Chapter Text
Evan rubbed his eyes as soon as he opened them. It took him a second to remember where he was and why.
He was home. He was in his bed at home. The semester was over. His finals were done. His papers were in. He didn’t even have to think about studying for three whole months.
It was an amazing feeling until it wasn’t.
He had to get up. He couldn’t stay in bed all day and mess around on his phone between naps. He didn’t have time for that.
He had to unpack.
Unpack and pack again.
He had less than 24 hours until he had to leave for Colorado.
The thought of that made him want to dive under his covers and hide until it was time to go back to school.
Hiding was not an option.
Locking himself in his room and pretending the world didn’t exist was not an option.
He had to get up.
That was easier said than done. He was tired and his bed was warm and everything felt peaceful and calm while he stayed in it.
He allowed himself to revel in the quiet for another minute before getting up. He regretted that decision before he’d even made it to the stairs.
He should’ve let himself soak up more of the quiet. He didn’t know when he’d have the chance again.
His dad’s house wasn’t quiet. It wasn’t as loud as his dorm had been, but it wasn’t quiet.
And it wasn’t familiar.
He didn’t know what to expect. He’d never stayed there for more than a week.
He pushed that thought away. If he thought about that too much, he’d talk himself out of going.
He’d try to talk himself out of going. He’d feel guilty if he wasted a plane ticket.
That wouldn’t stop him from considering it though. If his thoughts kept going in the direction they were heading, he’d end up spending the day in bed and packing at the last second. His mother would have to ship his things to him because he wouldn’t have time to pack correctly. He wouldn’t take enough clothes and he’d forget things like his toothbrush and his night guard and...
He was spiraling.
He pressed his forehead to make himself stop.
He took a breath and tried to clear his mind.
And then he heard the voices.
Plural. As in more than one.
His heart skipped a beat because he knew them. He knew them well.
It was like he’d stepped into a time portal and been sent back to the second grade.
His parents were arguing in the kitchen.
He poked his head around the corner long enough to confirm that they were arguing in person.
And then he sat on the stairs because they were.
He wondered what that meant. He wondered why his father was there.
What possible reason could his father have for flying across the country the day before he was supposed to come see him?
He wondered if his parents still thought he was scared to fly alone. He wondered if there was a part of him that was.
He pushed that thought away.
He focused on what they were saying.
“You have no right, Dan. No right to show up like this and tell me-”
“My mother’s dying.”
The room fell silent.
The house fell silent.
Evan’s stomach dropped.
He wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t like he was close to his father’s mother.
He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d seen her. She’d come to one of his birthday parties. His sixth, possibly?
He had a very vague memory of a woman with short silver hair who liked tea and smelled like peppermint.
The thought of her dying didn’t fill him with sorrow.
He felt guilty thinking that, but it was true.
He’d feel bad for his dad and that was it.
He wondered if he’d be expected to attend the funeral.
He probably would.
He cringed when he thought about that.
He leaned forward when he realized his parents were talking again.
Talking, not arguing.
The bomb his father had dropped must have sucked all of the fight out of his mother.
He couldn’t make out anything they were saying.
He grabbed the railing and swung himself around so he could press his ear against the wall.
And then he remembered why he shouldn’t do things like that.
He was not coordinated, to say the least.
He lost his balance and just barely managed to avoid cracking his head open on the floor.
The house fell silent again.
His mother poked her head out of the kitchen. She smiled when she saw him. “Evan.”
“I fell,” Evan muttered.
She ran across the room to help him stand. “You’re up early.”
Evan nodded vaguely. “I heard voices.”
She glanced over her shoulder. “Your father’s here.”
Evan blinked like that was brand new information. “He is?”
He cringed when he realized how fake that sounded.
His mother didn’t notice. Either he was a better actor than he’d thought or her mind was on something else.
Or both. Possibly both.
Evan chewed his lip. “Why is he here? Am I not...”
He didn’t bother finishing that thought.
Colorado was still on.
