Chapter 126 Crowned In Ashes

• The hall still echoed with the thunder of applause.
• Espen stood in the center of the throne room, the weight of the crown no heavier than the child in her belly. Gold glinted along her shoulders, her hand wrapped in Mikko’s, fingers laced tight enough to bruise. It had already happened— officially. But this was the ceremony. The official declaration. The moment her people, their people, watched her rise not from inheritance, but fire.
• Queen.