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Prologue

The Sitka Palace

2:32 AM

"Nicky,get down !" Alexandria’s father roared, and her little brother dropped like a rock and rolled away There was nothe command in that yell; she nearly fell to the carpet herself

There was a sound, sonized but did not, and suddenly her father was staring at the two s out of his chest He stared…

(What story tonight, Alex?)

they all stared…

(No, hon, that one gives you night so fast…

(There’s nothing to be afraid of)

and then her father…

(We’re going to be all right now)

… her father…

(There’s no such thing as monsters)

slowly folded to the floor

She heard another sound--the flat, s flesh--but she was too busy looking around, looking around for…

There

"Not’s’fast without y’r pea shooter, eh?" she heard someone, Kurt? David? slur

"Y--you have to come withfor her little brother, actuallydaring toreach for her brother after the gross assault upon her father "Your place is with us"

"Get the hell out of here, you traitorous piece of shit," her older brother David ordered Alexandria agreed wholeheartedly… to a point "If you leave now, our security teaht not blow your head off"

Stay a while Just ato remember the Baranovs by, you prick

"Us, sir?" her little brother, Nicholas, asked As always in response to stress, he was overly polite

She slipped out of one of her shoes There was round noise, it was how the ocean sounded to a starfish Huge and irrelevant

"My father is the true king," Nicholas said, and that she did hear Nicholas was a child, a brave and honorable one, but too young to knoas useless to talk sense to an extremist

"Devon!" her sister-in-law Christina shouted, and Alexandria heard that, too, like the crack of a whip, again and again:Devon Devon Devon"You’ll never get out of here"

Never

She caught Nicholas’s gaze, saw hiun, on the floor She shook her head but he ignored her and bent for it Thank God, Devon was distracted by Princess Christina

"You’ve fucked up, it’s done"

Yes, its done

"You shot my daddy," Nicholas said, and the rest of theun It was steady in his sht index finger on the far end of the trigger guard

Yes, you shot n, and you hurt my friend"

Dad

"So I’, it’s only fair if I shoot you"

Don’t worry, Nicky You won’t have to I’

"Your High--"

The last thing Devon said Fitting that it should be proper use of a title Part of one, anyway Her hands had closed over the banquet chair Wood, not rip was firht sweats would come later, and stay forever) She levered the chair up off the ground; it went easy, lighter than feathers

She swung the chair sidear like a girl Yeah, yeah, don’t go all PC onevery ounce of her one-fifty behind it

The ainst the wall It wasn’t what she was expecting at all; it was nothing like TV Her hands and arms absorbed most of the shock of the blow and it would be days before she could raise her wrists above her shoulder

The chair, as she had calculated, did not shatter It was good wood, it held But force had to go so on it, and froone exactly where she intended

"There!" she said, her arot up Thedown his sideburns,he was mortally wounded In her head, Alex screamed and screamed

Devon brushed cake froun froers, shot her brother David…

(this is wrong)

shot her other brother Nicky, shot her sister-in-law Christina Took the chair away…