Page 1 of A Trial of War
Prologue
Réalta Avermont
Princess of the Human Realm
“Istar has returned!” a guard announced as I entered the throne room, sitting at my father’s side.
“Bring him in,” my father commanded, the authority of a king filling the space.
My stomach twisted, but I kept my mask firmly in place, concealing my fears. I remembered every word spoken the night our entire kingdom changed. The night shifters became our enemies.
(Twenty-Two Years Prior)
“Hunt the shifters down and kill them all!” King Taran roared, fist pounding into the gold-plated armrest of his throne. “I want every last one hunted and slaughtered on sight! They will pay with their lives for this!”
“But, my king,” Istar, leader of the mages, said with a low bow. “There is the treaty to consider.”
“Curse the treaty!” my father snarled, rising to his feet.
My hands trembled as I buried my face into the delicate silk folds of my mother’s skirt, clutching to her as she rose from her throne, frightened at my father’s outrage.
“Réalta,” my mother whispered as she gently clasped my shaking hands. “Do not turn away. Remember, as rulers, we do not show our fears. The people rely on us to be steadfast and, above all, brave. Beneath the surface, our heart may race like a jackrabbit sprinting across the open fields, but we never show it.”
I gazed at my mother, the queen, admiring her unwavering courage at my father’s side. Her expression showed no fear. Bright sapphire eyes glimmered against her tanned complexion as her long raven hair fell in loose waves down her back, granting her an elegant beauty that I was honored to inherit.
“One day, my little rainbow,” she whispered, “you will inherit this realm. You must learn to shine even amongst the gloom of a rainy day.”
“We need the shifters alive, Your Majesty,” Istar rebutted. “The balance of Valdor requires—”
“They killed her!” My father’s roar echoed across every surface within the throne room. I flinched at the rage in his voice as the very walls seemed to cower from his fury. “My sister… My belovedsister.”
My mother rushed to my father’s side, cradling her swollen belly that held my sibling, whom I couldn’t wait to meet. “Shh,” she said in a comforting tone. “We don’t know the cause of her death yet, my love.”
“She was always a sympathizer with the treaty,” King Taran said in a low voice, grief laced behind his fury. “And look at what it got her!”
I couldn’t hold back the tears swelling in my eyes as I gazed upon the lifeless face of my beloved aunt. She was always so kind to me, sneaking me treats when my mother wasn’t looking. Teaching me how a gentle touch could often reap more rewards than a firm one.
“She leaves to live along the border for a year as my ambassador with the shifters, only to return to us dead,” my father said as a lone tear streaked down his cheek. “With a gods-damned bite mark on her neck as proof of who is responsible for her death!”
The room fell silent. Evidence beyond reproach about who was the cause of her death.
“Dawn,” my father whispered as he moved to kneel by his elder sister’s body, tenderly cradling her head in his lap.
My father was the eldest male heir to the throne, but he’d always kept my aunt Dawn close. She was brave, wise, and, above all else, kind.
And now, she was dead.
“The healers state there was nothing they could have done to save her,” Istar said. “Her heart appeared to have stopped—”
“I want to speak to them myself!” King Taran cut in. “Bring Isolde to me now.”
“They are in mourning, Your Majesty. With the loss of their own, they—”
“I don’t care!”
Tears flooded my eyes as I gripped my mother’s skirt tighter.
How couldtheydo this to my aunt Dawn?
