Chapter 63: Audience with the King
Inside the main palace... far from the ongoing banquet that had already become the center of rumors and scandal across the royal grounds, one of the most luxurious rooms sat in complete disarray.
Mirrors lay shattered across the polished floors, furniture was overturned and broken, and fine silks and dresses had been torn to pieces in a fit of madness.
Within the wreckage stood a woman, regal yet consumed by fury, the queen of the Valemere Kingdom, Lysandra of House Edevane, born into one of the most powerful Marquess families in the kingdom.
Despite her age, Lysandra still carried the kind of cold, refined beauty that drew awe in courtly circles. Yet now, there was nothing elegant about her.
Her painted lips twisted in rage, she gripped a whip in her trembling hand, still lashing at the crumpled body of a young maid at her feet. The girl’s uniform was ripped, her skin streaked with bruises, her body limp and unconscious. And yet, the queen struck again.
The maid had long since passed the point of screaming. Her face was flushed, her breath erratic, and her carefully arranged hair now a tangled mess.
The other maids had already fled the chamber, terrified they would be next... and none daring to stop their queen’s violent spiral. After all, everyone in the palace knew: since the announcement that the fourth prince would be crowned instead of her son, Lysandra had lost herself completely.
It wasn’t merely grief. It was a humiliation... an insult that twisted everything she had schemed and sacrificed for into ashes.
And so, Lysandra wasn’t done.
Until—
Suddenly, the heavy doors swung open, and a new presence entered the chaos.
A man stepped into the ruined chamber, tall and commanding, every inch exuding royal pride. His cold gaze swept across the room, ignoring the broken maid sprawled on the ground, and instead landed on the woman at the center of the wreckage.