A Whisper in the Dark

The night stretched wide and endless.

A cold wind wove through the trees, rustling their skeletal branches like the murmuring of unseen voices. The castle loomed behind her, its towers black against the indigo sky, but Liria had left its walls far behind.

She needed to breathe.

To get away.

The weight of everything the fight, the loss of control, the knowledge of what lurked inside her now it pressed down on her chest, heavy as stone, suffocating.

So she had slipped away.

The guards wouldn't notice. They were posted at the main entrances, near the grand halls, along the castle walls. But the back courtyards? The gardens that stretched beyond them? No one would expect a princess to wander out alone in the dead of night.

Which was exactly why she did.

Liria walked through the damp grass, her boots sinking slightly into the earth, the scent of wet stone and night-blooming flowers sharp in the cool air.