Chapter 1 (Alec POV)
I lay crying on my bed, not having any sort of clue about what to do. My tears streamed down my face like rushing rivers. My world was being torn apart as each second ticked closer to the time everything I had known, everything I had loved, would be destroyed. Torn apart. The worst part is I couldn't confide in anyone. Not even Magnus, the love of my life.
I am gay, and only my sister, Isabelle, knows. Not Jace, my adoptive brother, nor my parents, whom I was terrified to tell. Terrified they wouldn't accept me, that they would punish me as they do people who commit the most horrible crimes in this damned kingdom. Seeing as Isabelle was in another kingdom I couldn't talk to her. Little did I know she was visiting the woman who was soon to be my- wife.
More sobs wracked my body as I remembered the conversation that had started to ruin my life.
"Alexander, dear, your father and I need to talk to you. It is of the upmost importance. Please hear us out." Maryse, my mother said. Only a select few were aloud to call her her true name, for she is the queen. My father, Robert- the king, was sitting beside my mother, both in their thrones. I knelt before them and bowed my head.
"Of course, mother, father, what is it?" I asked them, not knowing the vast expanse of despair I was going to face after this.
"We have found a suitable princess from another kingdom, and we have arranged with the royal family that you two are to be wed in the fall. The wedding will take place in the chapel in two months." Robert said.
My head spun with incredible dizziness as I comprehended their words. I was seeing someone, Magnus, and now I was to be married? I had never told them I was gay and that I was in love with someone and my eyes started filling with tears.
"Son, I know this is sudden, but you are the heir to the throne. Someday you will become king, and you will need a queen to rule aside you. She will visit in one week, and stay only one night. She then will come back a month before the wedding. We do not yet know how long she will stay here." Robert continued.
"But, why now?" I asked, now on the verge of tears.
"We have... Connections with the Morgensterns. They were our allies in one battle and now this will deepen the alliance. The world is at war, and if we show that royal families can get along, then maybe it will help bring the war to a stop." Robert told me, oblivious to my watering eyes.
"She is a beautiful girl. She is well educated and dreamy. We have met her before. In fact, we have talked to her on more than one occasion. She is nineteen; so only two years younger than you." Maryse told me, trying to calm me, but failing miserably.
"Do I know her? Who?" I whispered so they wouldn't hear my voice catch.
"Her name," Maryse paused, making my heart speed up, "is Clarissa Morgenstern."