Xandrea’s performance was immediate and visceral, perhaps even somewhat authentic.

What Cheddar had failed to mention were the crazed convulsions and the projectile vomit. Of course, Xandrea knew that Cheddar would need to be taken care of, but his fate would now be significantly prolonged due to the aberrant suffering of Rowan and the twins. She could barely close her eyes without recalling the violent ejection of viscera from their orifices.

That night, after the dust settled, Xandrea returned to the royal quarters alone. On the king-sized mattress, she remembered one of the last things Rowan had told her before leaving for the feast.

“The only way you’ll marry Ethan to that Webber maiden is if every other Webber is dead, or have knives pressed to their throats.”

The Lancaster army was the largest in the known world, with the most gold stacked behind it. Now, with Rowan and the two older twins reduced to hollowed-out husks, it was time for her to act in Ethan’s best interests. Surely, she was just as capable of leading the Lancaster army as her husband was.

“You have a ruler’s imagination.”

Ethan’s nameday was in two weeks’ time. Imagine, a continent and a queen, it would be the greatest gift a mother ever gave to her son.

[End of Chapter One]

Gilbrand never stood a chance.

He was the pride of House Webber, and Ser Jeremy threw him around the arena like a toy. When Gilbrand fell and his sentence was announced, Isabel wept, and Gwen left Maxwell’s side to comfort her. Maxwell kept his place at Godwin’s side, trying to gauge his brother’s reclusive emotions. Ser Jeremy was despicable, but the man had faced down the last dragon and won. The trial-by-combat of course had been a foregone conclusion, and yet… they had all dared to hope.

Now, they revived Gilbrand and forced him to march on his own two feet toward the killing stones.

“Take Cormick home, Isabel,” Godwin said to his wife.

“No! No, I will not abandon my child!”

Godwin turned to Maxwell as the other attendants of the trial filed out of the arena and reconvened at the killing stones to witness the execution. “Hear my son’s last words, be there for him in his final moments. I must see to Isabel and Cormick.”

Maxwell forced his way through the bustle surrounding the killing stones. The gossip he heard was obscene. Those he considered friends traded salacious theories…

When he reached the front of the crowd, Maxwell had never seen an innocent man look more bravely into the face of death.

There were yellow bruises forming on his face where Ser Jeremy had delivered the final blow. Gilbrand’s hair was dark and sleek with sweat.

“On your knees,” said the executioner.

The crowd went quiet except for the cries of Ethan Lancaster. Clutched in his mother’s arms, the baby had been attacked months ago, sending the entire kingdom into an uproar, sparking a witch-hunt, and culminating in this execution.

The baby’s recovery had been miraculous. Maxwell could not imagine the queen’s vengeance if the assailant had succeeded in his mission, wherever the culprit now hid.

“If you have any last words, now is the time.”

Gilbrand scanned the audience. “You all bear witness to the greatest miscarriage of justice in this kingdom’s history.”

He turned his glare on Xandrea, who paid him no mind. Instead, she kept her attention fixed on Ethan in her arms, where he sucked on his fingers.

“My queen, I say for perhaps the final time that I did not commit the crime you accuse me of. It is true, I have no love for the man you married, but I would never take out my resentment on a sproutling, let alone one of your own flesh and blood. I have loved you since we were both small, and I have treasured every part of you in that time. Ethan is a part of you, and I would never lay a finger on him with ill intent. If these ropes did not bind my hands and my feet, I would devote every waking hour to bringing his assailant to justice… But my words fall on deaf ears… I have loved you, Xandrea. Your father favored wargames to raising his daughter, your mother envied your beauty, and your husband is bitter and lovesick for the late Queen Pennifer. I am the only one, the only one to have loved you without caveat. By killing me, you are killing-”

Out of the corner of his eye, Maxwell noticed Xandrea give a kind of offhand gesture. When he looked back at Gilbrand, his nephew’s head was spinning like a top on the killing stones.