"I believe it is time we discussed your marriage."
It took everything in Ember not to flinch at those words.
"My… marriage?" She repeated just to be sure she had heard right and not otherwise.
"Exactly." The Queen said, staring into space.
"B…but you said to hold off on marriage. At least until I am twenty-one." Ember's voice came out small, forcing her to cringe internally.
Ember wasn't naive enough to think that she could avoid marriage. Especially now that she was out in the open, her ambitions for the throne known to all.
She had simply thought she could stall it, and maybe, control it.
But now the Queen raised the question out of the blue, she felt whatever little control she believed she had ripped away from her.
The Queen stood, her long silvery-white hair fanning around her and reaching past her waist.
