The palace bells tolled midnight. Their solemn clang echoed across the marble halls, heavy with the scent of incense and steel. Princess Selene tightened her cloak around her shoulders as she crossed the empty courtyard, her sandals silent against the stones.
Something was wrong.
The torches that usually blazed bright were dim, their flames wavering as though afraid to burn. The guards who should have stood at every gate were gone, shadows replacing them. And the air—thick and bitter—carried the faint cry of steel meeting steel somewhere far beyond the walls.
Selene's steps quickened.
She had been summoned to her father's chambers not long ago, but when she arrived, the king's guards barred her way. "Return to your rooms, Princess," they had said, eyes avoiding hers. That was when the unease began to coil in her stomach like a serpent.
Now, as she slipped through the garden archway, she caught sight of movement. A man in armor, his blade dripping, dragging another soldier's body into the shadows. She froze. The sigil on his chestplate gleamed under the moonlight — not of her father's guard, but of her uncle's house.
Her blood ran cold.
"Traitors," she whispered.
A hand seized her wrist. Selene gasped, spinning to find a familiar face: Captain Kael, commander of her father's knights. His jaw was set, his eyes burning with urgency.
"Princess," he hissed. "They've come for the throne. You cannot stay here."
"My father—"
"Your father fights even now, but the palace is lost. If you remain, you die with him."
The words cut sharper than any blade. Selene's heart pounded in her ears. Leave? Abandon her father? Yet in Kael's gaze, she saw the truth—if she hesitated, they would both fall before they ever reached the king's side.
From beyond the walls, horns sounded, low and mournful. The gates had been breached.
Kael pulled her toward the stables. "There is no time, Selene. You must flee. Live, and one day return for what is yours."
Selene's eyes stung with hot tears, but her hand tightened on his. She was no longer a child. She was a princess of the kingdom, heir to the throne. If her enemies thought exile would break her, they would learn otherwise.
She swallowed hard, forcing steel into her voice.
"Then take me away from here, Captain. But swear to me—swear—that this night will not be the end of my story."
Kael's grip firmed on her arm, his vow as sharp as a blade.
"On my life, Princess. This is only the beginning."
And as the palace behind them burned, Princess Selene rode into the night—an exile, a fugitive, but not yet defeated.