His Regret, The Crown's Claim
I groaned in agony.
In a fit of blind, agonizing rage, I lunged for the book, my fingers clawing at the pages. I wanted to rip it to shreds, to burn it until the ashes were nothing but dust, to erase the destiny that was suffocating me... the destiny that I didn't want. I'll never accept it. But as I lifted the book to throw it across the room, the page flipped.
A new illustration caught the light. It was a drawing of a man, cloaked in black from head to toe, standing before the woman in white... the Speaker with a sword of black glass as he seemed protective of her.