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Audrey watched Giovanni die a week after the trial. He walked to the gallows with his expression fixed, walking in a straight line with a stolid face.

"You are condemned, Giovanni Scapula, to execution for the treasonous act of killing King Kael," a voice called. "Normally, the lives of your family would be forfeit, however King Landon has decided to spare them. You are sentenced to be hung, drawn, and quartered."

"Are you just going to stand here?" Tyrek asked from beside her.

The two of them were standing in the crowds of people, craning their necks to get a better view over the heads of taller people in front. The weather was pleasant that day, much to Audrey's disappointment; it didn't seem right for the sun to be shining and the sky to be blue when a man was going to be hung. Her two guards stood further behind but didn't bother coming too close, keeping within eyesight but not earshot of her. They had dragged her up at dawn that morning to escort her down to Folkridge in a carriage, then left her in the cobbled streets by the gallows. Nobility and their households stood closer to the gallows while the commoners stood further back, separated from the rich by a wall of guards. Audrey was glad they couldn't see her.

"What else can I do?" Audrey asked the seneschal. "I don't have any power here."

Tyrek didn't answer as Giovanni stepped up onto the stage, facing the rope hanging in front of him.

"The brave Giovanni stood up for his sister and will now die for it," Tyrek said quietly, seeming to speak on an impulse.

"We could escape now," Audrey muttered, making sure no one could hear other than him. They were out of Northstone; if she could lose the guards in the maze of the bustling town, she could find a way out.

She still didn't know what she planned to do. Some part of her wanted to just stay with Landon, become his queen and let him deal with everything. It would be the easiest way, but it was also the way of a coward. It wasn't right.

If she wanted to avenge her brother, she had to destroy Landon and become queen by herself.

She had no idea how to do that. She had no experience in ruling; she had been taught how to make small talk, put on a stoic face, and hide her thoughts. As for leading—the thought seemed too large for her to comprehend.

She could start an internal coup, but one word to the wrong lord would result in being caught. She could escape and try to raise an army, but who would rally to the call of a young princess?

Just marry Landon, some part of her whispered.

He's a killer, another part said.

So are you, she reminded herself.

She dug her nails into her palms to cut out the conflicting voices. Focusing on the pain of her sharp nail digging into her flesh, pushing deeper and deeper, was better than having to argue with herself. She wished that someone would tell her what to do, but everyone had their own motives and she found it harder and harder to trust the word of others. She had only herself to trust, and yet even her own mind seemed a fickle and dangerous thing.

Tyrek just smiled. "Another time, another place. Only now you see sense, princess."

"Do you forgive me?" The executioner had a rough and gravelly voice.

Giovanni nodded in a show of self-control that Audrey couldn't help admiring. Usually, people started shrieking and cursing the gods at that customary question.

"Any last words?" the executioner asked.

"I have come hither in the eyes of the gods to die a dignified man. No matter what they say and who I worked for. I will die true and strong and be cleansed of my sins for it. And that's what I pray good men shall say when they speak of my demise," Giovanni said clearly, but Audrey could see his hands shaking as a group of commoners booed loudly.

Audrey heard sobbing as a young girl, probably his sister, buried her head into her friend's shoulder.

The rope was tied around his neck, and the trapdoor was dropped. A scream sounded from the girl and Audrey had to push down the scream threatening to rise out of her own throat. Sometimes the victim died straight away from the initial drop, but Giovanni did not get that mercy.

She turned away as the sounds of choking ensued.

"He had accepted his fate. The ones who aren't calm are the ones who deny it. Who don't want to die and don't allow themselves to accept that they will," Tyrek muttered, his eyes on the gallows.

"Almost everyone cries, begs for mercy, even screams," Audrey whispered. "The executions my mother made me attend were like that, anyway."

"I don't understand how you are mystified. He died calm. He was a very brave and family-orientated man and obviously wanted to help his sister. End of story."

"This is wrong."

Tyrek placed a hand on her shoulder as she tried to gather herself. Her father had made her attend plenty of executions. This wasn't any different.

She shrugged his hand away and forced herself to watch the rest of the man's thrashing. She didn't want to be a craven who looked away.

His pale face had gone livid and engorged, but his eyes were closed as he slipped out of consciousness and the oxygen was cut off from his brain. She gritted her teeth and faced the gruesome sight, seeing a small twitch in his left leg before the executioner pulled him down, still half-alive, and lifted a sword to...

Audrey flinched and turned away from the disembowelment. Luckily, Giovanni was so far gone that he just let out a small moan before he died.

