Exiled Prince (Fated Love #4)

PROLOGUE

Bane

Twelve Years Old

“With father dead, does that mean you are king now?” Xan, my younger half brother, asks me. My mother died when I was four, and my father, King Renford, soon remarried afterward.

“I don’t know,” I reply, rubbing my tired eyes. “I’m only young. I’m not ready to be king yet.”

Xan’s red eyes look down at his feet. “Mother says I should be king now.”

“What?” I ask, my brow furrowing.

I’m the heir, and my father raised me as the next future king. I’ve been training since before I could walk, preparing to lead The Circle.

Xan’s mother steps up behind him, placing her hands on his shoulders, her long red nails pointed at the tips. “Your father changed his mind, Bane. He wants Xan as his heir. And like I just heard you say, you aren’t ready to be king.”

I’m not.

But at only seven, neither is Xan.

“Father said—”

“Your father is dead. And you aren’t welcome here anymore. You’ve been exiled. Xan is now the true heir of the Demon Kingdom.”

I stand still, unsure of what to do. I feel angry and confused. Thunder rumbles from above me. She looks up at the sky. “You are unstable, Bane, and not what this kingdom needs. If you come back here, you will be executed. Guards! Please escort the prince out. He will be leaving.”

She turns and leaves, and Xan pokes out his tongue at me before he follows her.

And me?

I get kicked out of the only home I’ve ever known.

The home I was meant to rule as king.