'What happened?' She corrected herself after checking the body's pulse. 'He's dead.' Caroline declared.

The burning in her cheeks, that flushed out her face and set her ears ringing, began to fade and Bonnie felt her vision coming back into focus. Her father's body slumped on his front on the ground, with Caroline still pressing hopeful fingers to his neck. There was no pulse but if she squinted hard it looked like he was just resting. With his eyes open, mouth agape and tongue lolling to the side. It looked wrong.

Caroline stilled her worry, boring eyes directly into Bonnie's and registering how blank they looked, then moved over to crouch in front of her.

'Bon, what happened?'

She took a moment to think hard about the exact series of events and came to the only conclusion she was willing to draw. 'He suddenly found it hard to breathe. Then he died.' But something about how monotonous her voice was drew out the scepticism in her friend. The blonde took her hands in her own, her touch warm. Or maybe Bonnie's were simply colder now the fire of magic simmered away.

'Listen very carefully to what I'm about to say.' She moved closer, making sure she was looking directly into her heavy eyes. 'I was here when this happened.'

Bonnie managed a blink. 'Why?'

Caroline was already standing up heading to the door. 'Because you need to be above reproach.' She opened her door, easily drawing on her initial panic as she shouted. 'Help! Somebody help! The King's choking!'

There was barely a second before people thundered in. Guards trying and failing to revive the King, the royal physician trying a more complex version of the same thing and failing just the same, Alaric was the first to shove past them all and take in the scene, standing beside Caroline as all three watched the chaos. The two standing while Bonnie stayed fixed to her chair, raking nails into the wooden arm rest the more people entered, watching them play with her father like a marionette. Until Lord Saltzman's hand closed over her shoulder and she could hear him muttering something. No, not muttering, his voice was at a normal volume. But it couldn't compete with the noise in her own mind. She was walking now, feet ambling towards the door with Caroline on one side. Elena joined them when they were down the hall. And then she was in her room, sat gently on the ottoman at the foot of the bed. All that heartache and pain from earlier became inaccessible, locked away when she tried to reach for it. It was like she was under water. Stuck in the moment before she realised she couldn't reach the surface, content in the little air she had. Both girls had to leave at one point or the other, taking it in turns so she wouldn't be alone. She was fed some tea and changed and before she knew it she was tucked under the covers. Bonnie went to sleep listening to the Castle bells ringing. Seven tolls, one after the other. Each one deafening and bound to be waking people up all over the Kingdom.

It meant only one thing.

The King was dead.

'By the power vested in me,' The Archbishop held the crown over his head and he curled his fingers in anticipation. In the Cathedral, he focused on one of the arched beams at the far back, over the heads of the silent guests in the pews. 'I pronounce you King Malachai, first of his name. Protector of the people and of this realm. Anointed by God. Amen.' Anointed by himself he corrected mentally as he adjusted to the weight of the crown, gold band around his head.

His coronation was well attended and he wasn't idiotic enough to believe it was out of respect. It was because they were curious. King Malachai the Ist, originally jilted from the top spot to the bottom, only to come out and win it all. At his reception, surrounded by garlands and wreaths decorating the ballroom his dear departed brother had once been engaged in, people practically begged him to tell the story. It truly was an underdog tale. So who was he to deny them the gossip they'd all come for?

'It's truly saddening.' Kai held the goblet still in his hand as he looked down in practiced mourning. 'The guards found her with the knife, she had a fit of madness.' His present company kept quiet, looking equal parts horrified and curious, he did his best not to crack a smile at how ridiculous they all looked. 'Anyway let's not dwell on what has been.' The quick change in his tone jolted the foreign royalty a little but they brushed it off, agreeing with his sentiment.

While their closest Kingdom's monarch, King Mikael, proposed a toast in his honour, he looked around the packed hall, taking a quick tally of who exactly showed up- Almost everyone who received an invite. There was only one Kingdom not represented, and given he'd murdered the Princess' fiance, he wasn't all that surprised. Win some lose some. That was another thing he had to think about now. Alliances. First he'd establish his own reign and then he'd think about alliances. Princess Rebekah was looking better the more her brother Kol let slip out their Kingdom's financial position the drunker her got. Easy mark.

They did the usual, talk, flirt. He lay down a few compliments here and there. Really though it seemed like Rebekah was interested in his newfound titles just as much as he was in hers which made for willing prey.

