Chapter 2

Better to have one bird in your hand, than a thousand flying around.

That was what my mother used to tell me every time I wanted more than I could get. It took me years for the lesson to finally sink and by the time it did it was one of the most bitter ones I have ever learned.

I had everything in my hands, even the woman I loved, and in my foolishness I didn't see it until I had already opened my fist and allowed the bird to fly. Now it flew around me, always so close and yet so far.

Allen Schezar, as I later found out, was the youngest member of the order of the Heavenly Knights. The age difference between him and Marlene was the same as between her and me.

And yet, at his young age, he had already conquered and laid claim to the brightest star his country had to offer: my beloved's heart.

A jealous man's eyes seem to be twice as sharp as those of his brothers, for it was quiet obvious that I was the only one that could see what was happening right bellow the whole court's nose.

Up until this point, I don't know the depth of their relationship. And being completely honest, I don't really want to find out. Marlene took her secret to her grave.

And Allen.

Well, the fact that I kicked the man out of my country the minute I married her should give you quiet an idea of how much I want to talk to the man.

Less than a year later, Chid was born.

With his mother's blond hair and pale complexion, and with blue eyes that could come from Allen or even my own mother, he was perfect. I had braced myself for the blow, expecting to see Allen's face in his son's, but the fact that I came to find my beloved's features in her son melted my heart.

I could see the doubt in his mother's own eyes. She had expected me to throw them both out on the streets, and the public humiliation that with it would come. She had found instead, the man that I had tried so hard to hide, the man that loved her more than anything in this cursed world, the one that would go to hell and back just to see her smile.

Childbirth, though, had taken too much out of her, and as I held my son in my arms, I could see my Queen wasting away.

With the little strength she still held, she then told me the words I had never expected to hear, the ones I had always believed would go unsaid forever.

-"I'm so sorry, beloved. I never wanted to hurt you."

She died a little time later, taking with her my eternal promise that her son would be safe, in my arms.