“How are you so big already?” Kaliana cooed to her little baby girl.

“She’s a healthy weight, Your Majesty,” Davila, the nursemaid, said.

“They grow up so fast.”

“Indeed.”

Kaliana sighed when she reluctantly gave Alessia back to Davila. She still hadn’t gotten used to leaving her. Though all of the nurses had told her that her attachment was perfectly normal. But she knew that she should never truly attach herself to a girl. They only ever sent them away. Kaliana herself was living proof of that.

“I wish we could move her to my rooms,” Kaliana said.

Davila looked scandalized and then quickly masked it. “She’s best in the nursery, Your Majesty. You let us look after her. She’ll be the perfect little princess.”

Kaliana nodded sadly. “She already is.”

Then, she turned and fled the nursery before she could take her child and remove her from anyone else’s hands. She had this deep gut-wrenching urge to raise Alessia different than how she had been raised. To refuse to listen to tradition and what all these wet nurses said and raise her daughter how she saw fit. Of course, she couldn’t. Not as queen. Even the maids could raise their children how they saw fit but not the queen. Creator forbid!

She tried to push all of that out of her mind and focus on what lay ahead.

Edric.

The throne room.

He had taken to sitting in there and celebrating in his victory over Eleysia. A sneak attack in the dead of night that had decimated their capital. Not an honorable battle if they asked her.

But they didn’t.

In fact, she was even more invisible now than she’d been before she had Alessia. She had been so determined to be included and feel wanted then. Now, she wanted to get through the parade of activity and get back to her daughter.

Not to mention, she was picking up extra slack since there was no consort for the king. Or at least all the work that his new pet didn’t want to do.

Kaliana stepped into the throne room and found Elea resting on a divan between Edric and Kael. Pet. That was all she could think of when she saw her. Young, innocent, and utterly stupid.

Cyrene had been a threat because she was intelligent and bold. Her sister was a threat for her eagerness and blind trust.

Kaliana had once hated Cyrene. But she understood Edric’s infatuation at least. When she looked at Elea, she felt none of the rage or envy. Only pity.

Kaliana walked up to the front of the room and took her empty seat next to Edric. Kael was doing parlor tricks and making Elea giggle. He’d taken to doing that every time he had an audience now. Somehow, so quickly, he had gone from being shunned to people accepting what he could do. She knew it had to be because Edric was backing him. Also, fear.

The fact that he could do magic…that he had leveled a city was terrifying. If she had been in Edric’s place, she would have put Kael down like a lame horse before giving him as much power as he was allowed.

“Hello, Kaliana,” Edric said with a bright smile. He’d had a smile for her more and more frequently since Eleysia. “How is our daughter?”

Kael’s juggling fireball fumbled, and he nearly caught the divan on fire. Elea shrieked, but he smothered it with air before it even singed the fabric.

“Alessia is healthy and strong, husband,” she said with her own smile. Alessia was the true joy in her life. “We should visit her together tomorrow.”

Edric nodded. “Yes, I’d like that.”

But, as another person entered the throne room, his attention diverted from Kaliana, as if he had never been talking to her. She was used to it. She held her head high and endured the court politics. Perhaps, after an hour or so, she could claim to have some duties for her Affiliates and leave.

“You summoned me?” High Order Eren said once he reached the front of the room. He bowed deeply and then kept his easy smile about him.

Kaliana had always liked him. He was one of Edric’s closer friends, especially since he had come back from Trinnenberg as an Ambassador. Eren was steadfast. She felt like he was the right kind of man they needed in their court at the moment, as it was devolving into debauchery.

“Yes,” Edric said. “I have a question for you.”

Kael patted the top of Elea’s head, as if she were a lap dog, and stood to stride around the room. He moved like a predator stalking his prey. Every step important. A current of energy seemed to emanate from him, and Kaliana shivered under the intensity.

“Yes?” Eren asked.

“Where were you last night?”

“I retired to my rooms early after dinner and slept through the night.”

“I see,” Edric said. He nodded his head at Kael.

A blast of energy smacked Eren in the back and sent him sprawling on the ground. His knees hit hard, and he coughed as he tried and failed to right himself. The room fell silent all around them.

Kaliana held her tongue, but she wanted to scream at them. Tell them no. They couldn’t do this! Not to Eren! He was a good man. A good person. This wasn’t right.

But she did nothing.

As always.

“Are you aware that Rhea has gone missing?”

“No,” Eren said through gritted teeth. “You know that I ended my friendship with her.”

“I see,” Edric said again. “Then, why did a guard report seeing you leave on horseback with a woman under a riding cloak?”

Eren paled. “I didn’t want to concern you. I’ve been…having a dalliance with one of the local maids.”

Kael laughed. “You don’t have it in you.”

“Truly, Eren, can you not come up with a better lie than that? We all know that you do not sleep around.”

“She’s special,” he said.

Kaliana gave him points for having a backbone. Not many could stand up to Edric, especially not with him working with Kael.

“I’m sure she is,” Kael muttered.

“Unfortunately for you, I think you’re lying,” Edric said smoothly. “Tell me where you took her, and I will spare your life.”

“I didn’t take her!”

“Make this easy for me, Eren. We have been friends for a long time. Where is Rhea Gramm?”

Eren’s eyes darted to the ground and then back up to Edric. Kaliana could see the wheels working in his mind. How she wished that she could reach out and tell him not to give in. But she wasn’t strong enough, and she watched in horror with the rest of the crowd.

“In the city,” Eren finally said. “I took her to a building off the Laelish.”

“What did it look like?”

“Run-down, two stories. I don’t know. I’d never been there before. I just dropped her off.”

Kaliana narrowed her eyes. There was something in his face that said he was lying. She grinned. Clever. She hoped Edric didn’t notice.

“Wonderful. That wasn’t so hard,” Edric said. “Help him up.”

Kael released whatever powers he’d been using to hold Eren down. Then, he walked before Eren and held out his hand. Eren reluctantly looked up at him but put his hand in his. Kael easily lifted him to his feet. Eren dusted off his black pants.

“We’ll send someone down to collect her now,” Edric said.

He snapped his fingers at Merrick, who had been watching the display with bottomless black eyes. He retreated to a slew of guards and started giving out instructions.

“Thank you for telling the truth,” Edric said, drawing Eren closer.

“Of course, Majesty. It was the right thing to do.”

Edric tsked. “I have no need for traitors in my midst.”

Kael drew the flaming blade that Cyrene had used in their ballroom battle. It had become a bit of a signature for him.

“Edric?” Eren asked with wild eyes.

Then, Kael thrust the blade up into Eren’s heart. Kaliana covered her mouth with her hands as her favorite High Order was murdered in front of her. Kael took a deep breath and seemed to be drinking in the madness.

“Someone, clean up this mess,” Edric said irritably. “And bring back the music!”

Kaliana watched wildly as everything went back to normal. As if a man hadn’t just been killed in front of them. As if a life hadn’t been snuffed out. As if they weren’t all murderers and accomplices for these outrageous events. But she found no welcoming eyes when she searched for someone who could see how horrible this all was.

Am I the only one who saw the throne room for what it had become?

A trial, court, and execution.