A Plagued House

Prologue

As I balanced on the edge of the castle wall, I knew I shouldn't be here. A cool breeze tore through the thin fabric of my nightgown as I stepped away from the edge carefully. The dark cloak I wore, to hide myself against the eyes that would eventually spot me, also did little against the chill. I pressed myself deeper into the crevice in the rough stone wall at my back, staring out over the forest that stretched around my home.

There was a silence to the night that I enjoyed here, a peace that I didn't seem to find anywhere else. While my family slept, I often found my way here, or within the garden maze. But given it was the eve of my sixteenth birthday, and the formal announcement of my betrothal to Prince Quinn Almarthe, I knew the maze would be better guarded than usual against my nightly wandering. Here I had not been caught. Yet.

My stomach twisted a little at the thought of the events ahead of me. As the eldest daughter the alliance of my marriage was more important than most, while my brother ruled on a throne here, I would rule beside my King in our allied court. Though I wouldn't be married for at least another three years, the peace between my Fathers kingdom, Cazulette, and Quinn's Fathers Kingdom, Parizinas, would begin now. We needed that peace, that unity, against the Kingdom to our south. Montefaru. Ruled by the Blood Crown, they threatened us all in ways I did not yet fully understand, but I could see the fear they instilled in the soldiers, in my father, and in the people.

Guards shuffled along the other end of the castle wall, the clink of their armour drawing me from my thoughts, they had not spotted me yet but I knew they would soon. I pulled the hood of my cloak up to cover my dark curls, keeping my face sheltered from the light as I watched them. Suddenly, instead of following the path towards me, they turned towards a silent alert. Each soldier straightening and rushing from their post, towards the watch tower.

I frowned slightly, cold suddenly spreading through me. I pushed myself away from the shelter of the wall, hurrying through the shadows. Deciding that the path to my balcony would be harder but safer than trying to slip through the halls once more. I had barely made it a few feet before a dark form rounded the corner too fast, a hard body slamming into mine and throwing me backwards towards the edge of the castle wall. I let out a yelp as hands gripped the front of my robe and nightgown roughly, yanking me back from the death that surely awaited me over that wall. Those hands twisted me, until my back slammed against the other side of the wall, where I was no longer at risk of falling. The hood of my robe fell as I gulped a panicked breath. Staring with wide eyes at the man before me, dressed to match the darkness of the night, hidden with me in the shadows.

Dark eyes devoured me as the grip on my clothes tightened. "Little Bird, Little Bird, what would you be doing all the way up here?" His voice was somewhere between a growl and a purr as he looked me over slowly. "Do you not like your cage?"

I frowned at him, opening my mouth as I pushed at his hands, freeing myself from his grip.

The words I would have spoken died on my lips, as my hands slid over his, a sticky wetness accompanying the touch of his skin, I stared at my hands, against the rich bronze of my flesh, was the stark wetness of fresh blood. Screams tore through the silence of the night, drawing my head up as the stranger stepped back from me quickly.

"Perhaps I will free you from your cage one day Little Bird." He winked at me, and as he moved I realised that his clothes were not black. No, as he stepped into the moonlight, before he vanished over the edge of the wall, I saw him clearly. He was soaked in blood.

I ran, no longer caring if I was caught. I ran towards the sound of the screams, already knowing in my heart the misery that would await me when I reached them.

The clatter of soldiers, the shouts of panic, the screams and sobs, all deepened my fear. Confirmed what awaited me; Death. So much death.

On that night, my two brothers, my twin sisters, and my parents, were murdered in their beds. By the time the sun rose, I was as soaked in their blood as he had been. The blood sinking into my skin deep enough to scar part of my soul. Not even the guards had been able to stop me from finding each one. From seeing with my own eyes what was stolen from me, and knowing who was responsible.

The Blood Crown had their say in war that night, slaughtering the Royal Family of Cazulette. Leaving me an Orphan, the last of my bloodline with any claim. Alone.

From then I became something more than Little Mina. I was Princess Mina Maristella Drenkarin. Future Queen of Cazulette, a Throne that was never supposed to be mine.