Chapter 56 A Future King

• *River*
• I can’t take the silence anymore. Grief fills every hallway, every breath, every conversation that ends before it begins. Akin’s death has carved a hollow space inside each of us, and even though no one says his name out loud, it echoes through the palace like a ghost.
• It’s been two days since his death, and the silence threatens to crush me. It presses too close, sits too heavy on my shoulders. I need to move. I need to do something, anything, other than sit in that war room listening to generals argue over plans they can’t agree on. Outside of the room is no better, though.