"I walk down memory lane because I love running into you."

Sliding behind a velvet woven tapestry, she walked down the underground corridor to the cathedral. She had never been a praying person but she felt that all there was left for her to do was to pray to some higher power.

She sat, slouched down in her throne, fiddling with one of her heels with her foot. The late afternoon light shone through the windows, casting her in a golden glow. Aspen and a few other guards entered the cathedral, walking down the center aisle. They were returning from searching her bedroom and office for all of her work.

"Gone…all gone," she whispered, testing the word. She didn't like the way it tasted. She avoided looking at them because she was tired of seeing their pitiful gazes. "Don't tell me anything I don't already know," she warned, rising from her throne and pushing through them.

Aspen followed her back down the long aisle. "What now?" he asked.

"We do what we have to do." She turned to face them, looking into the faces of the men she would have to trust more than her own life in order to carry out her plan. "The only thing we can do to get rid of Clarkson." She did an about face and started walking back out with them following. "We bring back the United States."

The dry leaves crunched underneath America's boots as she walked across the cemetery. The guards at the gate of the royal plot let her in, not even suspecting anything out of the ordinary. She walked into the giant marble mausoleum and lit a few candles out of respect. She looked at all of the names of royal predecessors and relatives of the Schreave family, tracing her fingers over their names etched in the marble. Her hand paused when she came across Maxon's name. She placed the flowers she had brought and set them against the marble wall.

Her hand closed around the handle to the slot his body had been slid into. Then she took it off, starting to shake. "Maxon…" she sighed. "I feel ridiculous, standing here and talking to a wall but I had to come. You're all I have left. And we had that stupid argument before I left and I regret everything I said. If I could talk to you now, I would apologize a thousand times. We had such little time together and it's ridiculous for it to have ended so poorly." She paused, trying to collect her thoughts and sort out the million things she wanted to say. "You see, your father took back the crown. He took Christian too. I am so sorry. There was nothing I could have done or your mother could have done. He took off to some remote location and he's ruling from there while raising our son."

She swallowed her grief. She didn't want to cry anymore. "I can't help but feel that I failed you. I know I failed our son but I feel like you would've never let this happen. I'm just not as strong as you are I guess." She looked away for a few moments. "I didn't want it to end this way." She pulled the flowers out from her bag and laid them on the floor.

"But I'm going to take back the throne. I'm going to get our son back. I'm not going down without a fight and your father is going to learn that the hard way. It's what you would do if you were in my position. I'm not going to let you down," she promised. Finally, with a deep breath, she pulled open the drawer with Maxon's name on it.

"I knew it," she whispered to herself.

Sooooo…I didn't want to tell you guys until the end because I didn't want to give any hints about the ending…buuuuuuutttt…I am doing a sequel. This book will probably be shorter, more intense, and definitely worth reading! Now, I'm not posting it probably for another month (I'm not making any promises) because I want to get a lot of it done before I post it so I can just go and update without having to write much at the time. So that's it in this book. Thanks so much for the dedication! Please review!