The Heir of Aiwan--Book 1

a queen's dark descent

100 years ago- Aiwan

Her mother is dead. If she thought the crown was heavy before, she had truly no idea. Everyone looking at her, everyone expecting her to know what to do. It's like her mother knew she was pregnant before she even did. Held on until she knew the line would continue before fading away into the night. Fading was not exactly her mother's greatest strength. The woman did not understand subtlety.

This night is frigid and dark. The new queen is draped in heavy cloth to protect her against the cold of winter's bite. And to hide the small belly of the baby growing inside her. She is not ready for the entirety of Aiwan to know. She wants to cherish this small bit of secret between only herself, her husband Alec, and her maid. She is only two months along, in reality most wouldn't even notice the small change in her body but she can't risk it. There is no real threat to the crown but she would like to make it through this ceremony without fielding questions about the baby.

The thought of the growing fae inside her gives her both hope and also incites fear. This is not the first child she has grown inside her. Her little Elsabet, she didn't make it. That was almost five years ago but her heart grieves like it was yesterday. All the pain, the blood. She tries to shake this memory away and schools her face into regal somberness. The kind that makes her eyes go hard, her mouth draw down in the corners. The face she has spent the last week practicing. She is channeling her mother, whose face flashes before her eyes. Was her mother only cold because she had to be or was she born that way? She shakes her head minutely to push the thought away. She can't afford to be soft, not in this kingdom, not now.

She had not been home to the castle is almost twenty years. Not since her own wedding. Had not set her eyes on her mother in almost that long. Of course, she knew the rumors that her mother's health was ailing but she hadn't quite believed it. Fae live so long but are not immoral. It was definitely possible but some part of her had believed her mother would live forever. That her insatiable power would act like a life source. The day she left, her mother had looked just as healthy as she had throughout her entire childhood. The hardness behind her eyes not betraying even an ounce of love as her only daughter left home for the first time since her father's death had brought her back to this wretched loveless castle.

She feels a hand clasp her own, its warm pressure both startles and calms her in an instant. He is the only loving presence left in her life, since her own father died. Alec never had a chance to meet him, his memory existed and carried on within her alone. The kingdom had never really known him. He was, like many of the kings before him, only there for one purpose. Her mother had not seen the use in keeping him close to her after she had successfully conceived a girl. She had a few pregnancies before Camille, both stillborn, both boys. Her father was the only one who talked about them. Her mother refused to acknowledge them. Her brothers. It was hard for fae to conceive and produce healthy and strong children. Something about the magic that existed within them, it had to choose you. It had to see potential in you. It made fae parents sometimes hard and distant, as you can imagine. Only a few fae were born with essentially no powers, and those often lived much shorter lives, much like that of their human counterparts. Weak, frail and vulnerable. The thought made her clutch the small bump, she sent a prayer that this child would survive.

She squeezed his hand in return, showing him her appreciation in small tender touches. Once they exited the carriage, she would not be able to show him the affection he deserved, the affection he had earned. He was so much like her father, strong but tender-hearted. She turned her face towards him, meeting his eyes for only a moment, hoping that she conveyed everything in her heart to him. He squeezed her hand in return and let her go. The guards in the carriage across from them would not understand the gesture for what it was. Kings and Queens were so rarely in love. Most kings were chosen for their genetics, the power that ran through their veins. To create the strongest heir among them. Her own father's power had almost matched her mother's. He was not ambitious though. Which made him a perfect foil to her mother's own ambitions.