'Perhaps you and your brothers would like to stay longer than a day? Lord knows we have the room.' He chuckled nervously, trying to appear as disarming as possible. Her brothers all tended towards the 'macho' side- probably in an effort to compete for love from their father- and chances were she preferred the opposite. She giggled back, he was right, before turning suddenly serious again.

'We would but what about King Rudy?'

King Rudy? Lucas' almost daddy in law? 'What about him?'

'His funeral is being held in a few days.' Kai did his best not to look blankly as he understood her.

Funeral.

That meant he was dead.

How? What? When? That meant-

'Not to mention the Princess' Coronation.' Rebekah kept going on about the intricacies of finding the right dresses for balancing mourning and celebration while he thought.

Her father was dead- Bonnie's father was dead. The pressure flared up in the back of his mind after laying dormant for so long.

From a purely logical standpoint, it now made sense that Bonnie wouldn't have come to his coronation or Lucas' funeral. But a little correspondence would have been nice. He at least sent her a letter, she could have reciprocated and done the same. A little bit of common courtesy would go a long way in establishing relationships now she was becoming Queen.

Queen Bonnie.

It suited her and he indulged in a flash of her sitting with a crown atop her head, looking as regal as she was always meant to be. But the flash was over too quickly and he focused on Rebekah once more.

By the time the celebrations were over and everyone was sufficiently convinced that he was the saner twin and their alliances were in good hands, it was almost dawn the next day. Instead of going to rest he found himself with a lot more energy bounding through him. Enough to fuel a visit to the basement rooms. Originally meant for the ailing, for whom sunshine was a big no no, but now home to his last surviving immediate relative. Boy she did not look happy to see him.

It wasn't as if she usually looked happy now but when she saw him her face became something else altogether. Rude. It wasn't as if he killed her. Alright he did murder most of their immediate family members- and blame their murders on her so he could seize power- but they had other family. None came to mind but he was sure there must be a bastard sibling or two somewhere.

When he first moved her down there a few of the nobles wanted to visit her because they just couldn't fathom the fact that poor Princess Josette who would never hurt a fly, suddenly blacked out in a fit of madness and murdered the entire family. But they soon left when she started her ranting about how it wasn't her who killed them. She swore up and down that they were talking one minute and then all of a sudden they were dead. The knife was pushed into her hand by- and this was usually when people would realise she truly was mad- an invisible spirit. She even accused Kai of being involved. Her own dear brother.

Her generous, merciful brother who was staving off execution for her. The brother that had multiple witnesses attest to the fact that he was in his room, far, far away from the scene of the crime. Besides, surely if he had organised the coup then he'd want to kill his only other rival immediately. But she was his twin, they were bonded, he told them, if she died a part of his own soul would too. He knew it was crap but he said it so eloquently and empathetically that he had everyone believing it. Unfortunately for Jo the sympathy for her was dying down because of the raving. Now she was becoming much more tactical in her behaviour, realising what people thought of her, in the hope that someone would realise she was just as sane as he was, saner even, which meant there must be some truth to her story.

It would be beneficial for them all if Jo was moved again, somewhere far away from polite civilisation, maybe she'd learn a trick or two from her new neighbours. For example, how to rant maniacally.

'Morning sissy, big day today.'

'Kai.' She said in greeting. Great restraint on her part, usually she launched into reasons why he was a murderer and all the proof she was going to find.

'Not feeling super chatty?' He crouched in front of her as she sat on the bed, legs touching the floor. Making sure to leave enough distance so she couldn't launch herself at him. She was insane after all. She looked better than usual, even brushed her hair. A warning sign for him that she was planning something.

'Why did you do it?'

'Oh god.' He grimaced, rolling his eyes. 'This again? We both know it wasn't me sis. I was in my own quarters, far away. You had the knife, we found you. You done been caught sis, suck it up.'

She looked hard at his face and he matched the glower. Being shut up down here was starting to take its toll, not quick enough. The sooner she broke the securer his reign would be, and he wouldn't even have to kill her. He was being merciful.

'Scratch that. It's obvious why.' Jo pinned him with a scrutiny. 'But it's so sad Kai. Don't you see that? It's the act of a desperate little boy. You wanted a crown so bad you threw a murderous tantrum,' So she noticed the gleaming golden diadem on his head, not hard to miss, 'All so what? People finally love you? You're a goddamn tragedy Malachai.' She looked like she was preaching but her eyes held none of the warmth of a god, 'this will haunt you forever. And if it doesn't then I personally will.'

