Shadow's Throne

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Maven

I wake up to the feeling of soft lips leaving a gentle kiss on my forehead. I open my eyes to find Mare's beautiful eyes staring into mine.

"Good morning," she tells me with that beautiful smile of hers.

"Good morning beautiful," I say back, pulling her down so that she's facing me.

"So, are you ready for your big day?" She asks me.

"Big day?" I say in return, furrowing my brows.

Mare rolls her eyes. "Today's your coronation."

I immediately sit up in bed, everything coming back. Today's the day of my recoronation here in Norta. We've been putting it off for weeks just so Mare could get used to being back here at Whitefire, but today's officially the day.

"Oh my god, Anabel is going to kill me," I whisper, turning back to face Mare.

She laughs that beautiful, little laugh of hers, getting up to sit next to me. "Don't worry, I woke you up in time. But you better hurry down to breakfast."

I nod in response and quickly throw on some clothes, rushing out our bedroom door, Mare telling me that she'll be down in a bit.

I hurry down the halls, all decorated in Norta's colors in honor of my coronation today. I slow down and walk into the dining room, trying to hide the fact that I'm out of breath from running down three flights of stairs.

"Good morning, grandmother," I say as I get closer to the table.

She's at a table full of numerous plates of breakfast foods, wearing a dress decorated in her house colors and the usual crown.

I head over to her and give her a kiss on the cheek before taking my seat next to her at the table.

"Mare will be right down," I tell her, pouring myself a glass of orange juice.

"Great. Once she gets here, we have plenty of plans to finalize for today," she says grabbing a piece of French toast.

Mare walks in wearing a gorgeous, simple, purple dress, her brown hair with the freshly dyed purple ends flowing freely around her face.

The past few weeks here at Whitefire have definitely done her good. With the actual meals and sleep she's been getting, the circles under her eyes are gone, the color has returned to her skin, and she has so much more energy. And, upon Anabel's request, she visited the healers yesterday to fix anything else that was leftover from her time in the war so that she looked picture perfect for our wedding tomorrow.

"Good morning, Anabel," Mare says with a smile, taking the seat next to me at the table.

"Good morning, dear," Anabel responds giving her a soft smile. "You look gorgeous this morning."

Mare smiles in response, filling her plate with various foods from the table. Anabel pushes away her cleared plate as we begin eating what's on ours.

"Now, both of you have plenty to do today. I've taken care of all of the invites, decorations, clothing, planning of the ball, and everything else you could possibly think of. Now, it's just up to you two to go and dazzle them all," Anabel tells us.

"Don't worry, we've been going over everything for weeks now. It'll be just as you pictured," I tell her.

"I sure hope so," she whispers to herself before getting up from the table and excusing herself to go check on the ballroom.

"How're you doing?" I ask Mare.

"I just can't wait to get this all over with," Mare says with a small chuckle.