Written for Melinda Collins
Chapter One
Iām excited, exhilarated even as I run to see my father, the king that will soon step down as I am wed in a few days. Iām ready to run into his arms and tell him all about how wonderful my day was when Iām stopped in my tracks, a gasp caught in my throat so my mouth is just gaping open at the horror before me. He lays dead, his guards all around him. I run, in absolute disbelief he is truly laying lifeless on the floor. I shake him āfather! father please talk to meā Heās cold, his skin no longer warm and pink but pale. Thereās so much blood on the floor and within me I know he has passed on. This was the day my world fell apart. There was no time for weddings or any type of happiness. Whomever had done this had declared war and my mother, bless her misguided soul was fast to blame a kingdom we had been having some disputes with. They denied her claim but she wouldnāt believe them so now, even years later we are stuck in a war that may or may not even be against the right people.