "You know me too well," he said and left the room.

"It worries me," I said. "We are always avoiding our Queen."

Dimitri shrugged and then picked up the report we should have read on the status of diplomacy with Hell.