"No, I don't."
The air grew thick as Leah's words of rejection filled the hall.
Her voice echoed across the throne room, slicing through the silence like a blade as she explained before Azzy even asked her.
"The people of Camelot, the commoners as well as the nobles, have already been laughing at the royal family because of my aunt's same-sex marriage. For more than four decades, we've borne that shame. Even now, we are mocked in whispers, in courts and banquets, behind smiling faces."
Her fingers tightened into a fist in a mixture of anger and frustration.
"And now, that my son marries his own aunt?"
"That the future King of Camelot marries a member of the previous generation? His own blood? Fiona isn't even a distant relative."
Zion's fists clenched at his side. His chest rose and fell with heavy breaths.
Then, sharply, he stepped forward.