'Ah.' He sighed deeply, feeling the click in his knees as he straightened up. 'Resorting to empty threats is so dad. I really thought better of you Josette.'

'Its. Not. Empty.' Jo spat, gritting her teeth.

'But how are you going to haunt me from the dungeons?' Before her little speech he was going to move her to the physicians wing. Surrounded by the elderly and deranged. But there was too much freedom in that for someone who was as lucid as her.

'What?' He smirked- that got her.

'Your new home.'

'Kai n-'

'Out of sight, out of mind.'

'Please.'

Begging already? All he had to do was mention her new digs and she looked like she was about to fall apart. 'Don't worry sis, do you really think I would let you go there…' He trailed off to see the relief forming on her face, 'without making sure you'd be well taken care of?'

Then there was the panic again, less dainty- more a solid wall of emotion. And she lashed out. He saw it coming a mile away, could have stepped out of the way quickly if he really wanted to. But he let her have this one. She'd earned that much.

A scratch down the side of his face- a week and it would be healed- knocking the crown from his head. He was calling for the guards to escort her to her new home when she tried to latch onto his neck, mussing up the hair she'd combed so neatly. Jo yelled curses the whole way down the corridor and had to be yanked but he gave them strict instructions. She was never to be harmed, anything she requested that seemed reasonable- no sharp objects obviously- she was to be given. It was the least he could do for all the she had given him.

There was still an hour of darkness left before the sun would crawl up and the sudden violence made him sleepy. It only took a minute from his head hitting the pillow to opening his eyes and finding himself in the middle of a familiar wood.

In the centre of the grove, bathed in sunshine as she closed her eyes, sat a familiar silhouette. For a second he couldn't place it, having felt like she was a forgotten topic. He dreamed of watching her, envious of the peaceful expression. Every feature of her face was burned into the back of his eyes. But when he woke up she faded into nothing more than dimmed embers, slipping back into his subconscious mind.

'The Medicci's, Princess? Are they to be invited?'

'I-Uh- ' Bonnie stuttered, retreating further into herself the more questions were thrown at her from around the table. She knew the answer to Lord Salvatore's question. It wasn't hard. Invite the Medicci's. They'd see what a strong leader she was and be happy to continue their alliance. It would look weaker of them for not inviting them. In fact they should have been invited sooner but it wasn't her fault they hadn't been. In the week since her father's death everyone left her to her mourning. Mourning that consisted of her mainly milling around the castle or going for a ride in the woods, visiting Grams and trying and failing to find Jeremy. No one had seen her cry yet. Maybe that was why Lord Saltzman decided she was ready to attend a council meeting. Her first meeting and it was a question about her father's funeral. She knew the answer, but it was lodged in the back of her throat.

'Not at this late of a stage.' Lord Saltzman answered on her behalf, giving her a sympathetic smile. He assumed her reluctance to participate in her first ever council meeting was because of her grief, chiding his oversight. But anymore than a week for grief didn't seem to be allowed and she was going to be bombarded by decisions and questions, and more people relying on her than ever before. Luckily she inherited her father's advisor, Alaric wanted to ease her in and he was doing his best to run interference. 'We should begin sending out the invites the moment this list is is nearly done. But obviously King Joshua's Kingdom is exempt.'

The mention of something she was familiar with, the topic of her previous engagement, gave her voice. 'No Lucas needs to be told.' Bonnie mumbled, looking down onto the wooden surface of the table. It relegated her unable to see all six of the council members, rich old men every one of them, stare over at her advisor in scrutiny. At the realisation of a message that had gone undelivered.

'Ma'am…' Lord Salvatore looked around the table to see if anyone else wished to deliver the news and when no one, not even his brother Damon, decided to help he told her as gently as he could. 'Prince Lucas passed away.'

Her head snapped up. 'What?'

'The whole family.' Alaric took over and her soul turned to ice. 'King Joshua and his children, they were killed in a horrific incident. The Eldest daughter-'

'Jo?'

'Jo.' He agreed and she felt instinctually Jo deserved sympathy before hearing a word, 'She had a fit of insanity and killed the family at dinner.' Only to taste regret at the thought.

'The guards found her drenched in blood and holding a knife.' Lord Salvatore added, as if the gory detail was of any substance to her other than to shock her. Kai was there. He was Jo's family. Oh god. It explained why he hadn't written if he was somewhere six feet in the ground.

