Golden-Jewelled Halos (What He Made Me #2)

Prologue

Prologue

Queens crowned in golden-jewelled halos, rule like angels among demons. Their eyes shine like the ethereal emeralds and stunning sapphires that perch encrusted within the power upon their heads.

I am to become Queen to a kingdom I have never set foot within, I am to rule over a body of people with whom I have shared no common grounds. I am to rule over a kingdom within a world I will never call home.

It’s funny, isn’t it, how something or someone can change your life so completely.

When I was home, back in England, and attending VI Form, I used to often play cards with a group of friends during our lunch periods. As with many card games, a simple move by another player, if carefully analysed, can lead to you having to quickly change your tactics – a game changer.  We would all shout out ‘GAME CHANGER!’ whenever this happened to us, often leading to laughs and giggles. It was all fun and games.

That’s what Dante was to me - a game changer.

He whirled into my life unannounced like the exiled family member that suddenly materialises on Christmas day, and with him he brought chaos. See, chaos by its very definition cannot be controlled; once introduced, all order and intention is rendered useless. The outcome of chaos can never be predicted – the only certainty it brings is the devastation it leaves in its wake.

I had to quickly adjust to this chaos, so not to be engulfed by the devastation. I had to change my tactics which evidently were not tactics chosen as so to win a card game, but were instead the life I was living.

My life was turned upside down and before I could say ‘hell no’, I was Princess Mia from that film about that girl who was really the princess of some tiny but beautiful country – but my story was to be a lot less pleasant.

I’m no young Anne Hathaway, and this is not a fairy tale, because this particular game changer was not at all fun and games.