kingdom.
I was but a girl with a little bit of magic that prophecy foretold might do something extraordinary.
At the side of her king.
It wasn’t even just me who would do it.
But me being a part of Mars, and a part of six others.
I was not nothing.
I was also not anything.
I had never been anything.
Not really.
No friends.
Few suitors.
Even my father only found use for me after twenty-three years when a curse seemed to be brewing under the earth.
And Mars had told me that he would like only me for a time.
And then he wanted others.
And he would have them because he was Firenz. He was king. This was his country, his world, his way.
I would have to watch him with other women, touching them as he touched me, kissing them as he kissed me, putting his mouth where he’d given me so much that night.
The world was indeed upside down.
The Beast rising.
Cassius’s regency.
Carrington’s conniving.
A Nadirii to be wed to an Airenzian.
Two Dellish to be wed to Firenz.
But through that, I had Mars.
And going forth, I would still have him.
But he wouldn’t be mine.
I had come to Firenze with nothing that was mine.
And, even wed to a powerful king, I would go forward with nothing that was mine.
On that thought, the tears started falling.
And with them still rolling down my temples, I turned to my side, curled into myself, let them flow, and fell asleep with only their company.
All my life, I did not sleep well even in my bed in the Arbor.
Though, after the first days there, I had slept well in my bed in Catrame Palace.
Therefore, I did not know what woke me that night. Feeling distressed. Unsettled. Restless after weeping.
I was just glad I did.
Even if it changed everything.
Everything about me.
Everything about everything.
But my only other choice of outcome that night was not to be abided.
It was the whisper of the screen at the window being set down that I heard.
But it was the feel of the air that made me freeze.
This before I shouted shrilly, “Tril! Get help!”
I then rolled off the bed in the opposite direction to where I heard the noise (which was sadly farther away from the door).
I landed on my knees, my hand at the same time reaching to the dresser beside the bed where I kept a small dagger True had given me.
It had a beautifully veined malachite in the hilt.
And True had told me never to be without it.
I didn’t carry it on my person.
But I always kept it close, mostly, until that moment, simply because it had been a gift from True.
“Get help, Tril!” I yelled, hoping to all the gods she heard me, starting to open the drawer.
I didn’t get my hand on the dagger.
A man was on me.
I screamed as he threw me to my back, straddled me, his hands closing around my neck.
It was then I choked, clawed at his arms, kicked out my feet, bucked my hips, my mouth wide open, trying to pull in breath.
I tried to twist, to turn, vaguely hearing feet hit floor.
Coming in the window.
Not just him.
Others.
I opened and closed my mouth, fighting for breath and fighting to scream.
And I heard the loud, welcome clang of steel hitting steel.
Tril got help.
Oh, I loved my Tril.
The room filled with coral light, like a starburst, before it started fading, and the sounds of a swordfight renewed my strength.
And as another starburst filled the air, more sounds of steel clashing rang through it, I focused all my concentration on getting those hands from my neck, when suddenly, I felt a thrill up my spine.
One I didn’t call.
And the man straddling me grunted in surprise before he released me.
I drew in a much-needed, burning breath.
The man above me was lifting his hands in the front of him.
This right before they burst into flame.
I would have stared in shock.
But this was a scant second before his head left his shoulders.
Blood sprayed over me before the heavy weight of his headless body fell on me.
It was almost instantly shoved off, I had a hand wrenching my upper arm, pulling me up, and I heard Elena shouting, “Run, Silence, run!”
In another coral starburst, she let me go, but I stood frozen at all that was happening. Thus, I saw her engage with a man taller and larger than her, he was dressed in all black, a mask covered his head and face, all but his eyes, their swords slicing through the air, and connecting.
And another starburst showed Serena at the