Book 2 -20-

[Madam Elsbeth]

ZAIDEN

It had been days since that altercation with my father, and somehow I kept a straight face whenever I sat in his presence. The man was a menace—cruel and unstable. How had I not noticed that before? The gods above knew I couldn’t wait to make him pay.

Knock, knock, knock.

“Prince Zaiden, it’s Princess Cassidy.” Her soothing voice wafted to my ears. I jerked upright at the sound of her voice and skidded toward the door, yanked it open and tugged her into the room. Since my father suspected her father was at the castle for another reason than our wedding, I had been trying to avoid them at all costs.

She staggered forward and would have fallen flat on her face if I had released her hand. “What are you doing?” Princess Cassidy asked. Her brows furrowed together when she noticed the state of my chambers—dark and unkempt. “Zaiden, what’s going on?”

I locked the door, then dragged her toward the parlor, and turned on the television to drown out the sound. My act