The uncontrollable power lurking beneath Princess Alethia's skin can either be the savior of the Four Kingdoms or its destruction.
Princess Alethia was raised on three principles: (1) Mercy is for the weak, (2) Emotions are an unwanted distraction...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Aydin would have mistaken the pounding on the door to be the one coming from inside of his throbbing head if not for the woman in his arms. Her breasts lay flush against his warm muscled chest, and she mumbled in her sleep, waking him more.
As the pounding increased in tempo and volume, Aydin groaned. He turned his head, eyes half-closed with sleep as he looked out the window. The sun was barely rising. By the goddess's lovely bones, what did a man have to do to get some peace and rest?
As he shifted out of the bed, the woman's head flopped down on the sheets, and her curls spread out like the wild vines of the Misty Grove. Aydin stared at her for a moment. What was her name again?
His head throbbed when another knock came from his door. "Wait a damn second!"
Yanking on the discarded trousers near the side of his bed, he went over and flung open the door to reveal the king's mistress. Her hand was raised midway, and her wide dark brown eyes stared at his bare muscled chest that was scattered with raw, red stinging cuts.
"Up here, sweetheart." Aydin gestured to his face, his lips turning down at her unwanted presence. He would never understand why his father would allow such a venomous woman into his bed. But it wasn't his place to question the king's taste in women. "What do you want? I don't prefer my father's sloppy leftovers."
"No, you fool," Cecilia shoved past him, a scowl distorting her pretty face. Aydin lifted his hands in frustration, flinging the door shut and winced at the pain radiating from his head. "I come bearing a message from that seer woman."
"Why would you have a message from her?" Aydin's brain was moving slowly, and he wiped the sleep from his eyes. He gestured at the study, and Cecilia walked into it. Aydin shut the door and turned to her, sunlight beginning to stream through the window behind his desk and send piercing needles into his head. He had drunk too much. Again.
"I've been..." Cecilia faltered, eyes darting away and back to him fearfully. Aydin ignored the pain in his head as her behavior began to catch his full attention.
"What have you done, Cecilia?" Aydin asked, pronouncing each word carefully as if talking to a child.
The action didn't go unnoticed as her face twisted with frustration. "I've been feeding the woman in return for visions of my future. Regardless, that's not the important part. She had another vision, Aydin. And she will only tell it to you."
"It's so sad you think you'll become queen when you're nothing but a trollop." Aydin crossed his arms, staring down at the short woman fuming in front of him. He knew the reason why Cecilia had come to him. She was avoiding his father's anger. Little good it would do her. The king had his ways of finding out what happened even if she tried to cover her tracks.
Aydin sighed heavily. If the woman had another vision, then he had to know what it was. There was no denying that what she saw would come true. All of her visions so far had been the truth. Aydin turned to leave the study, glancing over at Cecilia.
