I turned toward the lake, seeing it before me, where I’d fallen into this dark world. My eyes scanned, searching for the vibrant pop of purple in a world of blue and sage.
And then I heard it.
The sound of a step.
My first instinct was to gasp, but my survival instincts kept my mouth shut tight. I didn’t move, didn’t make a sound, knowing something was nearby, but not whether it was a wolf or a…Knife. I tried not to breathe, and that made me breathe more. I strained my ears as I listened harder, trying to pinpoint where they stood, if they were aware of me.
My back was to the tree. I turned to my left, and that was when I saw it.
The bright purple petals of the Pedalium flower. The yellow streaks in the center.
So fucking close.
In my peripheral, I saw the movement of something dark…and big. I turned my head slightly to get a better look at it, and I nearly gasped again.
In black armor with a blade across its back was…a creature. It was hard to tell with its body concealed within the armor, but the skin appeared to be the same color. Greasy hair was combed back and looked like wet noodles. He stood still in the trees, like he was a guard in search of something.
Maybe me.
My eyes shifted to the flower. There were several of them bunched together—and I would need every single one if I had any chance to save Morco. I could crawl and hope he didn’t hear me—or I could try to kill him.
Fuck.
“You’re more capable than you realize. Remember that.”
It was the last thing he’d said to me. Words that had given me courage when I had nothing but fear. I’d lost my kingdom because of stupidity, but I’d been given another chance to be something more. To be brave. To do something. To win.
PROLOGUE I
HANNE
I stood on the balcony of the palace, embracing the warmth of the winter sun. In spring, these lands were covered with luscious gardens and trees, their branches packed with leaves. Honeybees traveled from petal to petal in search of nectar. But now, winter winds swept across the land, bringing snow and hail and darkness.
I wore a long-sleeved dress that was hidden underneath the long coat, lined with animal fur that warmed the most delicate parts of my body, from my wrists to my neck. My gloved hands gripped the banister, and I looked at the kingdom that would soon belong to me—that might belong to me soon.
“They’re ready for you, Hanne.” Kendra, my handmaiden for the last two years, approached me from behind. She was an older woman who supervised all the maids, had been doing it her whole life, and once I was orphaned, she’d taken me under her wing.
I gripped the banister one last time before I left the balcony and approached her. “Thank you.”
Vulgaris had become my legal guardian, but I needed to be supervised by a woman because that was above his station. She was good to me but not particularly affectionate or kind. There was always a distance between us, like she knew the job was too temporary for a deeper attachment.
We returned to the castle and took several flights of stairs and many hallways until we entered the Ornate Room, a room with windows made of colored glass, each window featuring a different flower that grew in the gardens. Rose, lily, lavender, poppy, peony, carnation. Sunlight flooded the room on quiet mornings, and this was where I would come to read when I wanted to escape my reality and not be found.
The five chairs were occupied by the elders, men in various stages of old age, bone-white and already withering away, in no position to rule the lands that had been in my blood for generations. But I was the first to admit I wasn’t a much better choice because of my tender age, just a week away from my twenty-second birthday. Instead of preparing myself for the burden of the crown these last two years, I’d hidden away with grief as my only friend.
Vulgaris was there, my father’s best friend, the closest thing he’d ever had to a brother, seated apart from the others because he wasn’t a part of the Ring of Elders. He looked so much like my father despite their lack of relation, just a couple years younger. My grandmother had only given birth to one child. She tried for more, but it didn’t happen for her, so she cherished my father as a true blessing.
At the age of twenty-one, I knew my value was already in question and my fertility was in doubt.
My father had died suddenly, discovered collapsed in his study. There were no wound marks, no indication of a fight. Perhaps he’d suffered a heart attack or some form of sudden death. It was a shock because he’d been so strong and healthy, carrying his sword with every intention of wielding it. I’d looked up to him as a king and a leader. People would say he was the greatest king who ever lived. Sometimes I believed he would live forever.
My father had known Vulgaris for nearly his entire life. They used to play together as kids, Vulgaris the son of one of the maids. That friendship continued, despite their differences in class, and once Vulgaris became a man, my father employed him in the castle. He was an adviser, a confidant, a soldier, and then, eventually, the general.
Kendra removed my coat that I’d forgotten to take off, and I stood before them, my pulse twitching in my throat with every beat of my heart.
The silence was heavy, the disapproval in the air around us like the scent of roses.
My eyes were on the floor.
