I didn’t feel anything. My emotions were gone, and my mind was blank.

I stood there, staring at the bloodied throne room. The air was thick with fear—guards frozen in place, their breaths shallow, and maids trembling at the edges of the room, too scared to move.

Everything had changed.

Slowly, I lifted my hand, the weight of what I was about to say bearing down on me like the crown that awaited. My voice was cold, detached. “Call two more guards to dispose of this man’s body. Throw him in the forest—scum like him has no place in my kingdom.”

The maids scrambled, fleeing to carry out my command. Soon, two guards entered the room, their faces pale, their eyes darting to the blood that stained my hands. They obeyed without question, wrapping my father’s lifeless body in a black sack and dragging him away.

I stood still, watching as my maids worked silently to clean the blood. They avoided looking at me, their hands shaking as they scrubbed the marble floor.

The doors creaked open.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I turned to see Elise standing there, her small frame illuminated by the light spilling in from the hallway. Her wide eyes took in the scene: her father’s body being carried out like trash, the blood on my clothes, the dead man from the other kingdom lying in a pool of crimson.

“Elise…” I softened my voice, stepping toward her. “Dad was murdered by a traitor.”

It was a lie, but one I had to tell. I knelt and wrapped my arms around her, holding her close, pretending to be consumed by sorrow.

Her small body trembled in my embrace, but she didn’t cry. She wasn’t like other children; she was like me. She barely knew our father’s love, and now, it seemed, she didn’t know how to mourn his loss.

I rose and turned to the guards, my tone turning sharp and authoritative. “By morning, announce this to the kingdom: The king killed the queen in a fit of madness and was found dead in the night. His body has vanished. The queen, however, will be laid to rest in the palace’s grand hall. Anyone who loved her, as a queen or as a woman, is welcome to attend the ceremony.”

The guards exchanged glances but nodded. They had seen what I was capable of—they would not defy me.

I gestured to one of the maids, signaling her to take care of Elise. She hesitated but eventually stepped forward, gently patting Elise’s head and taking her small hand.

As they left the throne room, Elise glanced back at me, her innocent eyes clouded with confusion and fear.

When the doors closed behind her, I stood alone in the vast, empty hall.

“So, this is what it means to be king,” I murmured, my voice echoing through the silence. The enormity of it all settled over me. One wrong word, one wrong move, could doom an entire kingdom.

The crown was as heavy as a boulder, but the responsibility... it was as crushing as a mountain.

I walked to the balcony, staring out over the kingdom bathed in the fading light of dusk. The sun sank below the horizon, casting long, sharp shadows across the land.

I had risen in the light of my mother’s love.

And now, I had fallen into the deep darkness of my father’s legacy.

The sunlight was fading fast, and in its place, the royal shadows loomed, swallowing me whole.