One look at his mother confirmed that.
“He wanted to talk to you before you leave.”
“He couldn’t do that on the phone?” Evan laughed.
Heidi squeezed her eyes shut. “There’s been a change in plans.” She put a hand up to stop Evan before he could get too excited. “A slight change in plans.”
His father appeared in the doorway before he could ask what that meant. His face lit up when he spotted Evan. “Oh, good, you’re up.”
His smile turned triumphant when he aimed it at Heidi. “Your mother said you wouldn’t be up for hours.”
Evan couldn’t help noticing how that made his mother twitch. “I’m, uh, I’m still on my finals schedule, I guess.”
Dan rubbed his hands together excitedly. “How does it feel to be-”
“We had an agreement,” Heidi hissed.
Evan blinked at her tone. And at her expression. It was like she couldn’t contain herself.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen her like that.
Or, actually, he could.
It was right before his parents decided to get divorced.
He had a feeling that wasn’t a coincidence.
“Things change,” Dan murmured. He perked up when his eyes met Evan’s. “Evan’s changed. Look at him. He’s all grownup now.”
Heidi put a hand on her hip. “Are you seriously suggesting I don’t know my son-”
“Our son,” Dan corrected.
Heidi rolled her eyes. “Our son. Are you seriously suggesting that I don’t know him because he got up before noon for once?”
“You said he was going to sleep all day.” Dan gestured at Evan. “Does this look like someone who’s still asleep?”
“My point still stands. He doesn’t-”
“You don’t know what he wants.”
Heidi’s hands balled into fists. An exasperated laugh escaped from her mouth.
“He’s old enough to decide things on his own.”
“I know him,” Heidi snapped. “I know my son.”
“Our son,” Dan coughed.
Heidi’s eyes flashed. “I know him better than you do. I know this isn’t something he would even be remotely-”
“My mother’s dying.”
“That doesn’t change anything.”
“It does. It changes everything.”
Heidi pursed her lips. “We had an agreement.”
“21. I know.” Dan sighed at the ceiling. “Things change.”
“They don’t have to change for him. Not yet. Not unless you’re dying too.”
Evan’s head snapped back and forth so quickly it was a wonder he didn’t get whiplash. “What are you talking about?”
He regretted the question immediately.
He regretted it when he saw the way it made his father smile.
He really regretted it when he saw the way it made his mother deflate.
“He has to know,” Dan insisted. “The press will come after him either way.”
“The press?” Evan took a step back. “What?”
“Do they really have to know about him?” Heidi demanded. “You have two other kids. An heir and a spare. You don’t need Evan.”
“They already know about him,” Dan whispered. He closed his eyes for a moment. “Or they did. There was an announcement when he was born.”
Heidi’s mouth opened and closed several times. “But you said-”
“I knew what you’d say! I didn’t want to have that fight, not while you were...” Dan smiled sheepishly. “Do you remember what you were like after giving birth?”
Heidi narrowed her eyes.
Evan’s legs felt weak. He sat back down.
His parents didn’t notice. They were too busy glaring at each other to see the way his head was spinning.
He tried to put the pieces together, but they didn’t fit.
They didn’t fit with anything he knew about himself or his parents or his life.
They didn’t fit with anything he thought he knew.
Heidi’s face softened when her eyes landed on him. “Sweetie...”
“What...” Evan cleared his throat when he realized how hoarse he sounded. “What...”
His second attempt was a failure too. He hugged himself and decided not to try again.
Dan sat on the step below him. “Have you ever heard of a country named Zenovia?”
Evan shook his head. He scooted over when his mother climbed up to join him.
“It’s a small country near France. Your grandmother’s the queen.”
Evan let out a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a huff. “Um.”
He looked at his mother for clarification.
She smiled weakly. “It’s true.”
He whipped around to face his father. “And you’re just telling me this now?”
“We were going to wait until you turned 21,” Dan said.
