The healers cleaned and stitched my wounds, applied salves that numbed the pain. The cuts weren't as deep as they'd felt, painful but not life-threatening. I'd have scars, they said. Permanent reminders of this night.
I was fine with that. Scars meant I'd survived.
Kael arrived as they were finishing, looking haggard. He dismissed the healers with a word, then just stood there, staring at me.
"I'm all right," I said.
"You're hurt. Because I brought you into this. Because I—"
"Because a murderous lord sent shadow beasts to attack a feast, and one of them got lucky." I caught his hand. "This isn't your fault, Kael. None of this is your fault."
"My shade killed him. I lost control, and now we'll never know—"
"We'll figure it out. We'll search his estate, follow the connections, and find whoever he was working with." I squeezed his hand. "We're not done investigating. We're just getting started."
He sat on the edge of the bed, exhausted. "You were right. About Nightshade. You spotted him controlling the beasts while everyone else was panicking. How did you even notice?"
"Because I was looking. Because I knew whoever was behind this would eventually make a mistake." I shifted, wincing as the movement pulled at my stitches. "He got overconfident. Thought he could control the attack without being noticed. But magic like that... it's visible if you're watching for it."
"You saved lives tonight. If you hadn't identified him, if I hadn't stopped him"
"We stopped him together," I corrected. "Partners, remember?"
He smiled faintly. "Partners. Right."
A knock at the door. Captain Thorne entered, looking grim. "Your Highness, Princess. We've searched Lord Nightshade's rooms. Found correspondence, magical artifacts, ritual components." He held up a stack of letters. "And these. Letters between Nightshade and someone else. Someone he was reporting to."
"Who?" Kael demanded.
"The letters are coded. We're working on decryption now. But there's something else." Thorne looked uncomfortable. "The magical artifacts we found... they're old. Very old. From before the current dynasty. Before your grandfather's time."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying Lord Nightshade had access to ancient magic. The kind that hasn't been used in Shadowmere for generations. The kind that was supposedly lost when—"
"When my great-grandfather purged the old magical families," Kael finished, understanding dawning. "You think there's a surviving member of the old bloodlines? Someone with a grudge against my family?"
"It's possible. These artifacts had to come from somewhere. And the magic used in the attacks matches descriptions of the old ways." Thorne set down the letters. "This is bigger than we thought, Your Highness. This isn't just about succession or court politics. This is about revenge. About restoring power to families that lost everything."
I thought about that. About ancient grudges and lost power and people who'd waited generations for revenge.
"The Queen," I said slowly. "Queen Arianna. What family did she come from?"
Kael went very still. "The Silvermoon family. One of the old bloodlines. They were powerful before the purge, but they survived by pledging loyalty to my grandfather." He looked at me. "Are you suggesting—"
"I'm suggesting that maybe someone in her own family wanted her dead. Saw her marriage to the King as a betrayal." I stood carefully, ignoring the pain. "The letter Lady Morgana wrote, she said she knew who killed the Queen. What if she recognized them because they were family? Someone Arianna had trusted?"
"But everyone in the Silvermoon family was accounted for after her death. They all had alibis—"
"Public alibis. But what about in private? What about someone who could slip away, commit murder, and return before being missed?" I moved to the window, thinking. "Someone with intimate knowledge of the castle, the wards, the Queen's routines. Someone close enough to be above suspicion."
"You're describing someone in the royal household," Captain Thorne said. "A servant, perhaps. Or—"
"Or a trusted advisor. A court official. Someone who's been here for decades." I turned back to face them. "Captain, how long has Aldus been castle steward?"
Thorne's face went pale. "Forty years. Since before Queen Arianna arrived. He was..." He trailed off. "Gods. He was here during the purge. He would have been young, but old enough to remember."
"And he would have had access to everything," Kael added, catching on. "The Queen's chambers, the royal wing, the wards. He could have planted the artifacts for Nightshade to find. Could have fed him information, guided him"
"Used him as a weapon while staying above suspicion himself," I finished.
We looked at each other, the pieces falling into place.
"We need to find Aldus," Kael said. "Now."
But Captain Thorne was already shaking his head. "He's gone, Your Highness. I just got the report. Aldus left the castle two hours ago. Said he was visiting family in the city. No one thought to stop him because he's the steward. He comes and goes as he pleases."
"He's running," I said. "He knows we're close. Probably knew the moment we found Nightshade's correspondence."
"Then we go after him." Kael moved toward the door. "Captain, I need horses, twenty of your best men—"
"No," I interrupted.
Both men turned to stare at me.
"He's running to someone," I explained. "Someone who's been directing him, just like he was directing Nightshade. We let him run, but we follow. See where he goes, who he meets." I looked at Captain Thorne. "Can you track him without being spotted?"
"I have men who can, yes. But Princess, if he reaches his destination, if he warns whoever he's working with—"
"Then we'll have identified all the conspirators at once instead of just one." I met Kael's eyes. "We've been playing reactive this whole time. Responding to attacks, trying to protect ourselves. It's time we went on offense."
A slow smile spread across Kael's face. "You want to let him lead us to the mastermind."
"Exactly. And then..." I touched the dagger still strapped to my thigh. "Then we end this. Permanently."
Captain Thorne looked between us, then nodded slowly. "I'll organize the tracking team. We'll follow him wherever he goes, and report back to him."
"No," Kael said. "We follow him ourselves. Together."
"Your Highness, you're needed here. The court is in chaos, the High Lords are—"
"Can wait. My father can manage them for one night." Kael's voice was firm. "This is personal. Whoever's behind this killed my mother, tried to kill my wife, murdered an innocent woman. I'm not sending soldiers to handle it. I'm handling it myself."
"We're handling it," I corrected. "Together."
Captain Thorne sighed. "You're both going to get yourselves killed, you know that?"
"Probably," I agreed cheerfully. "But we'll die doing something important. That's more than most people get."
"You're as crazy as he is," Thorne muttered. But he didn't argue further. "I'll get the horses ready. We leave in twenty minutes. And for the love of all the gods, Princess, put on something more practical than that dress."
I looked down at my beautiful, blood-stained, torn gown. Queen Arianna's dress, ruined in one night.
"Yes," I agreed. "Something more practical. And Captain?"
"Yes, Princess?"
"Bring extra weapons. I think we're going to need them."
Twenty minutes later, I was dressed in borrowed clothes—dark pants, a tunic, boots that almost fit. The dagger was strapped properly now, along with a short sword I barely knew how to use. The vial of poison was hidden in my boot.
I looked like a completely different person. Not a princess. A fighter.
I liked it.
Kael waited in the courtyard with Captain Thorne and a small team of his most trusted guards. All of them armed, all of them ready.
"One last chance to stay behind," Kael offered as I mounted my horse, much more smoothly this time, after days of practice.
"Not a chance."
"I knew you'd say that." He turned to address the group. "We ride hard, we stay together, and we don't engage until we know what we're facing. Clear?"
Nods all around.
"Then let's go find out who's been trying to destroy my family."
We rode out into the night, following the trail Captain Thorne's scouts had marked. Aldus had taken the north road, heading toward the old forests where magic ran deepest.
Heading toward answers.
Heading toward danger.
But also heading toward the truth. And after everything we'd been through, everything we'd survived, I wasn't going to stop until we had it.
The cursed prince and his fearless princess, riding into the darkness together.
It should have been terrifying.
Instead, it felt like exactly where I was meant to be.