With a group of unlikely allies, Alethia must become an unstoppable force to let go of her haunting past and save the Four Kingdoms.
Two years have passed since Queen Liliana broke the Peace Treaty with the Gera Kingdom and began a deadly war. Howev...
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Samir rubbed the towel over his wet hair and tossed it on the floor. A light knock came from the door.
"Yes, yes, I'm coming," Samir shouted. He rolled his shoulders and stretched his arms above his head then exited the bathroom. Oscar stood a couple of feet away, lingering by the entry door. His wide eyes followed Samir's motion to the armchair in front of the fireplace.
Samir crouched down and grabbed the wrinkled agenda papers. Caius had dropped them off last night and instead of reading them, Samir found it more interesting to make them into paper airplanes and use his magic to drift them around the room.
Now, he grasped them in a tight fist, they crumbled further, and the crinkling sound joined the few scattered caws of the ravens.
"Wanna take a shortcut?" Samir asked with a mischievous grin.
Oscar's face remained unchanged despite the informal speech Samir used. Instead, the servant glanced at the open window where a dangling rope drifted in the wind. "I prefer to keep my feet on the ground and my head attached to my head, Your Excellency."
"Come on, mate." Samir's eyes lit with delight. "A thousand stairs sound more appealing to you? And call me Samir."
"You chose to live in the West Tower, Your—" Oscar paused, his lips curling down in disdain as he looked over the dainty living space. "Samir."
It certainly wasn't the first chamber Samir had been directed to live in when he arrived. Caius had taken him to a room befitting someone of his statue; a spacious, glamorous room with plush couches and embellished golden curtains. It even had an indoor water fountain at its center and sparkling, diamond chandeliers that brightened the space so much Samir had blinked rapidly to adjust his eyes.
When Caius gave him a tour of the castles, they stopped by the West Tower. His attendant tried to make the visit brief and his uncomfortableness was palpable when Samir insisted on exploring the space more than necessary. At first, Samir had simply done it to jiggle the rod stuck up the old man's uptight arse but then his curiosity propelled him to the chambers he now claimed as his own.
The room used to be filled with mirrors. When he inquired about it, Caius claimed to know nothing, yet presented an intriguing tidbit of information.
"Why are there so many mirrors in here?" Samir asked as he drifted in the empty space, his reflection greeting him with each step. Spiderly webs of cracks shown in some of the mirrors and shatters of glass covered the floor. Smashed stone statues with unrecognizable faces rested in the corners while the bed chamber was darkened by burgundy, velvet curtains. An odd choice of fabric to hang in a castle full of Witans.
Caius followed in his shadows; his chin pointed up as he regarded the mess around them with disgust. "It has always been this way and no demands of change were ever made."
Samir stared at the bed, the comforter in disarray and piles of papers with scribbled text entangled in it. On a desk near the east window were spilled jars of ink. Samir walked over to it and stared at the surface. Scratch marks went across it in jagged patterns almost as if someone had taken a sharp object to it and left behind their presence.
