The Unmasked Queen

Prologue

PENELOPE

Not a week ago I thought I was beginning to understand what it took to be queen. I’d come so far over the last year. I had been through one life-altering obstacle after the next.

I learned to fight.

I learned to watch.

I learned the power of awareness.

It took me getting suspended from The Order to see that I knew nothing at all.

Where I thought I was empowering my friend, I overstepped. I had believed I was leading, but all I had managed to do was blur the line between authority and defiance. I did not look like a queen. I looked like a threat.

Time… It became my enemy. Minutes turned to hours. And then, the hours turned to days. Familiarity escaped me. Not that I was banned from seeing the man I loved. Vaughn would still be mine when he wasn’t running The Order. But soon, I’d lose him in more ways than I could bear to think about.

To be queen, I had to be more. It wasn’t just wearing silk or satin and staying silent. Outward appearances were everything. I wasn’t meant to just be a beautiful face next to the King of England. I was meant to rule monsters. To control them. I was the Intended.

It was more than a title or placement. Yes, I was intended for The Unavowed.

And yes, I would be queen. But it was becoming The High Mistress of the Order that would be the most important.

It wasn’t going to be easy. First, I had to survive the trials.

Blood and sweat would not be enough. There were four stages.

Three chances. If I failed, death would come for me, and there would be no stopping it.

But there was no stopping me.

My entire life, I’d been treated as if I were weak. As if I were never enough. Now, after being temporarily removed from The Order because of my behavior, they would believe it again. To them, I had failed.

They were wrong.

A queen was not chosen, she was made. Hadn’t I learned that from my abusive father?

From the lessons from my hateful mother?

The Order was about to strip me down of everything I was to build me up.

I would be tested, even tortured. Remade into the very thing that could stand beside a king.

Not just to complete him… but survive him.

My world may have been going from dark to light, but the true darkness didn’t hide from those it meant to devour. Soon, I wouldn’t have The Order to know who was evil.

Society was waiting for me. They were watching for weakness. But my lessons had taught me something more valuable than power. They taught me the truth.

They all wore masks. This time… it was up to me to see through them.