**THE PRINCESS SERIES is part of the GOLDEN UNIVERSE, and considered a sequel to THE GOLDEN QUEEN/A BRAZEN LOVE**
♦YOU MUST HAVE READ THE GOLDEN UNIVERSE NOVELS AND THE BRAZEN NOVELS TO READ THIS SERIES! AS WELL AS BOOK ONE, PRINCESS OF CANDOR, AND...
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♪ 'Cause I've got issues, but you got em too So give em all to me and I'll give mine to you ♪ {Julia Michaels—Issues}
Antoine. Here. And blood. Blood?
Sébastien was already scrambling over to where Antoine stood; whether to kneel to him, embrace him, or make certain he wasn't an illusion, Cordelia wasn't sure.
But Cordelia couldn't move, could barely even breathe. If he was an illusion, he was quite vivid and realistic, and the glimmer of confusion he wore was far from a dream. It was a living nightmare.
How had Antoine gotten there? When? And why was there blood on his sword? Why did he even have a sword? What was with the fanciness of his proper, war-reminiscent armor, and why the need to wear his crown into battle, if this was indeed what that was?
She hadn't intercepted any noise resembling fighting, but now she wondered if this was why someone had run past their door, not moments before. If this was why Sébastien's guard had deserted them, and the serving girl who'd brought them their tea had appeared so distraught.
King Antoine of Totresia was at the Valeville Manor, and he didn't look too pleased about it.
Sébastien ended up embracing Antoine, but Antoine didn't return the hug. He kept his gaze fixed on Cordelia, his eyebrows in such a neutral spot that she sensed shock-waves flutter through her, further immobilizing her. Too calm, too quiet.
She managed to gather her courage to stand, yet felt so small before her immense King of a brother who'd showed up to rescue her. And who'd likely overheard a good portion of her conversation with Sébastien.
Let us pray his apparent anger is because of something else.
"You came?" Her words were choked, and she found that a slight rage was brewing inside her. A rage that he'd indeed come to find her, after all this time, but he'd been sneaky in doing so. He'd crept up on her, and now gazed at her as if she were supposed to prostrate at his feet to thank him. But he was the reason she'd run away in the first place. No matter how badly she'd wanted to come home, after all she'd been through, she wouldn't, she couldn't forget that he'd started it all.
"You came armed and fought Richel's men?" Sébastien had moved away from his older brother, taking in his appearance from head to toe. "What in the devil happened? When did you get here? How?"
He asked all the questions Cordelia had been holding in, yet Antoine paid him no heed. His attention was all for Cordelia, burning through her as she tried to keep her legs upright and not crumble before him.
He shoved past his brother to stroll up and tower before her. A red-hot fury radiated from his proximity, and Cordelia sensed her chin dipping, her limbs melting as she prepared to curtsy to her King.
But she couldn't, she wouldn't curtsy. Not here, not now, not after everything. Instead, she gritted her teeth and kept her chin high, maintaining his gaze as it slowly shifted to a glare. She wouldn't bend, not until he explained himself, and not until she had a chance to justify her own actions to him.
