Aria's POV
I burned the note.
Held it over the candle flame and watched the bloody words turn to ash. As if destroying it would make the threat disappear.
It didn't.
The black rose sat on my bed, darker than shadow, impossible and wrong. I wanted to throw it away, but something stopped me.
This was proof. Proof that the Shade could get past the prince's strongest magic. Proof that I was running out of time.
Tomorrow night. When the moon goes dark.
Less than twenty-four hours.
I grabbed the rose carefully—it felt cold as ice—and went to find the prince.
His study door was closed. I could hear him inside, moving around, papers rustling.
I knocked three times.
"What?" His voice was sharp, irritated.
"It's Aria. I need to show you something."
Silence. Then footsteps. The door opened.
The prince looked exhausted. Dark circles under his eyes. Hair messier than usual. He'd removed his formal jacket, and I could see how tense his shoulders were.
"This better be important," he said.
I held up the black rose.
His expression changed instantly. From annoyed to alert to something that might have been fear.
"Where did you find that?" He took it from me, careful not to touch the petals.
"On my bed. In the room you said was protected." I showed him the ashes of the note. "The Shade left a message. He's coming tomorrow night."
The prince cursed under his breath and walked to his desk. He placed the rose in a glass container, sealing it shut.
"This isn't just a threat," he said quietly. "It's a calling card. The Shade is marking you. Claiming you as his prey."
My stomach twisted. "But you said your magic would protect me. You said nothing could get through—"
"I was wrong." He slammed his hand on the desk, making me jump. "The Shade is stronger than I thought. Stronger than it should be. Which means someone is feeding it power."
"Who?"
"Cassandra. Darian. Maybe both." He turned to look at me. "Shades need emotional energy to survive. Fear, anger, despair. This palace is full of it. And if they're deliberately keeping people afraid, keeping me cursed, they're making the Shade powerful enough to breach even my strongest magic."
I felt sick. "So I'm not safe anywhere."
"No." His voice was flat. "You're not."
The words hung between us like a death sentence.
"Then what do I do?" I asked, hating how my voice shook. "Just wait for it to come kill me?"
"You fight." The prince walked closer, his silver eyes intense. "I'm going to teach you to shield yourself. It won't stop the Shade completely, but it might give you enough time to—"
"To what? Run? Hide? I've been doing that since I got here!" Frustration exploded out of me. "I can't keep running from everything—witches, Shades, Forgotten Ones, murderous nobles! I'm not a warrior! I'm just—"
"Just what?" He stepped closer, his voice low and dangerous. "Just a girl? Just a baker? Just someone who happens to have magic in her blood that could save this entire kingdom if you'd stop being afraid to use it?"
"I don't know HOW to use it!"
"Then LEARN!" He was close enough now that I had to tilt my head back to look at him. "You think I knew how to fight when assassins murdered my family? You think I knew how to rule a kingdom at twenty-two? I learned because I had to. Because the alternative was dying. Just like you."
His words hit like slaps.
"I'm trying," I whispered.
"Try harder." He stepped back, running a hand through his hair. "Because tomorrow night, when that Shade comes for you, trying won't be enough. You'll need to actually use your power, or you'll die. And if you die, the curse stays, your village burns, and everything you came here to save will be destroyed anyway."
Tears burned my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.
"I need air," I said, and turned toward the door.
"Where are you going?"
"Just... around the palace. I need to think."
"Take Sir Edric with you." The prince's voice softened slightly. "The young guard with the scar on his cheek. He's loyal. He'll keep you safe."
I nodded and left before he could see me cry.
I found Sir Edric standing guard outside the prince's chambers. He was young—maybe nineteen—with kind brown eyes and a scar cutting across his left cheek.
"Miss Sunfield?" He straightened when he saw me. "Is everything alright?"
"The prince said you should escort me. I need to walk."
He nodded immediately. "Of course. Where to?"
"Anywhere. Just... show me the palace. I need to understand this place."
We walked in silence for a while. Sir Edric pointed out different wings, different rooms, telling me little facts about the palace's history.
Then we turned a corner, and I saw it.
A hallway blocked by massive chains and locks. A sign hanging from the chains: SEALED BY ROYAL DECREE - DO NOT ENTER.
"What's that?" I asked.
Sir Edric's face went pale. "The west wing. Where... where it happened."
My heart started pounding. "Where what happened?"
He looked around, making sure no one was listening, then whispered: "The Royal Massacre. Seven years ago. The prince's whole family was killed there during the Harvest Festival."
I stepped closer to the chains, drawn by something I couldn't name.
"Tell me," I said softly. "Tell me what happened."
Sir Edric hesitated, then sighed. "I wasn't here that night—I was too young to be a guard then. But my father was. He was one of the few who survived." His voice dropped lower. "The festival was supposed to be a celebration. The whole royal family was there—King Aldric, Queen Elara, Prince Kael, Princess Lyanna, and little Prince Tobias. They were laughing, dancing, happy."
The way he said "happy" made it sound like a foreign concept.
"Then the assassins came. Dozens of them, disguised as servants. They killed everyone. The king died protecting the queen. The queen died protecting her children. Princess Lyanna—she was only fourteen—she died trying to save her little brother. Tobias was nine. He didn't even have a chance to scream."
My hand covered my mouth.
"And Prince Kael?" I whispered.
