I lean back against my chair and try to discern fact from fiction in these reports. I could be sifting through this inside, in the fancy new office I’ve been given, but I haven’t had the luxury of lingering out in the sun for some time, and feeling the warm rays on my skin is better than even the king’s most luxurious rooms.

I glance up from the report when I hear the distant sound of a car coming up the drive.

I squint my eyes. Not one car. A battalion of them. And not just cars. Armored vehicles.

I stand, dropping the file on the stone bench beside me.

I hear a familiar whine; my mind sharpens at the sound. That ransacked warehouse, those missing weapons. I’m now facing them down.

The whine turns into a hiss as a rocket arcs across the sky from the bed of one of the cars. It’s headed straight for the palace.

So today’s the day I die.

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

The King

My men get the call while I’m setting up provincial governments in South America. I see their fingers go to their earpieces one moment, and in the next, they’re surrounding me.

“Your Majesty,” one says, “we need to get you out of the palace. Now.”

“What’s going on?”

The explosion knocks me over the desk, the sound a roar in my ears. The walls shake as dust and plaster rain down on me.

Someone bombed my palace. Someone bombed my palace. Anger and incredulity war for dominance.

“Security breach! Front gate!” a guard yells, and then my soldiers are pulling me to my feet and dragging me out of the room.

The front gate? Serenity’s out there. A bolt of panic flares through my veins.

I yank the hands off of me. “I’m not leaving without the queen.” I need to see her now.

“Our men are already on it.”

I hesitate, forcing my guards to drag me out of my room and propel me towards the map room, where escape waits.

Oh God, what if something already happened to her?

Serenity

The missile slams into the west wing of the palace, and the building erupts in a plume of fire and stone. I barely have time to cover my face before the wave of heat slams into me.

After all their years of planning, the Resistance is finally making their big move, and now I’m on the wrong side of the fight.

Go figure.

“Your Majesty!” The guards who’ve shadowed me all morning now sprint towards me as I rise to my feet.

When they reach me, I don’t think. I grab the gun from one of the guard’s holsters.

For a split second he looks at me like I’ve betrayed them. No, I have something much stupider in mind. “We need to cut them off.”