It didn't take her long to find Landon standing to the side, next to Jax, watching in silence with an unreadable expression. Audrey didn't know what was going on in his head, and Jax's face was equally guarded.

When her older guard came forward, a man she had heard called Theo, Audrey didn't resist. She was limp as he roughly pushed her away, then led her back to the carriage, then to her room.

Blank eyes watched her as she got pushed past castle staff, no one raising a finger to help her. Audrey wanted to scream at them to look away. They had seen her being humiliated again and again. Going from a stoic and well-respected princess to a ragdoll. She didn't want them to see this side of her.

Play right and checkmate. You win.

Ethelind was wrong. She could never win a game of chess as dangerous as one she didn't even want to be part of. There would be no checkmate for her.

As she was pushed into her room, she made herself get up.

The door slammed in front of her as a guard waited outside. Footsteps as her other guard arrived.

She used her bed to help herself to stand.

Her legs buckled, and she was on the floor again.

She had to get up.

She forced herself to her feet.

Retched into a bowl, holding her braid away from her face.

Fell again.

Got back up.

Stumbled unsteadily over to her bed.

She collapsed onto the blankets and passed out.

* * *

She opened her eyes to find a familiar person sitting on the edge of her bed. Golden hair, disarrayed and poking out messily; shining blue eyes; a beautiful, smiling face...

"Thomas?" she whispered, tears welling in her eyes as her dead brother faced her.

He smiled.

"Heya, sister," he said softly.

She had shut out the grief of her family for too long and it all came flooding out in the racking sobs that burst uncontrollably from her chest, tearing from her insides, and threatening to overflow.

He's dead. He's not there, she told herself. Was she finally going mad? Seeing dead people wasn't normal, yet she couldn't make herself let go of the illusion. She couldn't let him leave again.

"I miss you," she choked.

"Don't worry about me. Worry about them," he said. "I'm always here, Audrey. I always have been."

"Tell me what to do," she begged. "Please."

Then her mother had materialised from the shadows, her auburn hair tied in a braid and a kind look on her face as she sat down next to Thomas. He didn't seem to notice.

"You're being used by that pathetic excuse for a king?" Thomas made a face.

"I'm not一" she began.

"Kinda looks like you are, sis," Thomas said. "His puppet now, are you?"

Anger overcame her at the words.

"I am no one's puppet," she spat. "If you were here, we wouldn't..."

"I probably would have been killed when Kael took over the castle. A prince as an heir? Too powerful. Kael would have slit my throat instantly." Thomas shrugged. "But a princess..." he grinned. "Underestimated. He saw a deferential girl who could strengthen his claim. Don't be that... make us proud."

"How?" Audrey asked.

"By becoming queen," Adina said, cutting in. "You know Landon is a twisted thing. You are the true heir."

"You left me," Audrey accused weakly.

"You're so, so brave." Adina reached down for her daughter's hand, only for her hand to go straight through.

"You're not real," Audrey said, moving backwards until her back was pressed against the headboard. "You're not real."

"Dree一" Thomas started.

"You're not real!" she said, her voice raising until she was practically screaming. "Go away! You're not real! You're not..."

She heard Alika enter the room and felt her maid's reassuring arms as she whispered to Audrey, tucking the hysterical, shaking princess back into bed.

"You're okay," Alika soothed. "Don't worry."

When she next looked, they were gone.

She fell back asleep.

* * *

"She's been talking to herself," someone was saying.

She forced herself to sit up. Her throat was dry, and her body felt weak. Hunger had finally caught up with her. Her head felt dizzy, and everything was spinning as she tried to focus on the voices.

"About what?" another voice asked, this one with more authority.

Hesitation. "Your Majesty, I think she's not stable..."

"About what?" Landon repeated, more sharply.

"She was telling someone they weren't real," the first voice said. "And there was no one in her room."

She stood on unsteady feet and walked through her chambers to see Landon talking to one of her guards in the open doorway. She tried to slip back into her bedroom unnoticed, but he had already seen her. He dismissed the guard before walking in and shutting the door, then beckoned to her with his right index finger.

She collapsed onto her knees in reply, feeling dizziness sweep over her.

"You need to eat," he said, kneeling on one leg to be at the same level as her and taking her chin in one hand, raising her head to assess her sunken cheeks and hollow eyes. She couldn't focus on his face and her whole body was fatigued, her limbs heavy and her mind lethargic.

