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Prologue

“I want a story, Mommy!”

Shayla suppressed a sigh, looking at her daughter’s eager little face Her five-year-old adored fairy tales and wanted a new story every night, but she absolutely detested repetition

Shayla looked around, looking for inspiration, and her gaze stopped on the glossy azines on the royals of the Inner Core planets were a bit of a guilty pleasure for her, so Shayla couldn’t really afford but couldn’t resist buying Maybe they would finally be useful for so

Shayla picked up the azine and stared at the man on the cover “Once upon a time, there was a beautiful prince,” she said wistfully “He was so beautiful that the tales of his beauty spread even to the Fringe planets of the Union It was said that one look at the prince stole people’s breaths away—so beautiful he was” Shaylaa little for the sake of the story, but the prince in question really was breathtakingly handsome

Her daughter perked up “What did he look like?”

Shayla sraceful, with the kind of face that was ireen eyes, and skin that was so fair and perfect it seelow” Shayla decided not to mention that the prince had a sensual, red bow of a hty and non-fairy-tale appropriate thoughts Her daughter didn’t need to know that

“He sounds very pretty,” Nina said

Shayla shter “He was”

Nina looked excited now “What happened then?”

“The prince was betrothed to another child froer than you They eventually got ether They were considered the alaxy” Shayla s the articles about the couple, how good they looked together Although the prince-consort had been no match for the prince’s beauty—no one really was, eous couple They had been the Couple, the relationship lowborn nobodies like Shayla aspired to have Shayla used to collect all the articles she could find about the Calluvian royal couple, adoring the them in person Calluvia was a planet of the Inner Core, very far away from the rural bumfuck of a planet Shayla lived on

“Did they live happily ever after?” Nina said

Shayla’s s, the prince-consort was killed by the rebels—very bad people” It was still hard to believe, even months later Truth be told, Shayla felt a little bit heartbroken about it, as if part of her childhood had died too She sed “And it was said that the prince never s over”

Her little daughter frowned “It’s a sad story, Mommy! I don’t like it”

Shayla kissed her on the forehead gently “I knoeetie But not all stories have a happy ending They’re still worth telling”