Chapter 1

I was awakened by the sound of horses galloping, I opened my eyes while my heart pounded against my head due to the commotion. It sounded like at least thirty horses were marching down towards the castle. By the sound of it, it appeared as if we were being invaded, although I knew that was not the case or the guards would have alerted us already. The room was still dark, the sun hadn’t come out yet. I got up from the bed and walked towards the window. My room had one of the lousiest views in the castle, so I couldn’t see what was happening, I had to resort to my imagination.

I tried to remember if I had heard about something important happening today, but I didn’t recall anything, today was supposed to be like any other day. My brother Andrew and I were supposed to go to the market like we always did on Tuesdays because that was the day people from all over the Kingdom came to buy and trade their goods. I hated going, I was usually more of a loner and huge gatherings had always made me feel uncomfortable, but Andrew loved it and so I accompanied him. He enjoyed the buzz, people trading and arguing, the main square brimming with life. After the market closed, the local theater company gave out a free show for the bystanders at the main square. It was usually a short comedy skit, I didn’t care much for it, but Andrew wouldn’t let us miss it for the world.

I leaned my head against the cold glass as I tried to recall if I knew about any plans my family had for today that could explain what I heard. The minutes went by and the sound stopped, the horses had reached their destination: our castle.

I was too curious to go back to sleep, so instead, I went out into the hallway to find out what was going on. I walked down the corridor past my brothers’ doors, everyone was still sleeping, the only witnesses accompanying me were the people in the paintings hanging from the walls, my family’s ancestors.

I reached the main staircase, the one that led to the royal chambers where my uncle, aunt, and cousins slept. My brothers and I slept on another floor, given that we were kind of royal but not quite as important as our ruling relatives, we were not deemed worthy of sharing their floor. After our parents died two years ago, King Adolf Riversun, our uncle on our mother’s side, took us in out of compassion, but he wasn’t exactly thrilled to have us and he made no effort to hide his discontent with the situation from us.

My brothers and I have tried to stay positive, not let the hostile stares and mean words hurt us, but sometimes it was difficult. Especially for me and for Edward, my eldest brother, who resented the harsh manner in which we were constantly treated as if we were unwanted freeloaders. Our brother Andrew, my twin, was more talented at not letting these kinds of things get to him, he always tried hard to stay cheerful and not allow anything to make him feel bad. I was very envious of Andrew's talent for coping with adversity, I was more prone to being hurt by the actions of others. Especially from my aunt, Queen Kendalia, who always went out of her way to make me feel like a worthless bug. When I first moved here I had the hope that she would love me as her own daughter, given that she only had two sons and no girls, but I soon realized that that was not going to happen, my aunt had nothing but mean-spirited words and disdain looks for me. She never missed an opportunity to emphasize how dull she found my physical appearance or how boring my personality was, for the queen I was nothing more than a plain girl who she had to put up with under her roof. She treated me worst than anyone else in this castle, so I avoided her as much as possible.

I wondered if the monarchs knew what was happening outside, but I didn’t have to wonder long since the king and queen of Lerene were already coming downstairs, making our encounter unavoidable.

“In the name of the kingdom! What are you doing here, Addison?” My uncle asked as soon as he saw me.

“I heard a lot of racket. Like dozens of horses coming towards the castle…” I explained to him.

“Yes, I have visitors coming in from one of our neighbor kingdoms,” my uncle replied. “But it is certainly not a good enough reason for you to walk around the hallways wearing a nightgown,” he pointed out with derision. “Could you be any more inappropriate, Addison? Are you trying to embarrass me in front of our allies?”

“The girl has no class…” queen Kendalia whispered with contempt in her voice.

As I usually felt around them, I was overwhelmed with shame. I was so curious about what was happening that I didn’t even think of how inappropriate it was for me to go out of my bedroom dressed like this.

“I am sorry, Your Majesty. I will go back to my room immediately,” I apologized.

“Hurry up and do not bother us again. This does not concern you,” the queen replied as she looked down on me.

“Actually, that is not correct, this does concern you, Addison, so I need you to put on something appropriate and come meet us at the assembly hall immediately,” my uncle informed me.

Both the queen and I were taken aback by his words, but while Kendalia managed to hide her surprise promptly, I could not. I had never before been summoned to the assembly hall, I was not even sure how it looked on the inside. Why was my uncle asking for my presence now? Especially today that he had visitors from another kingdom.

“Are you deaf, Addison? Your uncle gave you an order! Move!” The queen exclaimed rudely.

