The Bloodtruth Series - Cege Smith Page 0,2

one hand, Angeline wanted to stomp her foot, leave her throne and run away as fast as her feet could carry her, but on the other, she knew that she couldn't do anything of the sort. The crazy voice in her head said that if she gave up Altera, she may be able to convince Connor that there was a possibility that they had some kind of future together. The thought was so intoxicating that she had to will herself to stand still.

Then in the mirror she watched the huge double doors behind her begin to open. It was time. Once she was queen, she would have no choice anymore. And that thought made her want to break something

“Majesty!” Elise's yell broke into her thoughts. “Are you hurt?”

She thought her vision had blurred, but then realized it had nothing to do with her eyes, but the condition of the mirror in front of her. It was broken. She looked down at her hand. It was covered in blood, which started to drip onto the brilliant violet gown. She wished for a different time or a different birthright. But most of all, she wished for Connor.

CHAPTER ONE

Full darkness was an hour away when Rhone called that they should stop for the night. Angeline was disappointed that they hadn’t made better time, but the snows had been heavier than expected that winter, and even though spring had arrived it wasn’t warm enough to fully thaw the mountain passes yet. She had hoped to be back in Brebackerin, Altera’s capital city, by nightfall. She didn’t relish the idea of spending another night outdoors. Traveling with a group of soldiers meant she was confined to her tent every evening for the duration of the trip.

“What have they been teaching you in that convent? How to go soft?” Rhone scoffed when she had asked about continuing on. “I’m not going to risk my men or our horses because the princess misses her feather bed.”

Rhone had known her since she was born. It didn't impress him that she was the princess and heiress to the throne; Rhone always spoke plainly no matter what the other person's station.

“That’s not it at all. I’m worried about my father,” Angeline said, crossing her arms. She hoped that the twilight hid the flush creeping up her neck. She wouldn’t admit there was some truth to his words. “You did say that he was dying and that he sent you to bring me home as soon as possible. I am merely trying to do as my king commands.”

Rhone glared at her from under his heavy grizzled eyelids and then grunted and spun away. Angeline was angry and worried at the same time. Rhone had been the Chief General of her father’s army for more than thirty years. Like it or not, she needed men like him to support her Ascension when her father was gone, which appeared to be happening sooner rather than later. Even sequestered away in the convent hadn’t prevented the whispers from reaching her ears that many of her people considered her soft and spoiled. She blamed her father for that, as he was the one who sent her away from the capital. Two years out of the people’s eye was a long time. She had her work cut out for her to change their perceptions of her.

Angeline slid down from her horse and handed the mare to a teenage boy who she remembered often teasing before moving to the convent. In fact, as she looked at the faces around her, she realized that many of the young men there she had either rode in the horse enclosure with, trained in sword fighting with, or had been her hide-and-seek playmates when they were small. The palace staff and their children had always been easier to be around; none of them had the same ulterior motives of the nobles. These were the people that she had known well not all that long ago, at least, until she turned sixteen and her father sent her off to the nuns.

Now they looked at her like they’d look at a stranger. Her father had sent an escort of twenty men to bring her home. The convent was high in the mountains, a full three days ride from Brebackerin, where Angeline had spent the majority of her childhood. It had taken the convoy far too long to descend the mountain, and now that they had reached the plain, it was too late in