The Rivaled Crown (The Veiled Kingdom, #3)

by Holly Renee

She swallowed hard, and her eyes glittered with unshed tears. “I had loved your father, and I had believed in him. Until it was too late.” The truth struck like lightning. “You were…” I swallowed. She let out a slow, shuddering breath. “The King of Veyrith,” she whispered, ”was my father.” Everything inside me went still. The world around me blurred, the glow of the vessel suddenly too bright, too sharp. I staggered back. “No,” I choked. I had grown up hearing tales of Veyrith, whispered bedtime stories that she would tell me of a make-believe world that thrived and flourished. She would tell of their people, of their lore, and all that time, I hadn’t known. My mother had been their princess. “Veyrith is real?” I asked, although I knew the truth; it hummed inside me, leaving no room for doubt. “It was.” She nodded, but her eyes shuddered. “But that land was long ago turned to ash, its people a sacrifice my father never agreed to make.”

Verena’s mom