For three days, the only sound I heard was the scratching of mice and the distant echo of training drills from the courtyard. Kael had been kind, sneaking me extra bread and fresh candles, but he was busy with the border patrols. Left alone, I did exactly what Selene didn't want me to do.
I stopped cleaning. I started searching.
I was sitting on the floor in the farthest corner of the room, tucked between two shelves that smelled like ancient cedar and rot. In my lap was a book unlike any other. It had no title on the spine, and the cover was made of dark, cold leather that felt like skin.
I opened it, expecting to see more boring tax records or old family trees. Instead, my breath caught in my throat.
The pages weren't written in the common tongue. They were covered in sharp symbols lines that looked like claw marks or lightning bolts.
I shouldn't be able to read this, I thought, my heart beginning to thud against my ribs. No one can read the old Tongue.
But as I stared at the ink, the symbols began to shift. They didn't glow, and they didn't move, but suddenly... I just knew what they said. It was like a door opening in the back of my mind.
"The moon gives, and the moon takes," I whispered, my voice sounding strange in the empty room. "When the wolf is consumed by the dark, only the light of the star can pull him back from the edge of the abyss."
I frowned, tracing a finger over a drawing of a blood-red moon.
"What does that even mean?"
I turned the page, hoping for an explanation, but a sudden, heavy thud at the door made me jump.
The book slid from my lap, hitting the floor with a loud thwack and sliding under the shadow of the shelf. I scrambled to my feet, my heart leaping into my throat.
Alaeric stood in the doorway.
He looked terrible. His skin was pale, and there were dark circles under his eyes as if he hadn't slept in weeks. He was leaning against the doorframe, his hand gripping the wood so hard his knuckles were white. He looked restless, like a predator trapped in a cage that was too small.
He didn't see the book hidden in the shadows. His eyes went straight to the desk, which was covered in maps I had been comparing.
"Kael said you were cleaning," Alaeric growled. His voice was rough, like he had been screaming.
"But all I see is a Red Hollow rat poking her nose into my kingdom's secrets."
He walked toward me, his movements slow and dangerous. The bond flared between us, a hot, painful pull that made my skin prickle. He stopped at the desk, looking down at the maps of the Blackthorn borders.
"Why are you looking at the mountain passes?" he hissed, slamming his hand down on a map of Ironwood. "Is this the way back? Are you marking the spots where Kayden's men can slip through the line?"
The accusation stung worse than Selene's slap.
"I am not a spy!" I shouted. My voice cracked, but I didn't back down.
"Then why are you touching these?" He grabbed my wrist, his grip like a band of hot iron. He pulled me closer, his grey eyes searching mine with a mixture of hate and a desperate, hungry longing that he couldn't hide. "Tell me the truth, Red Hollow. What did he promise you for this? A way back into his bed?
Something inside me finally snapped. All the weeks of being called "trash," being rejected by two men, and being treated like a ghost boiled over.
"My name is Alyse!" I yelled, wrenching my wrist out of his grip. "Stop calling me trash from Red Hollow! I am not a spy! I have nothing left there! They threw me out like garbage, just like you're doing now!"
Alaeric froze. He looked at me as if I had just grown a second head. No one spoke to the Lycan Prince like that. No one dared.
The air between us grew thick and heavy. I could feel the heat radiating off him, a strange, pulsing energy that felt like a storm waiting to break. He looked down at my face, his gaze lingering on my lips, then my eyes.
For a second, the anger in his expression wavered. I saw a flash of pure, unadulterated pain a deep, hidden suffering that had nothing to do with me. He looked like a man who was drowning and was too proud to ask for a rope.
Then, the mask slammed back down.
"You're a distraction," he whispered, his voice cold and flat. He stepped back, putting a distance between us as if my very presence was an insult.
"Kael thinks you're useful, but I think you're a liability."
He looked around the messy room, his eyes missing the ancient book tucked under the shelf.
"Clean this mess up," he commanded, turning his back on me. "And stay away from the maps. If I find you touching the border records again, I'll have you chained to the wall."
He walked out, slamming the door so hard the shelves rattled.
I sank back down to the floor, my legs shaking too much to hold me up. I reached under the shelf and pulled out the dark leather book, clutching it to my chest.
Only the light of the star can pull him back, the book had said.
I didn't know what it meant. I didn't know why I could read it. And I certainly didn't know why the "Monster Prince" looked like he was dying inside.
I looked at the closed door, the echo of his footsteps fading down the hall.
"My name is Alyse," I whispered to the empty room.
I opened the book again. I didn't care if he chained me to the wall. I was going to find out what was happening to him, even if I had to read every ghost in this room to do it.