King Lucien raised his head from his scroll and allowed himself to stare at the woman who was asleep in his room.
The bed she laid in belonged to Melia. Ugly memories of the day of Melia’s death rose in his mind, and he closed his eyes tight to stem those thoughts. But they wouldn’t go.
Eighteen-year-old Melia, who had just married and was heavy with her first child, happy that her husband allowed her to see her family for the first time since she got married.
King Lucien could still remember the look of horror on her face when Cone’s men stormed into the library where both were. He could remember the terror on her face when they cut her open with a sword, and they took him away as he watched his sister bleed to death.
King Lucien stopped writing and closed his eyes tightly to shut the
