POV: Xander

My excitement when that hidden staircase was revealed had no boundaries. I have no idea what I would find in there, but at least I know that we have little hope of saving ourselves. Everyone seems genuinely happy for us, and I realized that even if the king is trying to turn them against me, they still love genuinely, and I’m happy to have good people around me at this crucial moment of my life when it seems like the whole world has turned it’s back on me. At a point, I was beginning to think that the universe itself had turned its back on me.

I wondered...