Chapter 1
The King is dead.
The single sentence hastily scrawled on a strip of rolled parchment lays on the center of the council room table. Its jagged edges echo the urgency in which the message was written. Torn from the blank margins of a larger document, ink smeared from the rain.
It was well past midnight when the messenger collapsed on the front steps, the missive gripped tightly in his curled fist. The occupants of the manor were fast asleep—everyone except the night watchmen and me.
I watched from my window as the guards dragged the man’s soaked body inside, setting off the chain of events that has taken up the past sixteen hours of my life.
The King of Corinth never married, never sired an heir before a mysterious illness took the life of a man we were all made to believe was divinely blessed.
The second king in less than three decades to succumb to the same fate, and yet these men still have the audacity to believe our nation is beloved by a pantheon of gods who could not care less about us.
“Without an heir to the throne, the constitution demands an Ascension Vote. It’s the Governor’s responsibility to attend,” Lord Yarrow declares for the fourth time.
“And yet we’ve already established that my father cannot make the journey,” I say, snapping the shaft of what remains of the last quill in my pile.
The dark wood table is littered with the mangled white barbs of the feather, one plucked from its stem each time I forced myself to stay quiet when one of the Governor’s councilors said something ignorant.
“The capital city is too far and his heart isn’t strong enough. It’s my duty as the heir to the Emerald Region to attend in his place.”
The Lord of Treasury flares his nostrils in restraint. He has never believed me fit for the title my father bestowed upon me. The first and only female who has ever held the title of heir in any of Corinth’s five jeweled regions—and I’ve been rebuked ever since my father acknowledged me as such.
When my mother died and left him without a male successor, the men that now sit around this table judging me with unforgiving eyes urged him to do what his predecessors and peers do—appoint a noble lord to the role until he remarried and sired a boy.
“Lady Ivy has a point,” Lord Bartlett sighs. “If Governor Fellows’ health was good enough to travel, he’d be with us now. His condition worsens by the day. He’d never survive the two week journey.”
A muffled prayer ripples through the room from the lips of the Emerald Council, each offering a whispered plea for my father’s health to gods who won’t answer their prayers.
They never fucking do.
“Why should we send a petulant girl in his place?” Yarrow demands, crumbling what restraint I have left with his venomous question.
“I haven’t been a girl for over a decade, Yarrow, and I have spent every one of those years trying to better Corinth for all who live here.”
“Corinth is already great,” he scoffs in dismissal.
“Great for you. You have fair skin, gold-lined pockets, a willingness to worship gods that are forced down our throats, and a cock between your legs. Should we ask those who don’t look and think and worship like you if Corinth is great for them?”
“See what I mean?” Yarrow raises his voice in address to the other councilors who surround him. “Poison Ivy doesn’t care about Emerald. She only wants another chance to spread her vitriol and publicly humiliate us all.”
“Yarrow,” Lord Barlett warns, “Ansel would not stand for this and you know it. Give Ivy a chance to explain her vote. Preferably in a less … spirited way, my lady.”
The father of my best friend and a man who has been more like an uncle to me than an advisor glares at the Lord of Treasury until he finally yields. Every eye pointedly descends on me as I rise and move towards the head of the table.
Before the seat reserved for the governor, a worn map of Corinth spreads across the wooden surface, large gems sitting on each of the five regions.
“As the commander of our national military and the king’s closest advisor, Lord General Marks will vote on behalf of the Diamond Region,” I say, picking up the sparkling jewel and tossing it lightly in my hand.
“Two kings have sat the Amethyst Throne with Marks controlling their strings. Those kings did nothing but bring war to our shores in the name of the Golden Pantheon. But those gods have done us no favors, and those kings divided more than they united.”
“My lady, if I may. There are those who will say that you only wish to keep Marks off the throne because of your … history. What do you say to them?”
“I say to them, Lord Adler, that placing the Lord General on the throne condemns the realm to more of the same fate. Corinth deserves someone better.”
My father’s Master of Arms dips his head in a single, solemn nod. I’ve made more enemies than friends with the council, but Lord Adler’s honor demands he follow my commands regardless of his personal feelings towards me.