Heidi rolled her eyes at Dan’s expression. “There wasn’t a reason for you to know. It didn’t mean anything. Your life is here. Your father’s life is here. Your grandmother-”
“It’s new,” Dan sighed. “Your grandmother just became queen last month. She hasn’t even been coronated yet.”
“This was never supposed to happen,” Heidi said. “She was never supposed to become queen.”
Dan nodded stiffly. “My mother’s the youngest of four. She moved to the U.S. when she was in her twenties. She never expected to take the throne. Her brother Clem became king when their father died. He didn’t have any kids before he...”
Evan couldn’t focus while his father rambled on about their family’s history.
About their so-called history.
It had to be a joke.
Evan’s eyes darted back and forth as he tried to figure out what the joke was.
Because there had to be one.
There was no way his parents were being serious.
“The coronation’s in July,” Dan continued. “I’m flying over next week. Lisa’s bringing the kids as soon as they finish school.”
“Next week?” Evan gasped. “So, does that mean I’m not...”
“You can meet me there,” Dan nodded. “There’s no point in packing twice, right?”
Evan blinked at the wall. “Mom...”
Heidi squeezed his arm. “I know this is a lot to-”
“This is a joke, right?” Evan chuckled. “It’s like a...” His eyes bounced around wildly. “Is this why you’re so obsessed with those Hallmark movies about princes?”
Dan burst out laughing.
“I wouldn’t say I’m obsessed,” Heidi sniffed. “They’re entertaining in a calming sort of way.”
Evan shook his head. “This is a joke. You’re...”
They weren’t joking.
He closed his eyes when he saw the way they were looking at him.
They were serious. They were seriously telling him the truth.
He couldn’t stay there.
He pulled himself up. He didn’t accept his mother’s help. He shook her off and ran up the stairs to his room.
No one chased after him.
He wasn’t sure if he was relieved or not.
He threw himself on his bed and stared at the ceiling until he decided to do the obvious.
He pinched himself.
It hurt.
He reached for his phone. He was about to search for Zenovia when it started to ring.
The sound made him startle so violently he threw it across the bed. Connor was in mid-sentence by the time he pressed the phone to his ear.
“-always like that, you know.”
“Yeah,” Evan nodded emphatically, even though he hadn’t the faintest clue what he was agreeing with. “Have you ever heard of Zenovia?”
He regretted the question before he’d finished asking it.
He dove for his laptop. He had to see what kind of results Zenovia produced before Connor could look it up.
“Zenovia?” Connor repeated. “Is that with a Z or a S?”
Evan blinked at the screen because he wasn’t sure. He didn’t know how to spell the name of the country that he was supposedly...
He pushed that thought away.
He wasn’t ready to put those pieces together.
He checked his email on a whim.
There it was. A confirmation for his flight to Zenovia.
“Z as in zoo.”
He slapped his forehead repeatedly.
Words. He really had to learn when to stop using them.
“Isn’t that that smoothie place on Elm?”
Evan forced himself to laugh. “Yeah.”
He typed “Zenovia” into the search bar and clicked on the Wikipedia page.
It took a second for his brain to catch up to that.
Zenovia was real.
It was really real.
It had a Wikipedia page and everything.
He slammed his laptop shut like doing that would make a difference.
“Here it is,” Connor said. “Zentopia. That’s what it’s called, not... whatever it was you said.”
“Oh, I, uh, I knew it was something like that.”
“Okay, so what about it? Do you want to go get smoothies or something? I thought you had to pack today.”
“Change of plans,” Evan breathed. “I’m not leaving until next week.”
“Oh, so-”
Evan jumped when someone knocked on his door. “I have to go.”
He hung up without waiting for a response. “Come in!”
The door opened slowly.
His mother poked her head in. “I come in peace.”
Evan hugged himself. “I’m not mad.”
She gave him a look that suggested she didn’t buy that for a second.
“Confused but not mad.”
Heidi nodded slowly. She sat on the edge of his bed. “I sent him away.”
“Dad?”
Heidi nodded again. “I told him he’s done enough damage for today.”
