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Reborn From Ashes: The King's Ruthless Queen

Chapter 4

Word Count: 723 | Released on: Today at 17:45

e was a torture of si

haking her bones. The interior smelled of K

the dark, snowy streets. "A complete waste of

glass. The vibration of the carriage

shb

Two years ago. She

, clutching her torn bodice. "The King. He p

r. "I know, my love. I know. It's the Crown. We are power

ars and agreed to go back to the King, to

from her eyes, that she understood. Kenney hadn't been helpless.

Flas

streetlamps blurred int

asn't crying. He was annoyed t

ough the rattling noise. "If the King had

pulled from hi

t for conversation.

uffs. He didn't look at her. "I would defend

dry, brittle sound.

felt the cool, smooth surface of

r finger unde

ny?" Kenney as

ulled

ring s

Pop

ce, bouncing off the seat, rolling ont

Kenney shouted, scrambling to c

nney," she said co

the toe of her shoe. I

help her down. She walked straight up the stairs,

next to Emily's crib. This wa

e city, the gears of

re roared in the hearth.

the desk, a file in hi

mogene Lloyd,"

ing into the flames. He still wore his black shirt,

gaze to Sterling. "The Tr

e, Your

ightened on the

It should have been a wall. Instead, she knew exactly wha

y?" Alaric a

ble morals," Sterling said diplomatically. "He has been

. It was a dar

o him," Al

g pause

ic stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the

man, Sire. This coul

eading. A private gathering at the Lodge. Invite

she re

of the window. He was seeing

ispered. "She ran, Sterli

Chapter End

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Reborn From Ashes: The King's Ruthless Queen

rabb Fantasy

“The house was a living inferno, the heat devouring the air in my lungs as I clutched my five-year-old daughter to my chest. Emily was dead weight, her skin already cooling even as the room turned into a furnace of orange and black. Through the stinging smoke, I saw my husband, Kenney, crawling toward the door with a wet handkerchief pressed to his face. He didn't look back at the crib, and he didn't call my name; he was simply leaving us to burn. I lunged forward and grabbed his ankle, my nightgown catching fire, but he didn't reach down to save me. He recoiled in horror at the sight of my burning hair and our dead child, kicking me back with a panicked shriek. "Let go!" he shrieked. I died as a massive, flaming timber snapped from the ceiling and crushed us both into silence. I couldn't believe that the man I loved would leave his family to die just to save his own skin, but the rage I felt was colder than the death that followed. But then the burning stopped instantly, replaced by a cold so sharp it made my teeth ache. I gasped, jerking upright in my bed to find the velvet duvet cool under my palms and the nursery quiet, with Emily still breathing softly in her crib. I had returned to the winter morning two years before the fire, the exact day Kenney finalized the deal to sell me to the King for a promotion. As Kenney stepped into the room with a practiced mask of concern, I realized I was no longer the victim of this story. "A nightmare, my love?" he asked, reaching out to touch my shoulder. I flinched away, my eyes burning with a hatred he couldn't yet understand. Tonight was the Winter Masquerade, the night he planned to offer me to the King as a prize, but this time, I was going to turn his social ladder into a gallows.”