Prologue: The Ill Favored Clove

PRAYING ON HER KNEES, she wished for the war to not reach her hall. She wished for the brute who was so hellbent on taking this kingdom, to give her a window of escape.

Holding the cross in her hands, she heard yells from behind her door. They had come. Her time was up. There was nowhere to run.

The door crashed in and brutes entered, clad in forbidden armor. In front of them was the bastard himself in a crown that was not his. He was glaring down at the woman covered in sweat, recovering from the birth she had earlier. The end of her white nightgown showcasing blood.

“Your husband is dead and your sons, slain. What saves you from death and this tower from being burnt down?” The woman crawled on her knees to the man and grasped onto his hand.

“P-p-please, it wasn’t my choice to leave,” she pleads, crawling from his hand to the piece of his shirt sticking from his armor. The hilt of his sword two inches away. “He was going to kill me-”

“And yet seven years later, you are still not dead.” He ripped her hands off from him and she collided with the stone floor with a pained grunt. Her lie was aimless. Taking out his sword, he held it out above her head but was stopped by a cry.

The women’s eyes widened. There was no way that demon child was alive. She was a stillborn. The woman’s eyes shifted to the chest she laid the baby in for safekeeping.

The baby was dead. She was sure of it! But if it wasn’t when she first gave birth, then it should’ve been when she put her in the chest the first couple hours. Sliding his sword back into his sheath, the man walked to the chest. Opening it, he saw a child with an ugly face, distorted features, covered in blood.

“Hm.” The sound was both disgust and thought. “I guess God does not forgive after all. You have borne a monster…so alike to her mother.” Smirking, he took off his cape and used it as a way to blanket the baby.

"This baby will marry my unborn son before he is crowned,” he proclaimed, looking the woman deep in the eyes. “I expect you to keep her safe and raise her the correct way. Considering she is still a princess.” His smirk widened as he forced the baby in her grasp.

The woman was shocked but something about this baby’s aura eased her. Adoration slowly replaced the disbelief of the situation as she stopped thinking about the welfare of herself as an individual, but the life of her child.

“There is an abandoned cottage in the woods. You will raise her away from civilization until further notice,” he stated. “There will not be sightings of her or talk about her alleged existence until it’s time.” His eyes narrowed at the newfound strength residing in the woman’s eyes.

“Funny. You were just on your knees ready to do exactly what I say and now you have the audacity to look your king in the eye.” He laid a gloved hand onto the top of her head and pushed it down to the floor.

“Learn to like this sight because you’ll never see anything of regard again.” He turned on his heel before stopping. His back turned away from the amusing sight. “And I suggest you don’t run away again, Regina. I’ll find you, and when I do. I will kill you and the only child you have left.”

The door slams shut, enveloping the room in darkness, the baby's cries accompanying it.