Golden [bxb]

Chapter One

A letter, marked in the corner in rose ink, "the naked ballroom incident, age 2."

My dearest Queen,

It is with great respect that I implore you to give us guidance on how to handle your son. He simply refuses to cooperate with anyone, no matter how many times we threaten the wooden ruler.

Just this morning, he stripped out of his clothes and paraded into the ballroom during the venue for the Duchess of Duru. We had to call the physician for the poor Countess Dockery.

Please, we beg of you Highness. The boy is a menace.

All respect,
Your humble Head of Conduct

Beneath it were many more letters, and then another letter that stuck out; this one was labeled, "the melted wig incident, age 7."

Your Royal Highness,

It is with great perplexity and exhaustion that I once again write to you in hopes that you may assist in this matter with a strong hand.

As you no doubt are aware, this afternoon your son set off fireworks in the gardens to 'celebrate Heir Apparent Princess Athena Dawn's birthday.' His actions caught fire to the entire garden and have resulted in embarrassment in front of the neighboring kingdoms' royals who were in attendance.

The King of Exteek is especially sour, as the flames melted his wig.

I am begging you as your loyal servant: help us contain your unruly son.

Yours I remain,
Head of Conduct

And another letter—

—Today, your son set all the horses in the stable loose—

And another—

—spiders under the banquet table—

So many—

—DEAL WITH ARTEMYS OR I QUIT!

I winced and set the stack of letters back down on my mother's dusty desk. Turning toward my sister, Athena, in the other corner of the dark room, I snorted and raised my hands.

"She sure has a lot of letters about me," I signed to her.

Athena rolled her eyes. Sorting through the mountains of paperwork and books into the 'keep' and 'toss' piles, she sighed and set one of the leather-bound diaries on the top of the 'keep' pile. Then, she looked back up at me and raised a judgmental brow.

"Of course, you were the single greatest threat to our kingdom," she huffed. "Still are..."

I gave a silent laugh, the sight of my grin and the memories of mayhem that once plagued the castle bringing a restrained smile to her own face. She thought to herself for a moment, taking in the sight of our mother's things. I turned back to the desk and ran my fingers over a paperweight perched proudly in the center. It brought a complicated flutter to my chest at the sight.

Years ago, I'd stolen that ugly paperweight from the King of Omorrow. I gave it to my mother to apologize for staining all the soldiers' capes green.

"I think," Athena spoke up again. I turned to her, holding the paperweight to my chest. "You amused her. She saw a little of herself in you."

I waved her off as just trying to comfort me, stepping carefully through the piles to sit on her pristine sofa. There wasn't an ounce of me that could imagine my mother as being a nuisance or rebel in any way. After all, she was known around the world as Queen Leto the Fair and Obedient; she was always by the king's side and supported all he did as a quiet, yet powerful force.