The moon looked above the trees, as it casted a beautiful hue of silver over the path like it wanted me to follow it straight into madness and danger.

I shouldn’t have left the palace. The guard rotation was lighter than usual. Father had doubled patrols at the southern border—but I’d secretly trained alongside half those men since I could walk so they knew me well enough to look the other way when they saw me slip past the eastern wing.

I walked alone, my hood was up, covering my face well enough, while my breath fogged in the cold. And my heart beat like thunder under my rib cage,...