'What about Malachai?' She asked, trying not to let her voice crack as she imagined him with eyes lolling to the back of his mind, his throat slit.

'King.' Alaric said, leaning back and pressing his thumb and forefinger together. King?

King. She almost let out a bubbling laugh of relief, letting her lips twitch at the most. He was okay. But she looked up at the men around her.

Alaric knew. He'd known what happened all along. The way they were all staring at her meant they all knew. When did everyone find out?

'We thought you knew.' He answered her silent question.

Why would they think that? She'd gotten no information. Up until Alaric fetched her for this meeting everyone had been treating her like glass, irritating but she let them because it meant she was left alone. In truth she felt more like concrete. Heavy and cold, any sort of real emotion that wanted to squirm out of her was dried within. Because of that, because of her own stupidity she missed out on so much. It was her own fault for pretending to mourn. There was nothing to think about. Her father was alive and then suddenly he wasn't. She was already in the middle of the memory before she realised her mind was re-living the it. Hoping never to think about what happened for a long as she lived. Less than forever later and she was already dragging it back out to analyse the cause of it all.

The letter.

The letter her father burnt.

He burnt it and she got angry.

Really angry.

She wanted him dead and he was.

Guilt began to swell up inside her veins and she pushed her chair back, listening to it scrape against the stone floor to distract from crying.

'Excuse me.'

There was chatter and someone may have objected to her leaving but she ignored them as she hurried out, heading to her room.

Elena was already there, anticipating the shambles Bonnie would be after the meeting and ready to pick up the pieces. Unfortunately it made the sinkhole in her stomach much worse and she was yelling at her to get out as she flopped onto the bed. Bonnie never shouted, it wasn't her. So when Elena heard her speak that way, she fled from the stranger, letting her collapse in pieces. Something she would apologise about later.

The image of her father slunk on the floor kept replaying and her breathing became quick and shallow with every flash until she realised the thought she'd been pushing back. Vehemently insisting she was just numb from shock. It couldn't have been denial if she pretended she was innocent.

Bonnie shoved her hair back as she gripped her skull, sinking to the floor. 'I killed him' she hiccoughed.

She killed her father. Somehow thinking about it as she had been doing this past week wasn't enough to make her feel as bad as she should have been feeling. Realising that now Lucas was dead and Kai was King and she missed it all because of what she did, made her feel sick. She curled onto the rug and dug her fingernails into the side. The only thing she could do was sob the sickness away until she exhausted herself. Sleep felt like a demon come to snatch her, dreading the images that would haunt her, when she finally did slip.

This wasn't so bad. Where she was expecting hellfire to consume her she only felt sunshine. She was in a familiar clearing in the woods. It was wrong to feel so light after realising she was murderer but it was on instinct she closed her eyes and tilted her head upwards. She remembered feeling so happy here, teaching Kai magic. Until he siphoned her accidentally. Then she felt pain, deepening at seeing how devastated he looked. The pain was nothing compared to hearing his voice, barely a whisper.

'Bonnie?'

She opened her eyes, vision temporarily white in the sunlight, until they found him wandering unsure towards her.

'Kai?' Or it could have been 'Hi.' It came out as nothing more than a croaky whisper of conflicted emotions. She was dreaming of him. She'd done it before, but it was mainly replays of their memories with him fading, never as real as this. When he sat in front of her, it felt like she could reach out and touch him. So she did. Her hand was on his by all accounts, except she couldn't feel his warmth. He was a specter.

'Why can't I feel you?' He asked, looking down at her fingers on the back of his hand.

'We're dreaming.' She smiled up at him, only half genuine and trying to brush over the ache in her gut to enjoy his company for the little time they had. 'I hear you're King.' As if striking up an actual conversation with this version of Kai she dreamed up would ease her. A stab at some normality she was missing.

'Yes, actually.' Kai smiled at the shift in their tone. 'Only took the deaths of a few family members but I got there.'

'I heard about that.' Bonnie nodded, folding her hands back on her own lap. 'Do you think she- Jo- regrets it?' It was a stupid question if Jo really was wholly responsible for the murders, unlike what she suspected. But if she was right in her suspicions, then of course she would have dreamt up Kai to interrogate after her own realisation.

But he looked puzzled at the question, refusing to face her nonetheless. 'I think she does. She wasn't sane when she did it.'

'But does that matter, how she felt at the time? She killed someone.'

