My name is Kirika Ambrosia Rose, I am the second queen to the Black Court. I’m told I am the rightful ruler with the only sane head on her shoulders. I’m only twenty and I fear that my inexperience at not only life but the courts will lead to the downfall of my realm. I will be strong as my aunts have raised me to be. I will not be blinded by the demons that have followed my court since the birth of my mother Cyprus. I will be stronger but wisdom and knowledge comes with age and practice.

I am slowly bringing my court out of the shadows. They hid there with fear as they clung onto the bodies of their children, lifeless or living. My mother was a cruel woman who broke every spirit she ever met. She waged wars and even sacrificed her own children for power. That was why they saved me. That was why they knew they had to raise me as the true heir.

I am hesitant to say I was the right choice but also I am fearful that I am the only choice. My siblings all have sanity that hangs on by a thread. I’ve heard stories of my siblings who did not make it past infancy and my heart mourns. How could she break our sacred oath like that? The demons did it. I can hear their whispers when outside of my blessed room in the castle.

We’re cursed. We’re damned. We’re broken.

But I don’t want to be. I want to be free but the burden of my court requires all of my energy. I heard that eventually they will look for a mate for me, if only to relax me some. Tomorrow… we will preform mass burials of the children my mother slaughtered. I have finally convinced the families of the black court to let the bodies go to rest now. I feel for them. I feel responsible because I am her child. My hands smell like the rotting flesh of the children that I have taken from them… All I want is for them to move forward and know that I am not my mother.

Do I even have the strength to do that though? Only time will tell… and time is something we Rosenites have plenty of.