A quality I wish more of the men in this room possessed.
Setting the diamond back on the table, I pick up the egg-sized red jewel on the opposite side of the map. “Ruby will vote with Diamond.”
“The only thing you can count on Governor Charles Rollins doing every time is the thing that best serves him,” Lord Bartlett chimes in agreement as I set the ruby beside the diamond.
“The nation of Synal decimated a large portion of Sapphire when they invaded. Porter won’t vote for the Lord General who orchestrated the holy war. He is our only ally and the best chance we have at a fair and just king. That leaves Topaz as our swing vote.”
The golden yellow gem feels heavier than the others, the fate of a nation resting in the palm of my hand while the men in this room weigh my worthiness.
“Wilson will never agree to side with her. This is why we must send someone else!” Lord Yarrow rises in a flash, the clanging of his wooden chair echoing as it smacks against the stone floor. “If we send Poison Ivy to the Ascension Vote, we might as well place the crown on Marks’ head ourselves.”
“Call me that again, Lord Yarrow, and your counsel will no longer be needed.”
A muffled gasp ripples throughout the room.
They feign surprise at my outburst as if they haven’t poked and prodded me like a caged animal for sixteen godsdamned hours.
As if I haven’t allowed them time and time again to call me the slanderous nickname courtesy of the man we seek to keep off the Amethyst Throne.
The name meant to demean and degrade me.
Something forbidden sizzles under my skin, a deadly secret that I’ve spent eighteen years concealing. Unexplained magic that would find me at the end of a hangman’s noose or worse—as a weapon under the command of Lord General Marks.
I will my power into submission, forcing it back into the crevices within me as the door to the chamber opens.
Every member of the council is on their feet in an instant, waists bent and heads bowed in reverence. My father stands in the doorway, hands braced on the wooden frame. Even in his current state, his appearance demands the respect they’ve withheld from me.
“Councilors,” my father dips his head in acknowledgement as he pushes off the frame and makes for his chair. He stops before his seat, eyes locked on the map and scattered jewels laid out before him. “I trust you’ve spent these long hours advising your heir on how best to win Topaz’s vote.”
“Ansel,” Lord Yarrow says, my father’s hand coming up to halt him. “Governor,” the Lord corrects. “It is this council’s wish that you send someone else to the Ascension Vote. Someone who isn’t … her.”
He spits the word like a curse.
My sex has always been a convenient excuse for their dislike, and had I not opened my mouth and spoken out against our king’s forced religion, it might very well have stayed the only one they had.
But I made an enemy out of the most powerful man in our nation with my words, and he made sure the country hated me because of it.
My father’s voice slips into the familiar low timbre of authority as he makes his decree. “Lady Ivy is heir to the Emerald Region of Corinth. She speaks for me—and she speaks for all of you. She will attend the Ascension Vote, and that is not up for debate.”
The council doesn’t roll their eyes, huff their breaths, or murmur disagreements out of respect for the Governor.
Their disapproval, made crystal clear, will now follow them quietly out of the manor and into their homes where it will take root and spread like a diseased vine hellbent on strangling me.
“Now, if you all will make your way to the dining hall, the staff has prepared a dinner for us, and your spouses will be arriving shortly.”
They don’t stifle their groans at this command, however. It’s not like a dinner in my honor is ever high on their list of fun activities, but it’s dropped even lower after spending all day sitting in this room.
“Dinner isn’t necessary, Father. I’d be fine to spend time with just you.”
“Nonsense, Ivy,” he says, taking my hand in his as the last of his advisors exit the room. “It’s your birthday. We can’t have the ball you deserve, but we can toast to you and the future that awaits.”
“A dead king does suck the merriment out of a good ball,” I joke.
I don’t much care for noble balls, but they bring him joy and there’s nothing I wouldn’t endure for him. Especially when we only have hours left together.
Tomorrow, I’ll set out for Amale, the heart of the Diamond Region and the capital city of Corinth. But it’s not just the Lord General and his band of angry governors who await me at the palace.
No, something tells me that the Dark God of Death waits for me too.