With the Imperial Ball over, it was time for Madeleine to go back home. She was the third princess of Reinland. She had a sister and a brother. Her sister, Nia, was the second princess, and her brother, Aegaeon, was the crown prince.
Madeleine stepped off of her carriage, and into the palace grounds. She was home at last. But something was missing. She felt like she had left a part of herself back in the empire. She wanted to go back. So that's what she did. She hopped back onto the carriage after notifying the butler. And little did she know that she had just saved herself from a terrible ending.
***
A woman stood in the middle of the palace gardens, gazing out at the sky. She was the queen of Reinland, Zenna Lumen, but her title was in name only. She held no real power over the court. Instead, that power rested with the first concubine. But Zenna knew something that nobody else did. She had the gift of prophecy, and she had seen something interesting. She had known everything years ago, when she awakened her powers at the age of fifteen. She knew that the king was not going to love her. She knew that she would be useless and bullied by the other concubines. And she also knew that there would eventually be someone who would love and value her. He was the sole reason she kept holding on. He was the reason she would not die today.
Zenna heard footsteps behind her. She knew who it was without turning around. Only one person in the entire palace would dare to sneak up on her. And only one person could walk so silently almost without sound.
"What's wrong?" the crown prince asked, standing next to Zenna.
"Nothing."
"Oh. And one more thing. Don't leave your room tonight."
Zenna nodded. "Just don't go overboard, okay? You still have to leave yourself a kingdom to rule."
Then the young queen walked off, leaving Aegaeon, the boy she had known for seven long years, to wonder about everything he did not know about her. Lost in her thoughts, she almost walked straight into the king, Quinlan Drasilda, the notorious monarch who cared more for women than his own kingdom. This mess of a ruler was Zenna's husband.
"Where are you going, my dear?" he asked, violently pulling her face up to meet his. "In such a hurry, at that."
Oh, how terribly paranoid this man was. He had done so many bad things that they would take turns haunting his mind each day and night. He was so scared that somebody close to him would turn against him and strip him of his precious crown. How foolish this shell of a man could be. How blind he was, with his clear eyes unable to see even a step ahead of him. This was the man Zenna was married to. This grown man who would have nightmares and wake up screaming like a baby.
"Nowhere," Zenna replied, plastering a meek smile on her face. "My liege."
The muscles in Quinlan's face relaxed. "Very good."
Zenna watched as he walked away, hunched and crumpled. How beautiful he could have been. How beautiful he had probably been, all those years ago, when she had been brought to this hellhole of a palace. She tried to remember his handsome smile, his eyes, gleaming with the power of youth, and his face, full and lively, so unlike the sunken cheekbones and colorless skin of the king she knew now. What changed? What made this beautiful, perfect man turn into this corpse, barely hanging on to his weak and feeble life? If anything, Aegaeon would be putting his father out of his misery.
***
Princess Nia watched her brother exit the palace gardens. She followed him, silently, through the deserted halls of the palace. Halls that were supposed to be full of people. She wondered where all the servants had gone, but she did not suspect anything to be wrong. She watched Aegaeon flip a pen through his fingers, gracefully spinning the small thing over, under, and around.
"Nia, dear. What are you doing here?" a sweet voice cooed from behind her.
The princess turned around. Behind her stood a woman. She had luscious, blond hair, like the beach sand as the tide retreated back into the ocean at sunset. Her eyes, the brightest golden, watched Nia, observing and noting every single movement she made. She was not beautiful. She was seductive. Her existence radiated the energy of allure.
"Aunt Sierra," Nia said, curtsying.
"Now that's a good girl. Have you seen your mother today, by chance?"
The princess shook her head.
"Well, then. My dear, you should really get going now. You're far too young for what's about to happen next."
Nia understood. She understood very well. When she was younger, she had unknowingly seen her mother, Sierra, and the king in the bedroom doing whatever it was that they were doing. She had decided then that she did not want any part of what happened next. The princess quickly hurried off to avoid getting herself involved in anything else.
"Why'd you scare her off, my beauty?" the king said, planting a kiss on Sierra's neck. He spun her around to face him, pushing her against the wall. "One day she'll have to know."
Sierra giggled, leaning into the king's touch. He kissed her, lips dry against her soft skin. Pressing her harder onto the wall, his lips trailed down her neck and towards her chest. There they stood, tangled in each others' embrace, gasps and sighs of satisfaction reverberating through the palace walls, expressing their desire for one another like there was no tomorrow, like they always had whenever they did this, in the bedroom, the hallway, or the garden. But this time, there really was no tomorrow.