Without saying a word, I strode away feeling as small and ashamed as I usually felt around them.

I walked back to my room with a million questions swirling in my head. The king usually limited his interactions with me and my two brothers, only talked what was strictly necessary, and avoided our presence whenever he could. And now he was deliberately asking for my presence. There was definitely something strange going on. As I walked past my brothers’ bedrooms, I wondered if I should alert them about our uncle’s request, but I concluded that I didn’t have the time to do it. I had to get dressed straight away as per his request and I couldn’t risk angering him by taking too long.

I reached my room and immediately headed towards my closet. Then I faced a new conundrum: what to wear? I didn’t want to overdress, my style was usually more simple and discreet, but I was to be in the presence of foreign guests, I had to look nice, so I couldn’t just dress like any other day. After debating the matter in my head for a couple of minutes, I decided to wear a grey dress that wasn't as plain as the ones I wore every day, but it wasn't as pompous as the dresses Lerene's girls wore to royal parties. The queen would criticize me anyway, so there was no point in wasting a lot of time torturing myself about what to wear. Not leaving my uncle waiting too long was more important than my garment.

I practically jogged to the assembly hall, but the second I reached it I was stopped by one of the guards.

“His Majesty has requested for you to wait for him in his office,” he informed me.

I nodded before turning around to do as he told me and when I did I was met with a warm smile.

“What are you doing here this early in the morning?” Asked my cousin, Prince Anthony.

“Your father called me, how about you? I thought you might still be sleeping,” I said.

Unlike his mother and father, Anthony was kind to us, he loved and cared for us as family is supposed to do and we loved and cared for him in return. I had no doubt one day he would make a wonderful king, a compassionate and fair ruler who would always do his best for his people. Unfortunately, until that day arrived, the Kingdom of Lerene would have to put up with the current king, Adolf Riversun, our uncle.

“Same as you, my father summoned me. He said it was important,” he replied.

I narrowed my eyes, unable to imagine the reason the king called us both.

“Do you have any idea what he wants?” I asked.

“Not a clue, Addison. Maybe it has something to do with your birthday next week,” he said as he winked at me.

I had forgotten about it, our nineteen birthday was next week. Andrew wanted to celebrate with a party but I hated parties so we had been debating about what to do for weeks.

“I don’t think the king cares about that,” I blurted out.

The assembly hall wooden door opened and queen Kendalia came out. A loving motherly smile appeared on her face as she looked at her firstborn, but the grin faded the second she saw me standing next to him.

“It is my understanding that you were told to wait at his Majesty’s office, what are you doing here?” She inquired with teeth clenched.

“It is my fault, mother, I started chatting with Addison and kept her from doing what she was told,” Anthony explained to the queen.

“Darling, go into the hall, your father wants you to entertain king Gregory and his knights while he talks to Addison,” the queen said in a kind tone she had never used for me.

“King Gregory Dominis is here?!” Anthony asked surprised. “Why?”

“Just do as I say, darling. He is waiting for you inside,” the queen replied.

Anthony waved at me and then he went into the assembly hall. The queen then turned her full attention towards me.

“You do not deserve what is coming your way,” she muttered with contempt.

I looked down and walked away, inside my head I was giving queen Kendalia a piece of my mind, I was telling her she was the most despicable woman I have ever encountered and that I despised her with all that I had for being so unnecessarily cruel towards an orphan girl half her age. But of course, those words would never come out of my mouth, I knew my place, I knew we were lucky to be here. My mother married my father without the family’s consent, he was not rich, nor noble, so she was cast away by them when she went against their wishes. We never met any of our noble relatives until two years ago when the king took us in. It was kind of him to give his nephews and niece a home, we would have been homeless otherwise, but my brothers and I were Nandi, not Riversun and everyone here reminded us of that fact constantly.

The soldier guarding the king’s private office allowed me in without hesitating, he knew I was coming. Once I was inside, I sat down in front of the elegant mahogany desk and waited. I looked around me, probably for the first time since I came to live in the castle, and admired my uncle’s office, his books, the maps of Lerene on the walls, Kendalia’s painting. Then my eyes encountered a map from the five kingdoms and that reminded me of Anthony’s words: King Gregory Domini was here.

I was not great with history nor geography but I recalled that he was the king of Dranda, a place I knew nothing about. It was a kingdom that mostly kept to itself, it didn’t trade much or had close relations with any of the other four kingdoms. It was an odd thing that King Gregory was here because, as far as I knew, this was the first time he came to Lerene and it was also probably the first time he and my uncle met in person. Whatever matter he came to discuss was probably very important for him to travel all the way from Dranda.

