She didn't shed a single tear.
Her hands were laid against the young girl's shoulders as they stared down at the headstone. Her husband. The girl's father. She could hear the poor girl sniffling, tears falling and soaking into the dirt—water for the grass.
The queen could estimate thousands of people present. Villagers stood behind the funeral gates to watch through the bars while the queen stood with the young princess, a light rain starting to moisten the ground. The royal guards slowly descended the casket into the freshly dug grave, and the princess began to shake.
The king was a good man, Delphina couldn't deny that. He was loyal. Caring. A faithful husband. The kingdom adored him as a leader. But no amount of good would have stopped this from happening. She remembered the moment the life flickered from his eyes and his breathing ceased. She grinned.
The contentment didn't last long before the queen remembered the girl standing before her. So trusting. So naive. In a few years, she would be married. In a few years, the throne would be hers.
That couldn't happen.
It wouldn't happen.
Delphina took a lock of the young princess's raven hair between her slender fingers, noticing its dark shine like the very feathers of a raven. Oh, how she despised this hair. She twirled it around her fingers, tempted to yank it from the girl's very scalp. And this was the moment that she decided.
One day, she would get rid of the princess too.
***
YOU ARE READING
Hunted
ФэнтезиShe seeks the truth. He is hired to kill her. As Princess Neve delves into the mystery shrouding her mother's past, she unwittingly becomes the target of her own stepmother, Queen Delphina, whose thirst for power knows no bounds. Determined to secur...
