Chapter 2
From inside the palace, it seemed to Rissa as if nothing had changed at all. Servants continued to do their duties. Guards stood stone-faced at intervals throughout the hall. None of them had forgotten Drake Renauld and his coup. That rebellion would forever mar the air of comradery that once filled the palace.
Dreach-Sciene castle had always been a busy place. Many people took up residence within those walls alongside the royal family.
And each one of them knew the princess on sight. The villages of Aldorwood, Isenore, and Sona had been different. She’d walked through the streets as anyone else did. Inconsequential. Unknown. Just a girl.
“I can feel you following me, Cor.” She stopped moving but didn’t turn. It might have been her imagination, but she sensed her father’s ste
