Destined to Rule: A Queen's Awakening

PROLOGUE

Prologue: The Birth of Chaos

The night Amanda was born, the world bled.

The sky above the Fairyland burned with streaks of crimson and gold as the assassins tore through its sacred lands. Screams of dying fairies echoed through the once-peaceful kingdom, their iridescent wings torn and broken, their magic fading into nothingness.

At the heart of the chaos, a woman ran.

Her silver hair whipped behind her as she clutched her swollen belly, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She had once been a princess of the Lucian witches, a royal bound by duty and power. Now, she was nothing but a fugitive, hunted by two empires-one that had forsaken her, and another that wanted her dead.

Her love had been a sin. Her child, an abomination.

And for that, the Queen of the Ericlifians had sent her monsters to erase them from existence.

A sudden cry of pain shattered the night. The fairy guards who had sworn to protect her fell, one by one, their bodies turning to ash under the merciless hands of their vampire enemies. The queen's assassins were relentless. They would not stop until the last drop of her blood had been spilled.

She stumbled, clutching her stomach as agony ripped through her. The child was coming.

A figure emerged from the shadows-a woman with golden eyes and a presence that radiated ancient power. The Fairy Queen.

"There is no time," the queen said, kneeling beside her. "They will find you."

Tears blurred the witch's vision. "Then save her. If I must die, let my daughter live."

The Fairy Queen hesitated only for a moment before pressing a glowing hand to the witch's stomach. Magic surged through the air, raw and uncontainable.

"With this, she will inherit my power," the queen whispered. "She will be more than witch, more than vampire. She will be the storm that shakes the world."

A scream tore from the woman's throat as light exploded around them. And then, as the first cry of a newborn filled the air, the mother exhaled her last breath.

The assassins arrived seconds later.

The Fairy Queen rose, cradling the infant against her chest. Her warriors were dead. The mother was dead. And soon, she would be, too. But the child...

The child would live.

Even if it cost her everything.

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