The Swan and The Phoenix by Evelyn Kerry

Author:Evelyn, Kerry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: princess romance, roylaty romance, sweet romance, shifter romance, swan princess romance
Publisher: Swan Press
Published: 2022-05-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 3

Ardu Almaar Palace

Late December

“I don’t want this, Krish.” Reggie rubbed his eyes and blinked over the ancient tome as if it held the answers they were searching for. “We both stand to lose what matters most to us if I become king.”

Krish folded his arms and leaned on a nearby bookshelf in the palace’s library. “You don’t get it, brother. What matters most is the kingdom. Not our hearts, or who holds them. Duty, above all else.” He spat the last words out with a sneer. “The king is the phoenix. The phoenix is the king. It’s been that way for centuries.”

“But what if I hadn’t been found? What then?” Reggie scrubbed at his several-days-old beard. He hadn’t shaved or bathed since he left Once Upon Academy for Winter Break. After he left the ball, he’d flown to the astronomy tower, where he’d fallen asleep, exhausted. Nettie had found him there the next morning, and had been more understanding than he would have expected—or deserved. She loved him; he had no doubt about that. And she believed with her whole heart that their love was enough of a reason to change the law.

Only, the law wasn’t his to change.

Nor was it his father’s. When he’d approached his father about it, the king had confessed his health was failing, and if he could amend the curse, he would have. He hadn’t been able to shift since Reggie’s first transformation. The king’s mortality clock was ticking, and his family had no idea. When they found out, they would blame Reggie for that, too. His heart ached for his half-siblings, who stood to lose their dad, and for himself, who’d just found his father.

Despite Reggie’s insistence to forgo graduate studies in Kingdom Management at OUA, his father had insisted Reggie return to school the following semester to learn the basics of what he’d need to know to govern their people.

Reggie would comply, but he’d also spend every spare minute trying to find a way to shift the phoenix powers to his brother, and pray that by doing so, he’d also buy his father more time.

Krish stood and shrugged. “I’ve learned the laws of this kingdom inside and out. If there’s a way to change anything, it would need to be through magic. Either by reversing the curse or finding a way to counter it, there may be a small chance to change our fates. But there’s no record of when the curse began or from whom it came. Clever of the curser to leave us without a starting point, eh?”

Reggie grimaced. “I’ll just have to be cleverer.”

Krish’s hollow laugh echoed throughout the chamber as he left the room. Reggie closed the Book of Laws and returned it to its place on the podium in the center of the library.

Magic. Perhaps he was looking in the wrong library.

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