All Chapters of The Exiled Princess: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The guards did not escort me. They hauled me. Their hands clamped around my arms like iron clamps as they dragged me across the marble corridor, my heels scraping hard enough to leave streaks in the stone. Torches rattled in their brackets. Banners snapped overhead. My shoulder slammed into a pillar hard enough that I reconsidered all my life choices.The double doors of the throne room swung open with a dramatic crash that suggested someone had rehearsed it.They threw me inside.My knees hit the floor so hard a noise escaped me that was absolutely not dignified. The sound echoed through the massive chamber. Gasps followed immediately. Robed nobles jerked backward as if I were contagious. Silk hems swished. Fans trembled in hands suddenly unsure. Someone dropped a goblet. Another person prayed loudly enough to compete with the acoustics.My wrists were raw, bleeding in small, unhelpful drips. The ropes had bitten deep, carving angry red rings around my skin. My gown, once elegant, no

The guards dragged me through the corridor like they wanted the entire palace to witness my downfall. My feet barely touched the ground. My wrists throbbed with every yank, ropes grinding against raw skin. My head pounded with each step, and the world tilted alarmingly when we turned the corner toward my chambers.The doors were already open.My heart plummeted.My chambers were unrecognizable. Everything I owned lay scattered across the marble. My books, my gowns, my carved wooden chests, my pressed flower collection, my training blades, my ink jars, my journals. All dumped in a heap as if someone had taken a giant shovel and decided, yes, this is the appropriate method of organizing a princess’s belongings.Guards stomped across the wreckage, crushing delicate things beneath their boots. I watched one step on a jar of rare ink with such enthusiasm that he might have been auditioning for a play titled How To Ruin Aveline’s Life In Ten Easy Steps.A gown I wore at thirteen was ripped

The portal exploded behind me with a burst of lightning that split the air open. The blast tore through my body like fire ripping through silk. My limbs flew backward, chains snapping tight around my wrists as I tumbled into a storm of light and wind.I screamed.I screamed my father’s name until my voice scraped raw.“Father. Father, please. Please wake up. Please stop this.”The swirling void swallowed my words like it was tired of hearing them.I twisted midair, reaching through the chaos, grabbing at nothing, grabbing at everything, grabbing for the last familiar thing in a world already slipping away. The throne room flashed in jagged bursts behind me. Sigils burning on the walls. Candles bleeding red wax like dramatic overachievers. Nobles cowering. The mage chanting something ominous. Lysandra smiling like a smug, jewel-covered spider who had eaten one too many butterflies.And my father.He stood.For the first time since this nightmare began, he pushed himself upright on shak

The world swayed beneath me, rocking in uneven jolts. Warmth pressed against my cheek, steady and solid. For a long, hazy moment I thought I was still falling through the portal. My mind clung to that terror so tightly that I half expected the ground to vanish under me again.But then a scent hit me.Earth. Pine. Cold. Smoke.And something else entirely.Marek.My eyes cracked open.He carried me as if I weighed less than a cloak. My body curled toward his warmth completely on instinct, which felt rude considering I did not trust him, did not trust this world, and absolutely did not trust the sky anymore. If anything in this realm was likely to betray me again, it would probably be the sky. Or the snow. Or both, working together in some sort of weather conspiracy.His long strides cut across the forest floor, snow crunching beneath his boots.I stared at it, horrified. “What is that?”“Snow,” Marek said.“The sky makes this?” I demanded.“Yes.”“For what purpose? Why would the sky do

The word shifters cracked through my nerves like lightning.I stared at Marek as if he had grown another head. My voice shook, but not weakly. No, it came out sharper, fiercer, twisting with fear and fury.“Why do wolves turn into men? Why did your pack become monsters and then become you? I demand answers.”Lucian, standing by the door, muttered, “Bold.”Marek shot him a warning look before he stepped toward me, slow and controlled, like a man approaching a cornered animal.“We are shifters,” he said, voice calm enough to soothe thunder. “Born with a wolf inside. We shift between human and wolf forms.”“I see,” I said flatly. “So you are either cursed or blessed, depending on the day.”Lucian choked on a laugh. Marek did not.He sat on the edge of the bed, but not too close. “It is normal here.”“Nothing is normal here,” I snapped. “Not your shifting. Not your giant wolf bodies. Not your Christmas trees wearing jewelry. Not your little glowing suns hanging from ropes. Not the singing