Chapter 21 : The Crown

Ayda's POV "Ayda!" "Sebastian!" There wasn't much time before the guard took him away, and I was lost in the fray of panicking nobles. Alarmists were saying it was a planned attack, that someone matching the South Towers killer had been spotted; others claimed that it was likely old age and too much excitement. They reasoned that Kostas had Sebastian late in life and was almost to his seventy-fifth year before his passing. If it was not murder, then surely it was a stroke or cardiac arrest. Those too drunk to parse the grave news figured the king's demise to be an elaborate hoax. A jest, they sang, a wondrous trick to delight his audience during this time of revelry! I wondered then, getting shoved down the corridors, feeling faint, which tale was true. Could there be an assassin in our midst— I felt a pang, ice water replacing the blood in my veins as dread so thick I could scarcely breathe loomed over me. My son! Something was wrong with my son! August