Chapter 14: The Throne of Thorns

The silence that followed our demonstration was profound, a held breath before the storm. The awe in the eyes of the assembled nobles was a tangible thing, a crack in the edifice of Lilian’s unquestioned authority. I saw it—the dawning of doubt, the flicker of a terrifying hope. It was that hope that sealed our fate. Lilian’s face, pale with a fury so absolute it seemed to leach the color from the very air, contorted into a mask of pure venom. The mask of the cool, calculating queen shattered,...