Excerpt: It's Only Forever

He was a young man, not yet twenty-three. Tall and slim with awkwardly cut white hair that had slash-like jet streaks running from root to tip. With eyes like the sea after a storm, he stared blandly off in the distance at some unnameable “thing” on the slate gray stones that served as the foundation for his throne room. Torches and candles from both trident holders and chandeliers lit the seemingly warm atmosphere despite the chill of the aura radiating from the young king.

Yes, a young king was he. But a young king that wished nothing more than to break the shackles constraining him; freeing him from this burden called a “royal decree.” Why did life continue to get even more and more complicated for the young king?

Just as he was about to drift off into a light doze, in burst an advisor of his royal court; thrusting the chamber door open with a loud bang. He appeared to be in his mid-thirties and looked as though he’d just run halfway across the kingdom and back again. Dark hair unkempt from his usually tidily groomed ponytail and habitually pressed garbs now disheveled, the advisor raced forward and bowed hastily before gazing his green eyes predictably at the young king’s feet.

Rich blue eyes rolled upward before the young man propped his elbow on the arm rest of his throne, chin resting in his black-gloved palm. “What is it now, Alduran?”

“M-My Lordship!” Alduran Baltander panted, placing a hand over his chest as he caught his breath. “Why are you here and not at the royal banquet?!”

“Why indeed,” came the bitter response; an even baritone. “Like I need a reason at all.”

“But King Lucaros! The entire royal family of Alundra is here! This banquet is supposed to be in honor of your engagement to Princess Gianna!”

Lucaros’s jet brows quirked upward in thought, a sneering smirk forming on his lips. “Ah, yes. Now I have my reason.” He glared out the window. “So I can avoid that ugly, fat cow called the Alundran Princess.”