“I’m not mad!” Evan insisted. He nodded at his laptop. “He already got me a ticket to Zenovia.”
Heidi stared at her hands. “You don’t have to go.”
“I don’t?”
“You can stay here. What are they going to do? Kidnap you and throw you in the dungeon?”
“There’s a dungeon?” Evan blinked at the wall. “Queen. Castle. Dungeon. Right.”
He couldn’t wrap his mind around that. It didn’t sound real.
It didn’t feel real.
His father was an American. He had a job. A paying job. A paying job that didn’t pay enough for him to pay child support the way he should.
There wasn’t anything princely about his father.
He couldn’t even imagine his father wearing a Burger King crown.
He tried to imagine his grandmother wearing one. A crown crown. Not a Burger King crown.
It would’ve been easier if he could actually remember what she looked like.
He couldn’t though. He couldn’t because he didn’t know anything about her. He didn’t know anything about his father’s side of the family. Not really anyway.
There had never been a reason for him to know about them.
He’d never cared enough to ask.
He’d never even thought to ask.
It would’ve killed his mother if he had.
He only knew the basics.
“Dad grew up here,” Evan muttered. He lifted his head when he realized he was thinking out loud.
Heidi nodded. “We went to high school together.”
Evan felt like that was something he’d known at one point. “And you’re telling me he’s really from Zenovia?”
“His family is. His mother moved here when she was 23. It's been her home, their home, ever since.”
“And that was it? She moved here and, just like that, she was done with Zenovia?”
She was done until she ended up becoming its queen.
Evan decided not to mention that part.
Heidi did a so-so wave with her hand. “She’s been back a few times. For her father’s funeral, her brother’s coronation, things like that.”
“And Dad-”
“She kept him out of all that. He’s just a name to them. So are you.”
Evan’s hands twitched against his thighs. “Dad has a sister, doesn’t he?”
Heidi smiled knowingly. “A younger sister.”
“So that means...”
“He’s next in line for the throne.”
“And I’m...”
Heidi nodded slightly.
Evan choked out a laugh. “No.”
“You can say no.”
“That’s an option?”
Of course, it was.
She expected him to say no.
The pieces finally clicked together in his head.
“You think I should say no.”
“I think you should think about it.”
“Think about saying no?” Evan chuckled.
“Think about whether you want to move to Europe and rule a country.”
She said it like the idea was ludicrous.
Which it was.
Evan knew that.
The whole thing was ludicrous.
He didn’t want to be a king. He didn’t want to be a prince.
He didn’t even want to be a camp counselor.
It made him laugh to think about how upset he’d been when his father had signed him up for that.
If only he’d known how much worse it could get.
“I’m going to make waffles,” Heidi decided. She squeezed his arm before she got up.
He opened his laptop as soon as she was gone.
The page about Zenovia popped back up.
He closed it because he wasn’t ready to read that.
He didn’t think he’d ever be ready to read that.
His phone buzzed.
Where’d we land on the whole smoothie thing? Because I really need to get out of this house.
Evan stared at his phone.
He wanted to go.
Not because of the smoothies.
Because of Connor.
He wanted to see Connor.
He wanted to tell Connor what he’d found out.
He wanted to see how hard Connor would laugh when he heard his best friend was two heartbeats away from becoming king of a small European country.
He couldn’t though.
He couldn’t bring himself to tell anyone.
Because it was too weird and raw and there was a part of him that still thought it was a really elaborate joke.
Can’t.
Evan decided to leave it at that.
The dreaded dots popped up and disappeared.
Connor had decided not to say whatever he’d been thinking about saying.
Evan could live with that.
He jumped when his mother poked her head back in.
“You didn’t hear me?”
Evan shook his head.
“Breakfast is ready.” She shook her head at him when he didn’t move. “I’m sorry. Do you expect me to serve you in here, your majesty?”
Evan stumbled to his feet.
His mother beamed as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “Good, because you aren’t royalty yet.”