The last person he expected to find when he swung open the door to his chambers was the queen herself. She stood by the tall window overlooking the training yard, her back to him, gazing through the glass at the grounds below. Morning light streamed in behind her, catching on the delicate embroidery of her gown, a rich blue silk that shimmered like water with every breath she drew.
It was like Azul to feel frazzled easily, but his mother's presence left almost everyone uneasy, and it was rarely because of the power she wielded. Her authority was something the court had learned to fear, but there was something far more chilling about her, something to do with the absence of compassion that always stared back at him from her pale blue eyes.
When he was a child, he had once thought her eyes resembled frigid waters in winter. Unfeeling in their depth. So similar to his own. Perhaps that was why they had always understood each other in a way.
She cared about very little.
