The cold stone of the palace walls had hardened me—but it wasn't until I stepped beyond them again that I realized just how much.
For days, I had roamed battlefields with blood on my hands and vengeance in my heart. I had fought in silence, commanded soldiers like pieces on a war table, hunted traitors behind velvet-lined corridors, and peeled back the masks of nobles who smiled with blades behind their backs. But nothing—nothing—felt as strange as being ordered away from the palace just as my hands were beginning to tighten around its secrets.
My father summoned me the morning after the attack in the great hall. I still bore the faint bruise on my arm where I'd deflected a blade mid-feast. I'd told him what happened—told him about the chaos, the blood, the glares I caught across the room even as I defended him. And still, he looked me in the eyes and said:
"The farther you are from the palace, the safer you'll be."
Safe.
What a hollow word in a place like this.
I didn't believe him. Not for a heartbeat. But I nodded anyway. I gave him my silence because it was the only thing I had left that he hadn't taken.
The mission was vague. A diplomatic escort to one of the border strongholds, masked as a formal inspection. But I knew better. It was exile wrapped in duty. A leash masked as liberty.
I left at dawn.
At first, the change in air felt like breathing again after years of drowning. The forests whispered instead of accusing. The sky stretched wide above us, no longer hemmed by archways and battlements. I rode ahead of the unit, my silver-streaked cloak billowing behind me like wings I hadn't known I missed.
Freedom—it trickled in slowly. I felt it in my fingertips, in the sunlight on my skin. For the first time in weeks, I wasn't watching my back with every step. My guards rode with smiles for once, cracking soft jokes beneath their breath. They looked at me differently here. Not just as the feared daughter of the King, but as the commander who bled beside them, the warrior who carved her legend into steel.
They didn't see the palace girl in me. They saw a flame they would follow.
And I—I felt beautiful again.
Not the beauty my maids had tried to polish into me, not the jeweled puppet they wanted to show off at banquets. No. This was a fiercer kind of beauty—the kind that came from freedom. My eyes reflected the skies again, not the coldness of castle stone. They glowed. And for a while, I let myself pretend that this—this moment on the road, this hush of wind and purpose—was all that existed.
But nothing golden stays.
It happened on the fourth night.
The sky was clear, the fire embers dying soft in the center of our small camp. The guards had rotated, the horses tied, my men tucked into their blankets with bellies full and laughter still hanging in the night.
And I—finally at peace—let myself sleep.
I shouldn't have.
The scream shattered the quiet like a knife through silk.
I jerked upright, heart thundering, eyes straining against the shadows. A guard's cry gurgled into silence. Metal clanged. A blade sang through air. Then a body dropped—close. Too close.
I reached for my sword—too far. My fingers scraped the empty scabbard beside me. Damn it.
I rolled, instincts faster than thought, and a blade stabbed into the earth where my head had just been. Another figure loomed—masked, cloaked in black, eyes soulless.
Assassins.
Five shadows. No more.
Five killers sent to murder me in my sleep.
My blood ran cold. I was weaponless, cornered, surrounded by men who'd trained to kill without mercy.
And I—
I was too late.
Not everyone had screamed.
Some were already dead.
The fire crackled uselessly between us, its light dancing across their blades like a cruel joke. I was alone, half of my men either slaughtered or outnumbered, too far to reach me in time.
And for the first time in a long, long time—
I felt helpless.
I stood there, chest heaving, eyes fixed on the blood pooling near my feet, and knew—
This was not a random ambush.
This was a message.
Someone wanted me dead, and they wanted it done quietly, efficiently.
They'd waited for me to fall asleep.
And I had.
I took one step back. Just one. The nearest shadow moved with me.
I was trapped.
Outnumbered.
And unarmed.