It was a beautiful time. So beautiful that later, when we became mortal enemies, the memory of it could still soak my pillow with tears in the dead of night.
In the third year of our marriage, the forty–first year of the King’s reign, Damien’s power soared. He was named Lord Regent.
The moment the edict was read, Damien appeared in the Throne Room, dressed in mourning clothes, and knelt before the King.
It was only then that I learned the truth. Damien was the son of Lord Vaughn, the governor whose entire house had been executed.
Years ago, there had been a great flood in the southern provinces. The people were displaced and starving. Lord Vaughn was sent to oversee the relief effort.
One hundred thousand bushels of grain were sent south, but they arrived mixed with sand and dirt.
When word reached the capital, the King was enraged.
My father, who had been the one to tamper with the grain shipment, framed Lord Vaughn to save his own skin.
Our chance meeting on Whisperwind Peak… it had all been a meticulously planned trap
The one hundred and eight souls of House Vaughn, innocent, beheaded.
Damien had sat in that carefully chosen cherry tree, waiting for me to walk, step by step, into his cage.
My body hit the ground with a sickening thud. Blood poured from my nose and mouth.
I saw the endless stars, and I saw Damien’s anguished face.
Everything was finally over.
07
But to my surprise, I did not die
The Stargazer’s Spire was dozens of meters high, but ten meters from the top, a small observation deck jutted out.
I had fallen onto the deck. My organs were ruptured, my body broken, but I was alive.
Damien brought me home. He begged the Royal Physician to save me.
While they waited, he looked at my blood–soaked, weakly breathing form on the bed.
He couldn’t even remember how he had carried me home. He only remembered the feeling of me in his arms, like a shattered butterfly that might vanish into dust at
any moment.
The physician rushed in with his medical bag Piles of blood soaked cloths grew on the floor.
Damien’s eyes were shot with red, his brow a permanent, agonized knot.
Liana entered, wrapped in a fur–lined cloak. There was a clear, sharp joy in her eyes.
She wanted me dead. She wanted me erased from Damien’s heart so she could take my place, so her future children would be his legitimate heirs.