"He survived by hiding." Sir Edric's voice was heavy with old grief. "His fiancée, Lady Seraphina, shoved him into a servants' passage and blocked it with her body. She died so he could live. He heard everything—his family screaming, dying, calling for help. But he couldn't move. Couldn't save them. When the guards finally found him hours later, he wasn't crying. Wasn't speaking. Just... empty."
I felt tears running down my face.
"He hasn't been the same since," Sir Edric continued. "People say he thinks smiling means forgetting them. That being happy means their deaths didn't matter. He's been drowning in guilt for seven years, and nobody's been able to pull him out."
Now I understood.
The coldness. The distance. The refusal to feel joy.
It wasn't cruelty. It was survival.
He couldn't let himself be happy because happiness meant letting go. And letting go meant losing them twice.
"Can I go in?" I asked suddenly, pointing at the sealed wing.
"What? No! Miss Sunfield, it's forbidden. The prince himself sealed it. Nobody goes in there. Not even him."
"Why?"
"Because..." Sir Edric's voice dropped to barely a whisper. "Because their ghosts are still there. People hear them at night. Crying. Calling for help. The prince says it's cursed—that the dark magic used in the massacre infected the entire wing."
I looked at the chains. At the darkness beyond them.
And I felt something. A pull. Like something inside that sealed wing was calling to me.
"I need to go in," I said.
"Absolutely not. The prince would have my head—"
"Then don't tell him." I turned to Sir Edric. "Please. I think... I think there's something in there I need to see. Something that might help me break the curse."
"Miss Sunfield—"
"Aria. My name is Aria." I grabbed his arm. "Please. I'm running out of time. Tomorrow night, something is coming for me, and I need every advantage I can get."
Sir Edric looked torn. Then he sighed and pulled out a key ring.
"My father gave me this before he died," he said, selecting an old iron key. "Said it was for emergencies only. Said if anyone ever needed to go in there, this would open the chains." He looked at me seriously. "But I'm going in with you. And if anything happens—anything at all—we run. Understood?"
I nodded.
He unlocked the chains. They fell to the floor with a crash that echoed through the empty hallway.
The door swung open on silent hinges.
Cold air rushed out, carrying the smell of old blood and older magic.
Sir Edric pulled out a torch. "Stay close."
We stepped inside.
The west wing was frozen in time. Decorations still hung from seven years ago. Tables set for a feast. Chairs knocked over. And everywhere—everywhere—were dark stains on the floor.
Blood. Old but still visible.
I felt sick.
"The ballroom is this way," Sir Edric whispered, leading me down a corridor.
With each step, the air got colder. Heavier. Like we were walking underwater.
Then I heard it.
Humming.
A child's voice, humming a lullaby.
Sir Edric froze. "That's... that's Princess Lyanna's song. The one she used to sing to Prince Tobias."
The humming got louder.
We turned a corner and entered the ballroom.
It was massive and destroyed. Mirrors shattered. Chandelier crashed to the floor. Bloodstains everywhere.
And in the center of the room, sitting on the floor, was a little boy.
He looked about nine years old, with dark hair and silver eyes just like the prince.
Prince Tobias.
But he was transparent. Glowing. A ghost.
He looked up at us and smiled. "Are you here for the festival? Everyone else left. They didn't even say goodbye."
My heart shattered.
"Tobias?" I whispered.
"That's me!" He stood up, still smiling. "Do you know where my brother went? Kael was supposed to dance with me, but he disappeared. Mother says he's hiding somewhere. He always hides when he's scared."
Sir Edric grabbed my arm. "We need to leave. Now."
But I couldn't move. Couldn't look away from this little ghost boy who didn't know he was dead.
"I'm looking for your brother too," I said gently. "Do you know where he might be?"
Tobias pointed at a door behind him. "In the servants' passage. That's where Seraphina put him. But he won't come out. I think he's too scared of the bad men."
"What bad men?"
Tobias's smile faded. "The ones who hurt everyone. They're still here, you know. They never left. They're hiding. Waiting."
The temperature dropped even more.
Behind Tobias, shadows started moving on the walls.
Not natural shadows.
Shapes. Human shapes. Dozens of them.
The assassins.
Their ghosts, still here, still hunting.
And they were looking at us.
"RUN!" Sir Edric shouted, pulling me backward.
But the shadows moved faster.
They poured toward us like black water, and I heard voices—hissing, angry, hungry:
"New prey..."
"Fresh light..."
"Kill the Lightbringer..."
Sir Edric threw his torch at them. The fire passed right through.
We ran.
Behind us, Tobias called out: "Wait! Don't you want to play? Everyone always leaves..."
His voice faded as we sprinted down the corridor, the shadow assassins flowing after us like smoke.
We burst through the door, and Sir Edric slammed it shut, throwing the chains back over it.
The shadows pressed against the door from the inside, making it bulge.
Then they stopped.
And a voice spoke through the door. Not Tobias's voice. Something older. Darker.
"We know what you are, Lightbringer. We've been waiting for you. Come back tomorrow night, when the moon goes dark. Come back, or we'll come get you. And this time, we won't just kill you."
The voice laughed. "We'll make you one of us."
The door went silent.
Sir Edric and I stood there, breathing hard, staring at the chained door.
"What was that?" I gasped.
"Not ghosts," Sir Edric said, his face white. "Something worse. Something that's been using their forms, feeding on this place."
"The Shade," I realized. "The Shade is hiding in the west wing. That's why it can get past the prince's magic—it's already inside the palace. It's been here since the massacre."
And tomorrow night, it was coming for me.