“You stand accused of the murder of the king and the crown prince of Frayne. Take him away,” Nathair said, giving his order to the Skarlan guards that held Ren. Around them, Fraynean guards looked on in shock, but did nothing to oppose the king's word.

They dragged Ren away, his feet skidding along the floor, past guards in white and gold frantically trying to keep guests and courtiers at bay.

They couldn't do this. This was his family.

Behind him, Ren heard Thais' broken voice calling out for his father.

* * *

The sudden silence when the door to his chambers was shut and locked was deafening. Ren stood in the middle of his bedroom where the guards had left him and stared at the door.

The world swayed. Turning, he managed to stagger over to the empty water basin before his insides cramped and his stomach emptied itself. Bile burned in his throat. The breaths he drew in were rasping and his muscles clenched as he retched again.

His next ragged breath ended in a sob as he sank into the chair at his desk, his grip on the wooden edge white-knuckled.

Hellic was dead. King Callun was dead.

Ren's breaths came fast now and he dropped his head onto the hard wooden desk as the edges of his vision turned dark.

Hellic was dead.

The king was dead.

Ren stared at the lines and patterns of the wood in front of his face until he thought he was no longer on the verge of blacking out. He wasn't sure how long he sat there, staring numbly ahead.

Bells were ringing. Loud and slow, they announced the tragedy across the city.

They couldn't really think he was a killer, could they? He had barely spent five minutes in the dungeon before the Skarlan king and his advisor had shown up.

The Skarlan king.

Realisation hit Ren like the kick of a horse and he sat up straight, feeling the need to vomit again, although his stomach was painfully empty.

He hadn't realised it at first, shock and horror drowning out everything else, but now the truth opened itself up to him like the maw of a vile creature.

Skarlan and Frayne had been at war for generations. King Halvard had strolled right into the heart of Frayne under the false pretence of an unstable peace agreement and killed the king and the crown prince. Halvard had brought the slave, had set Ren up and accused him of murder. The entire royal family wiped out with a single blow. All except for Thais, too young to rule alone. How had no one seen it? This was grounds for war. They should be apprehending Halvard and his entourage and throwing them all in the dungeon.