Page 72 of Happily Ever Crowned (Underworld Royals 1)

I fled to the right, running through the black statues forming my wicked tangle of a garden to a place I revered for silence—a notch in the cliffside with views of Caluçon. I sometimes sat here with Zaya, discussing my ideas and thoughts for growth. It was here that we finalized our plans for the women and children bordering the city without aid.

I miss you, I thought at her now. I wish you were here.

A breeze was the only response, the kingdom’s warmth washing over my skin.

I collapsed onto a slab of granite, sighing as the boned section of my corset dug into my ribs.

Adrik. It came out as a plea now.

A plea he left unanswered.

My chest ached with a loneliness I despised. I was a queen, not some smitten female who needed her lover to provide purpose. I’d just come to rely on him over the last few weeks, his presence a security blanket I craved.

I needed to do this alone. I possessed the power to do so; I just required the confidence to believe in myself.

The majestic landscape danced before me, a picturesque scene that soothed some of my inner turmoil. The other night, Adrik mentioned that in the human world, real stars sparkled in the night. I wondered if I would one day experience them, as well as the notorious golden sun that shone throughout the day. The purple hues of Caluçon’s sky didn’t allow for bright skies or nights filled with millions of twinkling lights.

I closed my eyes, daydreaming about what it might look like based on Adrik’s description.

Heavy leather boots stomped on the grounds below, vibrating the cliffside and jarring me out of my stupor. I sat up, dazed, and watched as a troop of royal warriors descended toward the outskirts of the palace grounds.

Toward the group of women and children I knew required aid.

“What are you doing?” I called down to them.

They ignored me. Or perhaps didn’t hear me over the chaos ensuing.

Screams in the distance pierced my ears, causing me to flinch.

What in Lucifer’s name is happening?

I ran along the cliffside to a staircase built into the wall and began my descent as more guards flooded the grassy plains below, all of them heading toward the women Zaya and I met that fateful day all those weeks—or was it months?—ago.

“What’s happening?” I called as I reached the bottom, trying to grab one of the guards. He pushed me off him, and I fell hard onto the ground.

“How dare you!” I jumped up and slapped him hard across the face.

He didn’t flinch, but I sensed a hint of hesitation. He’d stopped moving with the others, not just because of my strike, but because of something else.

“Talk to me,” I ordered, but he remained mute, his eyes hard.

The others halted several yards away, aiming their spears.

“What…?” I didn’t understand.

Until the fire poured from the ends, the aim unfathomable and wrong.

“No!” I screamed, watching in horror as the first of the flames hit the grounds by the women and children.

I couldn’t see them, but I felt their pain, their agony, their fear. Like a live wire directly to my heart. I fell to my knees, horrified by the sight of these men attacking innocents.

“King said they’re using up resources and have to be dealt with,” the guard finally said beside me, his spear still at his side. He was the only one not glorifying in the chaos, as if my smack across his face had knocked sense into him.

The cruel laughs littering the air told me the others did not share his sense of morality.

That they enjoyed hurting others.

This entire kingdom needed expunging, my husband’s influence tainting them all beyond rehabilitation.

---