He watched her eyes get bigger as she asked, seeing how deeply she poured herself in the question. His own looked to the distance, remembering something she couldn't sense. There was something different about him. Physically he looked the same, but his gaze, the way he looked at her wasn't the way she was used to. It held all the warmth of their last goodbye.

'Your father's dead.' He said. 'The Mikaelson Princess was telling me.' Kai fixed his eyes, grey under the sun, on her once more. 'How did he die Bonnie?'

'Heart attack.' She lied. The Mikaelson Princess? Why would she dream of Kai telling her that. The small backstory was hope that maybe he wasn't just a dream. Maybe their magic was connecting them. And if there was even a small part of her that thought he was just as aware as she was she needed to shore herself up once more. But he was scanning her already and she knew he was seconds away from knowing. Was it such a bad thing?

'You're a terrible liar Bonnie.'

'Have you ever considered that you read me too well.' She said, dreading the bittersweet talk they were going to have and doing as much as she could to delay it.

But he never laughed, adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed waiting for her to say it.

In a small voice she squeaked, 'I killed him.'

She waited for him to look at her like the murderer she was. To scramble to get away from her. Under the golden rays she felt red.

'On purpose or accident?'

'Does it matter? He's dead.' Her voice trembled.

'It matters, there's a big distinction.' Kai sat forward, he knew which one it was but maybe she wasn't clear on her own intentions.

'I did it with my magic. I just remember wanting him dead, and then suddenly he was.'

He nodded, filing away that this dream version of the Princess had magic- something he couldn't remember from the visit.

'But you didn't mean it. You lost control.'

'Like Jo.' Her voice came out crackly, with little disagreement. Just because she didn't mean to do it, it didn't make her feel like any less of a piece of dirt.

'Can I ask you something?' He sounded chirpier and it confused her into nodding. 'Will crying over what you did make you feel better?'

'I don't deserve to feel better.' Her angsty response forced him roll his eyes.

'And is continuing like that going to save your soul?' He said the phrase with all the seriousness of a anecdote. 'Look, you're not seeing the bigger picture here. You're Queen now. You can wallow and cry about how fractured your poor little soul is. Or you can realise that now, it's all up to you. There are people relying on you. Little orphanages full of children that you can do more for than just donate. It's not about you anymore.'

'I shouldn't be queen, I'm a terrible person.' He was making too much sense that now she had to reach for different ways to get across how awful she was feeling and convince herself she was rotten.

'Alright. So let's say you tell everyone what you did. Then you get dethroned, imprisoned or executed obviously. And oh guess what- you were the last surviving heir. Now your entire Dynasty has come down and the whole Kingdom is vulnerable without a monarch. Not to mention how highly valued it is because of your port. There's going to be a battle for it. Probably a few. I'd be surprised if it's not a shell of its former self under your family's authority, thousands dead and thousands more displaced because of it. Let's not even get into how much your council members are probably screwing over it's running.'

'Actually the council members are pretty good. Maybe if I gave myself up, none of that would happen. They could just find a new monarch.' She looked faraway, taking in the wrong lesson from what he was saying.

'No they can't. You're running away Bonnie. And you can give yourself as many reasons and call yourself a million names, but what's done is done. The consequences of your actions are that you have to lead now. Make that your punishment if you have to, just do it.' He was self aware enough to realise how staked he'd made himself on making her feel better, for no reason other than the fact that she felt bad. It was more than what he felt.

'But I'm a monster.' Bonnie whispered, looking down at her hands and surrendering to the fact that his logic was giving her clarity and letting herself cry once more.

'Self deprecation won't absolve you.'

'What will?'

'Your own mind. Control it.' But she still didn't look wholly convinced. So he did the only thing he knew to defeat a monster. Finding a bigger one. 'I killed my family Bonnie. Not Jo.'

It was fine to tell her that, he counselled himself. She was just a dream.

Bonnie's head flew up, eyes burning his. A multitude of emotion. First she looked shocked. Then she looked angry- and when she looked angry he thought he would have to duck. Finally there was cold hard resolve.

'You used magic.' She guessed.

'Yup.' He popped the 'P', waiting for some sort of anger from her. For her to scream at him righteously. And he wouldn't stop her. If hating him made her stronger, then he would let her have it. From a deep part within himself, buried, it hinted that it was the right thing to do.

