Aralyn remembered the terror like a living thing clawing at her chest. She nearly bled out from fear, from helplessness, from rage. And yet, when the Queen's uncle arrived under the command of the King, promising to shield the child, she had no choice but to trust him.
She didn't want to. But the King asked her to do it. Told her that it was the best thing to do. Trembling, she handed over her baby, placing her entire heart, her entire hope, in the hands of a man whose loyalty was one of the few things she could count on.
And that was the last she saw of her child, born out of love, without the status to rule… the child she didn't even feed once…
But she had to protect him.
The court was told the child had perished at birth. And in that lie, her son's life was preserved, hidden from the eyes of a Queen who would have destroyed him without hesitation.
