Every now and then, it seemed like she opened her mouth and two voices came out. At times it was even three or four voices depending on the topic at hand. Her head was filled with everyone else’s words and she was sick of it. When asked a question, she always had an answer, but it was never quite her own. An academic topic always seemed to bring forth the voices of her tutors. Politics were responded to by the advisors who lived inside her mind and occasionally the voice of her father. Even when speaking with her ladies she could here her mother guiding the conversation.

She had never been allowed to think on her own, her hand had always been guided by one force or another. But before her, the males smirk lit a fuse, one she hadn’t known lived within her. It sizzled through her replaying his snide remark over and over.

“Can her majesty not speak for herself?”

The advisor to whom he’d posed the question had babbled something about how trivial matters such as this were beneath her attention, but that was ridiculous. After all, only she could accept or decline his proposal.

“I’m not in need of suitors, particularly foreign ones who seek to steal my kingdom for their own.”

“The thought never occurred to me your majesty. I simply thought an alliance would strengthen both kingdoms.”

The court murmured and she could see her advisors whispering to one another.

“And who are you to make such an observation? Surely your king would have his own thoughts, even being the recluse that he is, or is it he who cannot speak for himself?”

His smile grew, turning serpentine as he stepped forward.

“It just so happens that the king can and does speak for himself. You are not the only Royal in this room.”

A chorus of gasps spread through the court as a handful of guards burst through the doors and situated themselves behind the man in the center of the room.

No, not just a man, but a king. One who’d kept his kingdom and his identity far more private than any other. There was very little known about Olanith other than rumors fabricated from pure fantasy.

For once, no voices filled her mind. It was utterly blank.

“You are King Erebus?”

“In the flesh.”

She stood, stepping down from the dais onto the court floor, her guards stepped forward, hands on the hilts of swords.

“Welcome to Amaria, I shall consider your request and you are welcome to stay in the mean time.”

His smirk remained but he bowed slightly before the queen. He peered up a moment and his voice flitted through her head, “As you wish my queen.”

Her eyes widened and his smirk became a smile of gleaming teeth that vanished as he turned and walked from the room leaving her dazed. She swore she’d seen 2 elongated canines before he’d turned around.