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Prologue

The Royal Palace of Maldania

He lived

This was Sevastian’s sole burning thought as he advanced down the wide sunlit corridor Not the blood seeping fro thickly into his eye Not the fact that he hadn’t slept in days, and even then that sleep had been fractured and restless with artillery fire ripping deep wounds into the earth outside his tent He lived and was not rotting away on a battlefield like soand whole

His booted heels clacked a cold, precise rhythm He’d ceased to leave a trail of mud and blood several yards back Every inch of him was covered in filth, blood and htht, his once fine unifororated, victorious

His footsteps rang out sharply over the enerations before hied breath tripped froeny would walk Now that the as over, that uaranteed Whether it happened depended upon hihtening his shoulders

His shadow stretched long over the stained-glass s lining the corridor His breath still fell fast from his hard ride to reach here--to be the first one to tell the king that it was finally over

He nodded to thesentry on either side of the ’s bedchaether sharply at his presence

He knocked once before entering The king sat in a high-backed chair before a floor to ceilingthat overlooked the valley Sevastian had just ridden hell-bent through to arrive here In the distance, where the mountains rose beyond the snow-blanketed valley, dark s to the heavens

The oldiht of hi with e on a knee before his king, he dipped his head and bowed low "The kingdohness The enemy is vanquished Marsan is dead and the rest of the rebels have surrendered"

The king’s gnarled hand came down on his head in a fierce caress "You’ve prevailed I knew you would"

He gri’s royal robes Over the years he hadn’t felt the same conviction He’d only known that heclosed his eyes in a weary blink, clearly grappling with the fact that the bloody ten-year-long rebellion had cole for Sevastian, too He’d grown toseized his hand, his grip surprisingly strong for one in such weak health "You knohat ht as we eive them that Feed them hope, the promise of better days to come"

Sevastian’s throat thickened "I shall not fail you, Grandfather"

"Of course you won’t"

"I know my duty It shall be done"

Chapter One

Two months later

"You mean Miss Hadley?"

At the sound of her na, her mouth stuffed full of her third frosted biscuit Or perhaps it was her fourth The tasty treats were thus far the highlight of her evening, but hearing her nahter turned the food to dust on her tongue

The voices continued, and she pressed farther back into a column, as if she could somehow disappear into the plaster "Well, she is rather" The rest of their words were lost in a burst of guffaws

Grier sucked in a deep breath, knowing that whatever the biddies had said was far from complimentary She knew this with the sa about her and not her half-sister Not that she and Cleo weren’t both a favored subject for the sniggering busybodies of the ton , but somehow Grier had received the brunt of attention as they went about Town

She glanced down at herself, quickly assessing The burgundy goas the height of fashion, the color rich and flattering against her dusky coainst all the other watered-down rie What better way to attract soive her the sta out aood thing Now she wasn’t so sure

She’d endured nations since her entrée into Society a fortnight past None complimentary And yet she’d braced herself for that Her father’s fortunerooms, but it did not mean everyone would don a kind s she’d endured, however, was intolerable enough to send her fleeing London with her tail tucked between her skirts She lifted her chin and took another bite from her biscuit She’d be a proper lady yet In tiet her low beginnings She’d have respectability at last, the pains of her youth forgotten

Stiffening her spine with this heartening relass Besides, nothing awaited her at ho years where she would suffer everyone’s pity Or censure She was hard-pressed to say which orse