Page 53 of The Princess of Nothing
If you have any plans to escape, don’t. I know you. I know you will not have taken this wedding lying down. You make plans. You run. I understand, but for your people and mine, do the right thing.
Marry him.
Bring Berovia here and take Edgar off the throne.
For all our sakes.
Blaise Lazarus
My hands were heavy when the letter tumbled from my weakening grip. I blinked several times, my brain pushing one question into the next.
How did Blaise get his spies and people into the kingdom? Why didn’t he try to help me when I was imprisoned? Was it true, was my people’s religion being ripped from them? I’d figured it would be, but not so soon.
Blaise didn’t understand. How could he know? The details of my agreement with Berovia was whispered between very few. I had to make Kiros a king in his own right to Magaelor. I would be handing my kingdom to Berovia, which would be worse than having even Edgar on the throne.
I stood and paced the room. A chorus of crickets exploded outside my window, an owl sounded off in the distance, trees cracked, and insects buzzed. I gripped onto the stone ledge and looked down at the cracked slabs, wondering how such a scar in the stones had become. The grounds were well lit, by lamps flickering light onto the flowerbeds that lined below. Vines and ivy sprawled over the stones.
I couldn’t marry Kiros. It was out of the question, but then running would instantly set Berovia to war with Magaelor, simply because I was alive, out of their anger and spite. With the dragons, they could easily take Edgar down. It was only a matter of time.
My heart pounded; my hands were clammy. I paced again.
Blaise would die if I didn’t bring an army home to take Edgar away, but Xenos would make sure the first thing he made Kiros do would be to kill Blaise.
I rubbed my temples with my fingers and inhaled sharply. I dragged my hands down my face, pulling at the bottom of my eyes.
Going home was out of the question. I’d need an army bigger than I thought, and I didn’t even have a small one. My kingdom was under duress, my people fighting among themselves. Edgar was breaking the peace because he didn’t know how to rule. He hadn’t been taught. Blaise could tell too; I could see it in his words. Edgar was being pulled in every which direction.
Morgana was there at the very least, if she hadn’t already run. I blew out a tense breath. She’d be doing something to help the madness, at least a little. She was the one person I could always count on. I missed her so much, my chest ached.
I didn’t know what to do. For the first time ever, I craved my father’s advice. He was beastly and awful but brilliant at duping the other side, a master of politics. When it came to war, there was no other who was better.
Was he on the other side or in a purgatory? Did his spirit go with the ancestors despite all the bad he had done?
The thought of his soul seeing mine from beyond the grave made me shudder.
I sat on my bed with my head in my hands as I considered one plan, then another, until all ideas came up blank. I searched my mind for what to do. I was going to be queen. I had to fix this. The responsibility fell on my shoulders, as was my birthright.
Perhaps, in the end, I could have gotten the warriors on my side if I could have gotten word to them about Xenos harboring their dragons. Now that I knew of the firedrake warder’s existence, they were a potential ally I kept in the back of my mind. Finding them, on the other hand, would be a difficult task.
The sun bled reds and yellows, shining light onto the doubts of the night. Walls were revealed from beneath the shadows as my wedding day arrived.
“Good morning.” Edna poked her head around the door frame. “Congratulations and happy birthday.”
I flushed red. “I forgot.” Mostly, because it was lie.
“How old are you today? Eighteen, nineteen?”
I shook my head. “Seventeen.”
Her cheeks balled up when she smiled. “Such a fun age to be.”
I eyed the overly large, rectangular box she carried. It was wrapped in red paper and tied with a gold ribbon. She carried it to the bed and placed it in front of me. “It’s from Prince Kiros.”
I opened the box, then gasped. “I can’t believe he did this.”
“What is it?”
“My staff,” I cried, clutching it to my chest. “It’s still intact.”