I got up from my chair and walked over to the map of the five kingdoms that hung on the wall. The location of Lerene was marked near the coast to the sea and far up north was Dranda. The distance between the two kingdoms was significant, which made me all the more intrigued as to why King Gregory was here.

The office door opened and my uncle came in. I turned around to face him and greeted him with a reverence as one should greet the king.

“Glad to see you are wearing an appropriate attire this time, Addison,” he remarked as he looked me up and down.

“I am sorry for our encounter from earlier, it will not happen again,” I promised him.

King Adolf sneered.

“Yes, of that I am certain,” he said with a hint of malice.

I dared to look up, my uncle had a smirk on his bearded face. I wanted to ask him what he meant, but I preferred to keep quiet, fearing that I would not like the answer. Since I didn’t say a word, my uncle resumed talking.

“I have great news for you, Addison,” he announced. “You are to be married today.”

At first, his words made no sense, how could I be getting married today if wasn’t even engaged? I didn’t even have a suitor! There were many handsome young men in the kingdom of Lerene, but according to queen Kendalia, I wasn’t good enough for any of them so she chased away anyone who showed interest in me. I thought she was set for me to die a spinster just for her own amusement, but now my uncle was taking things in the exact opposite direction.

“Ma… married?” I babbled with a trembling voice.

“Yes, don’t you know what married means? I don’t understand why you look so baffled, girls your age marry all the time!” He exclaimed.

The king was right, it wasn’t unusual for girls my age to get married in Lerene, but they were usually informed in advance, not the very same day of the wedding.

“But… today? It is so soon…” I mumbled perplexed.

“I know, but the groom is a busy man who has no time for a long engagement,” my uncle replied looking at me attentively.

His reply made me realize I hadn’t asked the most basic question.

“Who is the groom?”

My uncle smirked again, he looked triumphant, like I just said something that pleased him greatly.

“I am glad you asked, Addison, because that is the best part,” he said. “You are to be married to King Gregory Dominis of Dranda,” he announced proudly.

My heart sinked into my stomach. In a second I lost the ability to speak, so I just stared at him in disbelief. I felt like I was going to get sick. Did he just say I was going to marry King Gregory Dominis? How could I marry a man I have never met? And he was not just any man but a king!

My head started spinning. Part of me awaited for my uncle to start laughing and then to tell me he was joking, but that didn’t happen, he just kept on waiting for me to say something.

As minutes went by, my thoughts got clearer and I found my ability to speak. There were a million reasons not to marry King Gregory: I had never met him before, I would be a terrible queen, I didn’t feel prepared for marriage, but most importantly, I didn’t want to live so far away from my brothers.

“Please, don’t make me do it,” I pleaded with my uncle. “If I marry him I am going to have to move to Dranda and I don’t want to go.”

My uncle’s smirk turned into a grimace in a second. His eyes darkened.

“I wasn’t asking you what you wanted, Addison, I was telling you what to do,” he said coldly. “You don’t have a choice, this is my kingdom and you will do as I say.”

“I am aware of that, uncle, that is why I am begging you not to force me to marry him…” I asked with a broken voice. “My brothers are here, I have never been apart from them. It will break my heart not to see them every day. Lerene is my home, it is all that I have ever known and I do not want to leave. Please, break the engagement.”

Tears welled up as I saw that the king was not moved by my plea. His stare was as cold as his heart, there was no compassion within him, no sympathy for my pain.

The king got to me in a stride and grabbed my arm so tight that his fingers were hurting my skin.

“Listen to me, Addison, you are going to wipe those stupid tears away and you are going to go to the assembly hall to meet your groom. Try to look presentable and you better be on your best behavior or you are going to be very sorry,” he warned me using a rigid tone.

“Please…” I muttered unable to control the tears running down my cheeks.

My uncle grabbed me by the chin with his free hand to force me to look at him.

“I am sick of you, ungrateful orphan! I need an alliance with Dranda and if I had a daughter I would give her hand in marriage to Gregory, but you are the closest thing I have to it so you will have to do… your feelings and what you want is irrelevant, this is the time where you pay me back for taking you in and if you don’t do exactly as I say, tonight Edward and Andrew are going to be tossed out in the streets to live as beggars as they deserve.”

His threat made my blood run cold. I would do anything for my brothers and he knew it, I would rather never see them again than to ruin their lives.

Defeated and trapped I nodded softly. Yes, I was going to marry the king.