Talystasia: A Faerytale

My name is Roselia Loren.

Today I woke up and realized I’m no longer the faerytale princess. In one night, I lost the two people in the world who were most dear to me, and now I’m forced to shoulder responsibilities I never imagined. I can feel the walls of my ivory tower crumbling, and there’s nothing now that can spare me from the darkness.

Our city is divided. For centuries my family has warred with the Telyras across the Wall.

My heart is growing cold inside me, but it’s still beating. And that’s what scares me the most. I’m putting my trust in all the wrong places … like the handsome lieutenant that stabbed my father’s general in the back. If he’s a traitor, then what am I?

But I know it’s time to stop running.

Could there still be a happy ending for me?

~~~

My name is Andreas Telyra.

For twenty-two years, I’ve been fighting a war that isn’t mine, chained to this inherited destiny by a crown I can’t remove. My heart is black and charred inside me, and I feel a darkness crawling through my veins.

Now my only hope is Roselia Loren, the daughter of my lifelong nemesis. Maybe she’s different. More likely she’s as savage as the rest of her cursed line. And even she isn’t? I’ve taken those she loves from her forever. She has grown up to stories of my brutality—most of them true.

I’m so close to giving up, to relinquishing the last shred of my humanity. If I do, I’m pretty sure the next casualty will be someone close to me.

There are no happy endings for me. But I have to try. The light in me is dying.

And if Roselia Loren doesn’t listen … I’m damned.