Chapter 119

  I lay, exhausted but sleepless, my mind insisting on turning over random thoughts as I sought it to still.

  I was homesick for Vienthrey, but as it was, not as I would now find it. I knew that my family home would be much changed upon my return, as I was much changed from the princess who had lived there. What would it be like to walk through the castle again, with many of the faces from my childhood now gone? So many lost to the dungeons. Mathhian lost. It made my eyes prick to think on it, and I fought back the tears.

  Clareath was not carrying Mathhian’s child. I was saddened and relieved. My brother’s death was an absent pain, more relevant for its effect upon my life than his loss, but the thought that he had not had the opportunity to have an heir… It was a sad one, as much as I would not want his child raised by his murderer.