Queen of Hearts: A Reverse Harem Alice in Wonderland Story (Her Wonderland Kings Book 3) by Stefanie Marie

Author:Stefanie Marie [Marie, Stefanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

In Which I Discover A Secret

The Sun Palace, the once elaborate and bustling home of the King of Hearts, was a shell of its former self.

Or at least, they’d warned me it would be. All the way home, they had been filling me in on what had happened in the weeks since I disappeared. How most of the staff—the ones who’d survived that last assault on the palace— had been sent away to refugee camps hidden deep in the mountains to the north. Now only a handful of the most trusted and essential members of the palace remained behind, just enough to keep it functioning as the wartime base it had become.

The city of Solice, which surrounded the palace, had been evacuated as well; only a few souls remained. As we approached its gates, Adrian and I had a long discussion about how we might be able to convince those stubborn souls to leave for safer grounds. He knew the exact number of people who remained. The exact number of civilians who had already been killed as a result of the war and the Sweeping Night finally reaching his borders. Judging by the tired shadows on his normally perfectly composed and handsome face, I imagined he was recounting those people in his head every night instead of sleeping.

I wished I had answers to help him get some sleep, but in the end we both just fell silent, and I clutched my crown to my chest as we walked inside.

I’d thought the familiar beauty and grandeur of the palace would make me feel more normal, that it might help me forget the horrors of the past few weeks and the horrors that we still faced. Even if it was just a shell—even if parts and people were missing—it was still a proper, intact castle that should have made me feel like a queen, right?

But even its colors seemed to have faded. I might have been imagining it, but then again, this was Wonderland, so it was perfectly possible that some sort of magic really was at work. Magic that was dulling the once-gleaming and gilded architecture, repainting all of the art in shades of grey, and making all of the potted plants droop sadly.

As I stepped inside, my hand began to ache in the place were Hatter had branded it after our agreement. A dull, distant ache; I chanced a glance at it, to be sure it wasn’t glowing blood red, but my hand looked perfectly normal.

I convinced myself that I was imagining things.

Adrian walked me to my room while the others each went to their own. He lingered for a moment, waiting for the guards he’d summoned to take their place at my door.

“It will be nice to sleep in a proper bed again, won’t it?” he asked. “Even without the maids around to warm the sheets and fluff the pillows.”

“I’m sure I can manage without fluffed pillows. I’m not that spoiled from having the whole royalty thing thrust upon me, you know.

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