Journey

Chapter Fifty-One~ Continue Where we Ended

A few days have passed. Reth and I were in the main hall. The table was set with the best goldware at all of the seats. Samantha and the crew would be joining us shortly. "Reth."

"Yes, my love."

I rolled my eyes at the new nickname and picked up a fork, "You know, I could put this in your eye so fast."

"Well, of course I know that, but you wouldn't dare." He raced towards me and scooped me up into his arms. I laughed and wrapped my arms around his neck.

I breathed in his scent of the sea and its salty waters. The longing to be out on the sea was beginning to be too much now; now that I didn't have any plans to overthrow the kingdom. "Reth?"

"Hmm." The mumble rumbled with his chest. It made me feel warm inside.

"Do you want to be here?"

"I want to be wherever you are."

"I mean, do you wish to be free of this position. We are stuck here as long as we are King and Queen."

"Ah, you have one thing wrong, I am not a king yet." He pulled out a chair and sat down on it. He set me in his lap and laid a hand on my knee.

"Don't worry you will be soon. You proposed, you know."

"Should I begin to make the plans?"

"We said we would leave it to Samantha. You know she is looking forward to it. Speaking of Samantha. I have an idea."

"I'm all ears."

"What if we had Samantha rule for us?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, what if we went back to the sea , back to Celestial, and Samantha can rule for us while we are gone. We can come back every- so- often."

"So you want to be the rogue King and Queen?"

"I mean, if that's what you want to call it. I don't think we will be considered a King or a Queen in the human realm."

"Speaking of the human realm." Reth twirled a strand of my hair between his fingers, "Who is going to rule the kingdom there?"

"Savanna obviously. She is the last living heir of the throne, and Raymond is dead. Even though she is married to Prince Ronan she would assume the throne there. She will be the queen of two places."

"Okay, okay. I get it, I'm dumb."

"No! you are amazing."

Reth stood up and placed me on my feet. Everyone will be here soon to begin dinner. Reth paced the table. "So you really want to go back to sailing?"

"Yes I really do. As long as you will come with me."

"Well, there isn't much to rule here. Samantha can hold her own, I'm sure. The servants love her to death." He stopped pacing in front of me and took both of my hands in his. "I will go with you if you choose to do this. We'd have to announce it to everyone before the wedding."

"We'd leave after the wedding of course. When will we have that?"

"Whenever you want it."

"I want it done as soon as possible."

"Tomorrow then?"

"In the evening. We all already know Samantha is done with all of the plans."

"Of course." he cupped my face in his hands. "I love you Annie. Until death engulfs me."

"Very funny." I leaned forward and touched my lips to his. His mouth formed a smile on mine.

"It wasn't very good, but it's true."

"I know."

We broke apart when the massive doors to the dining hall slammed open. The loud voices and laughs drowned out the greeting Reth called out. Samantha ducked away from Sebastion. Those two had something going on. If they were trying to hide it, they weren't doing so well. "Annie." Samantha held her arms open for a hug. I wrapped her into a huge hug and greeted her.

"We have many important things to discuss today."
"You guys were making wedding plans without me?!"

"No! No, but we believe you will love it. It does include something like that."

She huffed and walked over to her chair. Which was to the right of me. Sebastian took up his seat to the left of Reth. His eyes watched Samantha carefully. A small smile lifted the ends of his lips. Haley scrambled to sit next to Samantha and almost fell to the ground in doing so.

Will sat next to Sebastian, and Aaron took his next to Will. He glanced towards me, but looked back to Will, and continued their conversation. Dad sat next to Haley. Sengen flew over to him and sat on his shoulder. The rest of the crew took their seats. Once everyone had their seat, the food was served. We let them eat for a while. For all we know this will make people lose their appetites.

Reth stood up. He grabbed his glass and a fork. He lightly hit the fork onto the glass. "Everyone, we have an announcement to make." Everyone stopped talking abruptly, "Annie and I have decided that a wedding must take place tomorrow evening, we assumed that Samantha had already made plans since the proposal, but after the wedding we will be leaving." The crowd gasped and Samantha stood up quickly. Reth held up a hand, "Wait for me to finish, please. We will be going back to sailing. Those of you who want to go with us are welcomed to do so. We will not be handing over our titles. Just simply doing what we love must. We will come back to visit."

Sengen was the only one to speak, "But who will rule in your stead?"

Looking over at Samantha I replied, "Samantha will." Another chorus of gasps went around the table. Samantha was shocked, "Samantha has shown me that she is the most capable of this position. She has shown me loyalty, but most of all she helped me when I needed it most."

Samantha sat back down in her chair with disbelief. "You really trust me to do so?"

"Of course, the people here love you. I don't doubt you will do great."

"Oh!" She barreled towards me; knocking her chair down in the process. "I will do it. I will do it for you! You will have the most amazing wedding as well!"

"You'll make it the most amazing wedding Samantha, and I'm sure you've already made plans since the day Reth proposed."

"You would be correct. I have everything planned out: the food, the decorations, the music, everything."

The rest of the hour went by smoothly. The food was served and the conversations flew by without any arguments.

At night, I curled up next to Reth in our bed. Grateful for his presence. His breathing slowed, and I knew he was sleeping. The wedding will be tomorrow. This time I was not dreading my wedding. I was excited, like a real bride should be. I laid my head on Reth's chest. He grumbled and wrapped his arms around me. His warmth and touch relaxed all of my tense muscles. I slowed my breathing to match his and soon fell into the world of dreams.