Excerpt Continued…

That one sentence had followed her through all the years of her life—and death.

What a bitch! They had cried, or words to that effect.

She was said to be a royal pain in the ass—self-indulged, self-absorbed, a class-conscious bitch of a snob.

Friend and foe alike…agreed.

The guillotine served as her wake-up call.

Thank God she had discovered Luscious Lucian’s secrets. Then she managed to seduce him into her way of thinking before the fateful guillotine dropped.

The years that followed her…death…changed her.

She had needed those years—two hundred and twelve of them to be exact—to grow up. She was only thirty-seven when she lost her head and had been somewhat immature and self-centered, although she was nothing like her very public depiction.

Staring out at the dark sky, she wondered for the hundredth time if the media campaign—designed by the French aristocrats and carried out with the sole intention of turning a nation against her—was the first one of its kind.

With a heavy sigh, she realized it didn’t matter now.

She considered the centuries that were added to her life a gift. It gave her time to mature and evolve into a woman who looked out over the city she protected and truly believed the words “Let them eat cake,” stood for something far different than the sarcastic meaning given to them.

In this time, in this place, and more importantly in her heart and soul…she cared for these people. Mortal and immortal alike. She wanted nothing but the best for them.

Let them eat cake.

She no longer played the role of a despotic ruler.

Straightening her spine, she smiled. She was Sentinel for this region and she damn well did a great job.