Green and brown and gold burned through the haze of it all; pretty eyes framed by dark lashes. She focused on them, trying to keep a grip on something.

He let go after a moment and sighed. "The guards say you aren't eating enough. The trays return full."

"Maybe I don't want to always be okay!" she snapped, dragging herself towards the bed by her hands. "Maybe I'm not alright because of everything your father did... running in here and murdering my parents, then betrothing me to your brother and..." She paused for breath, feeling her thoughts slip away and come back. "They're all gone, Landon." Her voice broke.

His eyes followed her before he wordlessly stood and poured her a chalice of water from a jug to the side. When he next knelt, he offered it to her. She numbly took it, feeling the liquid slip down her parched throat. He waited silently as she downed it all in one go, then took the empty chalice from her hand and put it to the side.

Why am I taking help from him? she thought and used her bedframe to sit on her bed, leaning her head on the pillows. Autumn jumped onto the bed and curled up beside her protectively.

"I'll call for food," Landon said.

Audrey couldn't make herself speak. She stared at her bare feet, counting to ten repeatedly in her head: one, two, three, four...

He sent Alika for food before sitting at the foot of her bed, where she had seen Thomas. She wanted to scream at him to go too, but wrapped her arms around her legs instead, her head down.

"You tried to kill my head guard in the trial," he said.

"I did." She looked at him. "You killed your father."

"I did not." Landon assessed her. "I did not lie."

"Do you know who did it?"

"Yes."

"Who?" Audrey asked.

"Giovanni." Landon shrugged.

"No, he didn't."

"You'd be surprised how easily he agreed once his sister was threatened."

The realisation sunk in a little too slowly.

She shook her head, surprisingly numb. Where disgust or hatred should have been, she felt nothingness. As if she had reached a place where nothing could touch her anymore. Landon had blackmailed a man to kill his father, then sentenced that man to death to keep him quiet forever. But she couldn't make herself care. She had seen so much that it was slowly becoming more normal for her.

Which is wrong. Am I slowly becoming like them? Lose her morals, and she was just another weapon for him to use.

"Why?" Audrey asked. "How could you do that to your own father?"

He exhaled slowly, as if steeling himself to answer. "He had to go."

"No, he didn't!" she snapped. "Without Kael, you wouldn't even be alive! He gave you life, he..."

"He took it away. He was never a father to me." His jaw clenched. "You don't understand. You wouldn't. You grew up with a family who were there. Don't presume to tell me..."

"Aldric loved you! If you had just reciprocated that, maybe you wouldn't be so damn lonely!" Audrey shouted back.

He flinched at the words as if she had slapped him. She had hit something.

"Don't talk about things you don't understand," Landon said, his voice so quiet that she barely heard him.

Audrey thought of Aldric's smiles. His attempts to make her trust him, his hatred of being hated. She had secretly trusted him, but what if he had been a manipulator, too?

In a land of enemies and betrayal, only the strongest can survive.

Audrey had to keep going. She had to uncover the story. Because, strangely, she related to him in some ways, and wanted to understand him. "Your mother... Aldric said she died. Did something happen between you two after she...?"

A shadow passed over his face and she instantly went quiet.

"Don't," he said hoarsely, his voice barely more than a whisper. "Don't ever ask."

Alika brought up a tray of food and put it in front of Audrey before curtseying and taking her leave. She stared at the tray, then reached out and took a roll. It was still warm, baked golden and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The warmth flooded through her and sated her stomach as she bit into it, relishing the taste of something so mundane.

He stood and turned to leave.

"You're a liar and a killer, and for that, I hate you," Audrey decided, barely knowing what she was saying. "I hate you and I will hate you for as long as you remain that way."

He turned back, his face emotionless. "Hate me as much as you want; we can't help who we are. You should know that more than anyone. You are no better than any of us. You have killed, you have sacrificed. That is the cost of playing this game."

Her heart beat rapidly and her body twitched with the temptation to cower before him. But she stayed where she was, not yielding. "When Aldric died, did... did you mourn him?"

His face did not change. "No."

Before she could press him further, he was gone.

She couldn't help thinking about that smile he had given her during the chess game. It had been beautiful, like the ghost of something that had once been.

But he was on her throne. There was no time for mercy.

She looked at the tray of food before her. A life source to help sustain her.

She was going to live. She had to live.

For what, she didn't know. But she vowed to find her place in the world.

She took another roll.Yesss I stan Audrey

Please excuse the spam of chapters 🙈

Love you all,
Shelly M x