DENNY

(ELEVEN MONTHS AGO, the day Zuri and I were dragged before King Tyr.”

“I didn’t come here to kneel.”

Those were her words, sharp, proud, and reckless. They cut through the thick air of the throne room like a blade. I felt my chest swell, pride bubbling in me as I watched her head held high, and chin set like steel. That was the Zuri I knew. Our queen, the heir to Magnikka.

But when she asked for a private audience with the man sitting on that throne—the man they called the ...