'For us?' She whispered and he found himself genuinely confused once again. What us? She was a Princess from a neighbouring kingdom. No matter how intimate this conversation, they were barely more than strangers to each other.

'For me.' He replied, watching her face drop once more. 'I cloaked myself and used my sister's knife to gut them all. Even Olivia who- by the way- knew some pretty sensitive stuff about you.' He forgot exactly what it was, 'you've got a leak in your court.' He was so remorseless when he spoke about it. She'd seen him with Lucas, not exactly the closest but they were brothers. That had to mean something. Being family had to mean something. How could he do that? 'You just killed your whole family like that?'

There it was. He managed to out monster the monster in her.

'Without even thinking about it.' He replied. Of the two of them she became something she thought was out of reach, the better person. The understanding that no matter how low she fell, he would always be lower. There was no rock bottom when he was around. In a twisted way in made her want to pull him forward and kiss him. And in an untwined way, she wanted to run. But this was a dream and the closest thing to that was waking up.

He looked forsaken as the world around them began to shake and they flirted with consciousness once again. But where he would wake to forget the meeting, she remembered every word.

Lord Saltzman had taken up the chair of the meeting, deciding it was best to not invite back the Princess after she left so suddenly. A part of him worried that her little romance with the bastard Prince- now King- was resurfacing. From what he'd seen she'd been holding it together, even if she smiled a little less or spoke more selectively, she was functioning. But he worried her father's death was going to wipe away the little ability she held to keep on going. There was a contingency in place should anything like that ever happen. Find her a suitable husband, quickly, at her agreement, and have him rule. It was a much smoother transfer of power, but a route Alaric was reluctant to take. 'The people shouldn't be allowed to the coronation, it's too unsafe. But a tour afterward should satisfy them.'

Heads around the table nodded in unison. 'Agreed.' Lord Gilbert nodded.

The door to the small council room creaked as the Princess slipped undramatically back inside the room, an oxymoron with how suddenly everyone paused to look at her, taking her chair at the head. All six members of the council stared expectantly. Where they were expecting to see an unsure frown, as feeble as her entrance, they saw a jaw set with resolve.

Bonnie took in a barely noticeable breath to steady herself and began. 'The Medicci's will be invited to the funeral. We'll use this as a show of power. Put the word out that the coronation route will be through the town-'

'Majesty what if-'

She put a hand up to silence Lord Saltzman. 'Put the word out. The more people there are in the streets the better I'll look to the attending royalty. This is my reign my Lords. I'm going to treat it as such.'

The route the carriage took to the chapel began from the docks and she couldn't have anticipated how large the crowds were going to be. People packed in thousands across and multiple rows back, not to mention the buildings crammed full with every window thrown open and people staring out. As she passed they threw up cheers, thundering claps and roaring blessings, showering the path the carriage took with flowers.

Her dress was traditionally golden and a larger version of a baptismal gown, embroidered with diamonds and rubies made by local seamstresses whom she invited to sit in the front section. She stood in the foyer of the Cathedral, hidden from the congregation and hidden from the humongous crowds outside. Around her Elena and Caroline fixed the material and sorted the entourage that was to follow her. Made up of Lords, Ladies and children from her sponsored orphanage. She felt a small squeeze in her palm and looked away from counting the number of flowers entwining the pillar to Grams beside her.

'Are you nervous?'

'Very.' Bonnie sai, expecting comfort from her.

But Grams squeezed her hand once more and the dropped it. 'Good. It means you care.' With a huge grin and kiss to her forehead she took her place and Bonnie had no time to dwell on the words before the Organ began playing. She entered as Princess for the last time, careful to breathe steadily as she walked towards the throne. Grams and Beatrice took up the rear of the procession, Sheila beaming as she saw her life's work come to fruition. There were hymns and prayers all meant to bless the new monarch. The feeling of anticipation as the Archbishop hovered the crown above her head burned within her, the small hair on the back of her neck lifted as she waited.

'Do you swear to Protect the Kingdom and the people of the Kingdom, so help you God?'

She inhaled through her nose and took a last look at her grandmother. Sheila offered her a small smile of encouragement.

This was where her father was coronated. He walked up that aisle, sat in this chair and said the words. She didn't know who he was before the power, but she liked to think it warped him. That meant there was a part of him that was better than who he became. Would it warp her? Would she hit bottom like her father? She'd already killed and felt terrible because of it. Self depreciation won't absolve you.

No. She was already at the bottom. There was only one way for her to go now.

'I do.'