Chapter B
D ReelShort
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The day I fell for him, our ending was already written.
“Your Majesty,” I said softly, “you may not believe this, but back then… it was I who begged for the marriage decree. I insisted on marrying you.”
He remained still, eyes locked on mine.
When he turned away,
away. I saw his eye
eyes were red.
“Don’t call me ‘Your Majesty,” he said in a trembling voice, almost pleading. “Call me Alaric. Or… darling, like you once did on the steppes. Please…
I said nothing
Neither did he. He simply sat with me in silence.
Then I asked to go outside.
He helped me up. The autumn leaves outside the courtyard were dry and golden.
1 had been unconscious for a long time.
“oh, Fina,” Alaric said suddenly, turning toward me. “I forgot to tell you…”
He p
pointed toward the west. “I had our child moved into the royal mausoleum.”
I looked at his profile and saw unbearable grief.
Had the baby lived, he would have been the rightful heir–crowned Iwith the title of prince. Not reduced to a handful of dust.
At that moment, Alaric wasn’t a fearsome warlord, nor a sovereign who had unified the realm.
He was simply a father mourning his child.
“Name him,” he said quietly. “You choose.”
I didn’t hesitate. “His name shall be Renfrey,”
Renfrey–meaning peace after chaos. A kingdom at rest.
Yes, let it be so.
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Chapter 9
Alaric suddenly had the House of Hargrave thrown into the dungeons.
Evelyne knelt at Alaric’s feet, her forehead bloodied from repeated prostration, but not even that moved him.
“Why? Your Majesty, what offense did my father and brother commit?”
“Have you forgotten? It was they who opened the gates of Valebridge and welcomed your army in!”
“I carry y
your child!” she added, desperation cracking her voice.
Alaric’s face was devoid of mercy. He forced a bowl of potent abortive medicine down her throat.
No room for sentiment.
“Did you think I spared you all this time because I was unaware of the schemes you orchestrated behind my back?”
Evelyne collapsed, writhing in agony.
#SO YOU
knew… Good. I’ve gro
tired of living in fear.”
Alaric ordered her dragged away—to be sent to the war camps, forced to serve the soldiers however they pleased.
As for the rest of the Valebridge family–they were all beheaded.
He told me this himself, as I sat beside those roses in the courtyard.
His face tightened when he noticed the bright petals on my shoulder. He reached over to brush them off.
“You shouldn’t be near these.”
I looked at his troubled face and whispered, “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
These past days, my memories had grown louder than my thoughts.
I remembered watching him once, years ago, practicing swordsmanship in the courtyard, beside the blooming rose bushes.
Petals had danced around him like a storm.
He had noticed me watching and beckoned me closer, smiling
I had known then those roses were polsonous. But I stepped forward anyway.
One wrong step. And then another.
Now, it felt like my life was flashing before my eyes.
I knew I was at my end.
Rumor had it the court was in chaos. Alaric hadn’t held council in days, choosing instead to remain by my side.
They said disease and floods had swept through the land. That a rebel army had breached the capital walls.
Their leader, they said… was barely more than a boy.
His name, I heard, was Ravenshire.
Alaric never came to see me again after that.
And this time, I closed my eyes- for good.
