Elara's POV
Rough hands yanked me from the cell before sunrise, my body still stiff from sleeping on stone.
Move, traitor.
They dragged me up the dungeon steps, my bare feet stumbling on each one. I'd stopped begging hours ago. My throat was raw from screaming, and no one cared anyway.
Dawn light hit my eyes like needles as they shoved me through the palace gates. I blinked, disoriented, then froze.
Hundreds of citizens lined the streets. Not to mourn me. To destroy me.
There she is! someone screamed. The traitor princess!
The first rotten tomato hit my face, exploding in a burst of stinking pulp. Then another. And another.
Barren witch!
Foreign spy!
You deserve to die!
The guards forced me forward through a tunnel of hatred. Eggs smashed against my head. Rotten vegetables splattered across my already-ruined dress. Someone threw a rock that opened a cut above my eye, blood streaming down my face.
I kept my eyes down, trying to disappear inside myself. This wasn't real. This was a nightmare. Any moment I'd wake up
Hands grabbed my dress, tearing. The cheap fabric they'd given me ripped like paper, exposing my shoulder, my legs. I tried to cover myself but the guards just laughed and kept dragging me forward.
Not so high and mighty now, are you, Princess? one guard sneered.
By the time we reached the city border, I was barely recognizable. Covered in filth, bleeding, dressed in rags. Everything I'd been, the educated noble daughter, the graceful Crown Princess—erased in one humiliating march.
The crowd thinned as we entered the forest road. Just me and five guards now.
My heart started pounding. This was it. The moment they'd been waiting for.
Keep walking, the lead guard ordered, his hand moving to his sword.
I knew that voice. He'd been one of the men outside my cell last night. One of the assassins.
How much did she pay you? I asked quietly. The Empress Dowager. How much is my life worth?
He smiled. Enough.
Steel whispered as all five drew their swords.
I ran.
Branches whipped my face as I crashed through the forest. My bare feet screamed with pain, cut on rocks and thorns, but I didn't stop. Couldn't stop.
Get her! someone roared behind me.
They were faster. Trained soldiers chasing a starving girl who'd spent two days in a dungeon. I heard them gaining, their boots pounding the earth like war drums.
An arrow whistled past my ear, so close I felt the wind of it.
I burst through a line of trees and nearly screamed—the ground ended in a cliff. Below, a river raged, swollen from spring rains, churning over rocks like a living monster.
I spun around. The five guards emerged from the forest, spreading out to surround me. Their swords caught the early morning light.
Nowhere to run now, the leader said. The Empress wants it clean. Quick. We'll tell everyone you tried to escape and fell.
Please. The word tasted like ash. I didn't do anything wrong. I'm innocent—
Innocent people don't get divorced and disowned in the same day. He raised his sword. Any last words?
I looked at the blade, then at the river churning below. Two ways to die—by their swords or by drowning.
My mother used to tell me stories about the river. How it connected to foreign lands. How it carried secrets and sometimes saved the desperate.
Mother. The word echoed in my mind. My mother with her strange accent and mysterious past. The mother the Empress Dowager always sneered at for being foreign.
The assassin stepped forward.
I made my choice.
I jumped.
NO! His shout followed me over the edge.
The fall lasted forever and no time at all. Wind screamed in my ears. My stomach dropped. The world spun
I hit the water like hitting a wall.
Cold. So cold it stopped my heart. The current grabbed me immediately, yanking me under, spinning me like a rag doll. Water filled my nose, my mouth, my lungs. I kicked frantically but didn't know which way was up.
My head broke the surface for one gasping breath before the river dragged me under again.
Rocks appeared out of nowhere. I slammed into one, pain exploding across my ribs. Then another that split my lip. The water was killing me as efficiently as any sword, just slower.
I stopped fighting. Let the current take me. Maybe this was better anyway. Drowning was cleaner than what the Empress Dowager had planned.
Cassian, I thought as darkness crept into my vision. You killed me after all.
My eyes drifted closed.
Everything went black.
Cold.
I was still cold.
But I wasn't dead. Dead people didn't feel cold, did they?
Someone was touching my face. Warm fingers pressed against my throat, checking for a pulse.
I tried to open my eyes but my body wouldn't obey. Everything hurt. My lungs burned. My ribs screamed. Even breathing felt like swallowing broken glass.
She's alive. A woman's voice, low and confident. Barely. Get the healer—now.
Footsteps running. Then warmth covered me, a blanket maybe, or a cloak.
Can you hear me? the woman asked.
I managed to force my eyes open to slits. Everything was blurry, but I could make out a figure kneeling beside me. A woman in dark clothes, not the bright colors of imperial fashion. Her face was strong, beautiful in a dangerous way.
Where... My voice came out as a croak. Where am I?
The Shadow Kingdom border. She studied me with eyes that seemed to see straight through to my bones. You're lucky. The river carried you exactly where you needed to go.
Shadow Kingdom. The mysterious land my mother came from. The place the empire feared and whispered about.
I need... I coughed, water spilling from my mouth. I need to hide. They'll come for me. The Empress
No one from the empire crosses into our territory without permission. The woman's smile was sharp. You're safe here.
Safe. The word felt foreign.
Who are you? I whispered.
She reached down and brushed wet hair from my face with surprising gentleness. Her next words made the world tilt sideways.
My name is Zara Nightshade. I'm your cousin. Her smile widened. And I've been waiting twenty-six years for you to come home.
Cousin? My mind couldn't process the word. That's impossible. My mother's family is all dead—
Is that what they told you? Zara's laugh was bitter. Your mother was the Crown Princess of the Shadow Kingdom before she ran away to marry your father. That makes you—
She paused, letting the weight of her words sink in.
the lost heir to the Shadow throne.
My vision started to go dark again, but not from pain this time. From shock.
Welcome home, Princess, Zara said softly.
Then everything went black for real.