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Chapters (55)
  1. Title Page
  2. Dedication
  3. World Map
  4. Pronunciations
  5. Author’s Notes
  6. Table of Contents
  7. A Forbidden Fate
  8. Prologue
  9. Chapter One
  10. Chapter Two
  11. Chapter Three
  12. Chapter Four
  13. Chapter Five
  14. Chapter Six
  15. Chapter Seven
  16. Chapter Eight
  17. Chapter Nine
  18. Chapter Ten
  19. Chapter Eleven
  20. Chapter Twelve
  21. Chapter Thirteen
  22. Chapter Fourteen
  23. Chapter Fifteen
  24. Chapter Sixteen
  25. Chapter Seventeen
  26. Chapter Eighteen
  27. Chapter Nineteen
  28. Chapter Twenty
  29. Chapter Twenty-One
  30. Chapter Twenty-Two
  31. Chapter Twenty-Three
  32. Chapter Twenty-Four
  33. Chapter Twenty-Five
  34. Chapter Twenty-Six
  35. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  36. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  37. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  38. Chapter Thirty
  39. Chapter Thirty-One
  40. Chapter Thirty-Two
  41. Chapter Thirty-Three
  42. Chapter Thirty-Four
  43. Chapter Thirty-Five
  44. Chapter Thirty-Six
  45. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  46. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  47. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  48. Chapter Forty
  49. Chapter Forty-One
  50. Chapter Forty-Two
  51. Chapter Forty-Three
  52. Chapter Forty-Four
  53. Chapter Forty-Five
  54. Acknowledgements
  55. About the Author

“Yes, it is,” I whisper and sit a safe distance away. “I didn’t know that… I don’t believe my father would give orders like those. Slaughter innocents? Murder children?!” She stays quiet, and I suppose she’s reveling in the satisfaction that she was right about my father.

“There must’ve been a mistake! He wouldn’t… I know him. I know my father!” Guilt slips off my tongue with the final words. I’ve rarely been at the castle, much less spent time with my father in years. How could I know him?

I hear her scoot closer, and the sweet scent of gardenias envelopes me. I look up to find her face beside mine. Gods. I strain to prevent my body from moving forward. We’re already too close.

“I can’t do it,” I say, and my voice breaks. “I can’t be what my father is… I’m not made for it. How can I be King?”

Though her eyes are solemn, she smiles lightly, and it’s all I can do to not take this beautiful creature into my arms and make us both forget, even if only for a moment, the horrors we’ve faced. To apologize and tell her that she’s no longer a prisoner of Baelliles.

“Let wisdom be your staff,” she murmurs. “Grip it firmly. Let compassion be your crown; wear it proudly. And above all, bring joy with you wherever you go. Cling to it with all your might.”

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Idalia

My head slams into ice. Eyes shooting open in panic, I extend my arms to brace myself for what’s to come. I don’t know where I am. The glacier wall knocks against my skull once more, and I can’t stop it. I’m surrounded by frozen walls of water, inside a glass-like fjord that illuminates all that moves within. I see that I’m traveling in a boat, but the bottom is leaking. It does me no use to cry for help; each time I attempt to do so, my head thuds again into the ice walls.

‘You did this to us!’ A woman cries from a distance. ‘It is the Verdanian Princess. She has come to finish what they started.’ Wildly, I look around to see where the voice is coming from. But I can’t see anything beyond the ice. The boat approaches a drop-off. My heart pounds. A cliff? A waterfall? A trench.

“Ahh,” I hiss as my head slams into the ice again. Though, this time, it feels different. I rub my brow and peel my eyes open. It was a dream, that ice-bound fjord, but I feel no relief when I realize where I actually am. I’m back in the carriage and can see trees quickly passing through my blurry vision. Wherever I’m going, I’m headed there fast.