LOGINJULIANHours had passed and still no movement from my wife. She didn’t even feel like a living person anymore. Her hands had been cold since I took her out from those ruins. I tried a hand warmer, I tried covering them and tucking them into the blanket to get them warm, but it didn’t work. instead, her whole body grew cold.Frightened, I sent Rose to go call the imperial physician. While she was away, I felt her breathing, a finger on her nose, an ear on her chest listening to her heart beating. Watching her chest rising and falling. All indicated she was alive, but her temperature was becoming more and more like that of a dead person.That scared me to death. The imperial physician came and checked on her than shook his head and said. “Your Highness, everything indicates that she is alive and should be waking up any moment.” He took a step back from the bed, from me. putting distance from it a
MARK Father was falling apart; Julian was falling apart. I didn’t know which one needed me more at that point. Julian had locked himself inside the Flower Palace with his wife. The only time that door opened was when his wife’s maid, Rose arrived. Since then, she had been the only one going in and out of that house.No sign of my brother. It was now the early hours of the morning, the light in that room had not gone out the entire night. Father and I had been in the opposite room. He had been mumbling incoherently the whole time. But there was one sentence that was clear in all his rumbling. “The Kingdom is doomed.”I didn’t know what he meant by that, I even thought of the Lord we left back at the frontier. I tried apologizing for taking him and putting my brother’s life in danger. But father shook his head, pointed at the room opposite us and said. “Her.” that was when I realized that whatever he feared, had nothing to do with me.And everything to do with my brother’s wife. I thou
JULIAN With each step I took, my body screamed in pain and complained of exhaustion. My wound had long opened but I had hidden it from Mark. I wasn’t about to waste time seeing a doctor while I didn’t know what state my wife was in. Eating, it was only for survival on the way and mostly because Mark used many creative ways to threaten me into eating and drinking.Then getting here, seeing that damned woman. Getting my hands on her and actually having something tangible to hold and vent my anger out on was the most exhilarating feeling I had felt in years. She dared touch my wife, she was asking for death. “Your Majesty, please, save me. The Regent is going to kill me!” she screamed as I dragged her along.All I could think about was how my wife was doing the whole way there. She suddenly grabbed my legs and held on tight. I stopped moving and looked down at her. Her eyes were red from crying. Snot and a little droop on her lips. She looked nothing like the untouchable noble consort.
KING I was still reviewing memorials in my study; the sun was about to set in the horizon. Since my son’s left, I had been too busy shouldering everything on my own. I had not realized how much work Julian was doing until he left the capital and everything came to me. I was busy from dawn to dusk since he left and I was exhausted. I was about to pour myself a cup of tea when my study door was violently pushed open. My hand froze; annoyance filled me as I looked up. “Your Majesty, something is wrong!” his eyes were wide and he had this crazy look in his eyes. “What are you yelling about, is the palace on fire?” I already had a headache. “It might as well be, Your Majesty.” His eyes were unfocused like someone who had seen something frightening.“The Regent and the second prince. they…they are…” he kept saying and pointing at the door. I got up, anger rising with each step I took. Maybe it wasn’t anger but fear. He mentioned my son’s and my first thought was something happened to th
MARKWe arrived in the capital in three days, a journey that would have taken four days to a week, we covered in three days. Using the fastest horses from the frontier. My brother rode like a mad man. We had shot stops for water and steamed buns. That was it. Getting to the capital, we didn’t even look for his men, we went straight to the palace.That was still alright until we entered the inner palace. The was a rule everyone knew, no outsider was allowed to enter the inner palace. Princes included. I was still following behind unbothered when we entered until he went there. My steps faltered but my brother didn’t stop. That was when the palace guards intervened. “Regent, please leave. You are not allowed in here.” That was the first warning, I was a step behind him and my brother didn’t listen. I thought to myself, whatever happened, I was standing by him. “Your Highnesses, this is your last warning. Leave the inner palace. Now.” Julian’s response was to go forward and I followed.
HELENAThe night was cold; there was nothing under the concrete floor. The chains dug on my wrists and ankles that I was taken back to the day I escaped the palace. I had burnt wounds back then and I was sure I wouldn’t survive. Today I was in the cold palace, four days had passed without eating or drinking anything.I could feel I was starting to lose grip with reality. I had been forcing myself to stay alert, but it was becoming increasingly difficult. Consort Yan wanted me broken and dead. I always knew she didn’t like me, even when I was still her maid, she always made things difficult for me. “I heard there is a beggar in the cold palace.”That woke me up instantly. Those were patrol guard and if they were the same as years ago, then that meant I was not safe. I strained my eyes looking around for something. I couldn’t find anything, panicked I took the dirt on the floor and covered myself with it. I didn’t want them seeing my face and getting ideas.“Why do you care about a begg
HELENAPain surged through my body as I tried to sit up and get myself off the ground. The pain was sharp and sudden. Chasing away the last traces of weakness I had. Along with it, the hope of survival. In my condition, it didn’t matter what I did. I couldn’t fight my way through what was coming. I
HELENA The forest felt different when I was alone in it. not emptier. Just honest. Every sound mattered now. every snap of a branch. Every shift in the wind. Every breath I tried to keep steady. There was no one left to decide what I was worth. No one left to watch. Only the path. Only me.I follo
HELENA I thought I could go on after that. But I didn’t even take five steps before my body refused to cooperate. I looked back, I was already far from the palace, it wouldn’t hurt to rest. I spotted bushes not far from the road. I slowly walked there, dragging my throbbing foot. When I got to the
HELENA “Fire, everyone out! there is a fire.” Smoke choked me before I was fully awake. I coughed rushing out of the servants’ quarters. When I got outside it was chaos, maids and guards running around like headless chickens with buckets of water trying to put out the fire. I stood there in daze w







