If anyone ever tells you that holiday cheer is good for your health, do me a favor and punch them in the face.
I was dead.
I knew I was dead because you don’t just lose consciousness after experiencing the sheer, unadulterated trauma of choking on a dry piece of Thanksgiving turkey in front of your friend’s entire extended family.
Being a single woman with zero living relatives meant I was the pity-invite to my coworker’s holiday dinner.
I was supposed to be enjoying a free meal.
Instead, I accidentally swallowed a chunk of white meat the size of a fist, turned a lovely shade of violet, and suffocated while someone’s grandmother frantically tried to perform the Heimlich maneuver on me.
Choked to death by a dead bird.
What a ridiculously embarrassing way to go.
But when my eyes snapped open, I wasn’t met with the pearly gates of heaven or the fiery pits of hell.
I was staring at a massive, vaulted ceiling draped in heavy black and purple velvet.
“O-Your Majesty!
Please, spare me!
I beg of you!”
A sharp, hysterical cry pierced my ears.
I bolted upright, a massive headache throbbing behind my temples.
The bed I was lying on was large enough to fit a mid-sized sedan, piled high with silk sheets.
Kneeling on the cold stone floor beside the bed was a young girl in a classic, historical maid’s uniform.
She was trembling so violently that the silver tray in her hands was rattling like a pair of maracas.
“What…” I started, but stopped when I heard my own voice.
It wasn’t my usual pitch.
It was deeper, smoother, and dripped with a terrifyingly natural authority.
“I brought the chamomile tea instead of the lavender, Your Majesty!
It was an accident!
Please don’t cut off my hands!
I have a younger brother to feed!” The maid slammed her forehead against the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.
Cut off her hands?
Over tea?
My modern, twenty-first-century brain stalled.
Slowly, I swung my legs out of the bed.
My eyes caught sight of my hands—long, pale, flawless fingers ending in sharp, manicured nails.
This wasn’t my skin.
Pushing past the weeping maid, I marched toward a massive, gold-framed full-length mirror across the room.
When I looked at the reflection, my breath hitched.
Staring back at me was a woman of devastating, otherworldly beauty.
Cascades of thick, snow-white hair fell past her waist, contrasting sharply against a lavish black silk nightgown.
But it was her face that made me gasp.
High, aristocratic cheekbones, plush ruby lips, and a pair of sharp, mesmerizing red eyes that looked like literal glowing rubies.
A memory flash hit my brain like a freight train.
Queen Evangeline.
The tyrannical, bloodthirsty ruler of the Solis Kingdom.
A woman who executed servants for looking at her wrong, heavily taxed her citizens into starvation, and spent her nights indulging in toxic affairs and political assassinations.
A textbook villainess destined to be overthrown and publicly beheaded in a bloody rebellion.
And I was currently occupying her body.
Great, I thought, rubbing my temples.
From choking on turkey to getting my head chopped off.
What an upgrade.
If I wanted to keep my head attached to my shoulders, the reigning era of the Evil Queen had to end today.
I needed to fix this kingdom, and I needed to do it fast.
Turning back to the maid, who was practically hyperventilating, I forced my expression to soften.
“Stand up,” I said quietly.
The girl flinched, slowly raising her tear-streaked face.
“I’m not going to cut off your hands,” I sighed, taking the silver tray from her paralyzed grip.
“In fact, chamomile is exactly what I needed for this headache.
You’re dismissed.
Go get some rest.”
The maid stared at me as if I had just grown a second head.
She scrambled to her feet, bowed so low her nose almost touched her knees, and practically sprinted out of the royal bedchamber.
I took a sip of the warm tea, trying to process the sheer madness of my new reality, when the heavy, iron-reinforced oak doors of my chamber slowly creaked open.
“Your Majesty.”
A voice like crushed velvet and dark chocolate echoed through the room.
I turned around, expecting a generic royal guard.
Instead, my heart completely skipped a beat, and my modern, uninhibited inner monologue immediately screamed.
Oh, holy mother of taste buds.
Standing at the threshold was a man who looked like he had been sculpted by the gods themselves during a peak creative streak.
He was towering—easily six-foot-three—with a broad, powerful chest encased in sleek, gold-accented black leather armor.
He had a magnificent mane of long, silver-white hair that fell elegantly around a jawline sharp enough to cut glass.
His features were devastatingly handsome, possessing a cold, dangerous symmetry.
But it was his eyes that caught me—a deep, piercing silver that stared at me not with reverence, but with a hidden, icy hostility that could freeze boiling water.
A heavy silver broadsword rested at his hip, and the sheer aura of lethal power radiating off him was intoxicating.
This was Kaelen.
The strongest knight in the realm, her newly appointed personal guard, and a man who quite clearly looked like he wanted to murder me in my sleep.
My past life self had been around the block and knew exactly what she liked, and right now, every single one of my modern alarms was going off.
He was lethal, he was angry, and he was quite possibly the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in two lifetimes.
Kaelen stepped into the room, his gloved hand resting on the hilt of his sword, his silver eyes locking onto mine with absolute, undisguised suspicion.
“Your Majesty” he said as he bowed
“Duke Cedric is demanding an audience in the grand hall,” Kaelen announced, his voice smooth but deadpan.
“He has brought the execution warrants you requested yesterday.
Shall I prepare your carriage, or will you keep him waiting?”
I stared at the gorgeous specimen of a man standing before me, a slow, shameless smirk spreading across my lips as the thrill of the game finally took over.
The Evil Queen was dead.
But the new Evangeline?
She was just getting started.
Hey everyone, welcome to Crown of Lust and Lies!
I am so excited to finally share this story with you all!