Crown of Shadows, Heart of Thorns

Synopsis

On the day I was diagnosed with dragon-phoenix twins, the crown prince's beloved white moonlight disguised herself as a ghost to terrify me. She drove me into such a frenzy of shock and terror that I miscarried on the spot. When her scheme was exposed, she put on a face of utter innocence: "I was merely playing a little joke on Lady Seraphina. I never imagined her courage was so frail." As I lay in a spreading pool of my own blood, I heard the royal physician declare my children dead in the womb, and that I would never bear another child. Yet the crown prince simply wrapped his arm around his sobbing white moonlight and murmured gentle comforts: "You've cost me my son and daughter. Shouldn't you offer recompense?" "Then I sentence you to enter the East Palace as my consort, to bear me children for the rest of your days." "Your Highness, you're terrible," Gwendolyn Blackwood blushed scarlet and tapped him coyly upon the chest. I could scarcely believe my ears. Two fully formed twins—a boy and a girl—counted for less than one of Gwendolyn's careless jests. Rage consumed my heart, and I bled out and died. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the very day my dragon-phoenix twins were first diagnosed.