The castle halls echoed with silence, but Alina's cries broke through like thunder.
"Kai!" she screamed, falling to her knees beside his lifeless body. His eyes stared at nothing, his lips frozen in a half-smile—the same smile that once made her forget she was a princess.
Her trembling hands reached for him, but the guards held her back.
"No! Let me go! He didn't do anything wrong!"
Raelynn stood above them, her expression like stone. "He betrayed the crown. He wanted power through you. Be grateful I spared you, Alina."
"You're lying!" Alina's voice cracked. "He loved me!"
Raelynn's eyes narrowed. "Love doesn't feed kingdoms. You are a princess. And you will marry the man I chose for you. End of story."
Alina was dragged back to her chambers. For days, she didn't eat. Didn't speak.
But on the third night, she slipped out.
With nothing but a travel cloak, a handful of coins, and a silver locket Kai once gave her, Alina disappeared from the castle.
She didn't know where she was going.
She just knew she had to run far away—from Raelynn, from the lies, from the life that had taken everything from her.
She walked through villages, begged for food, slept in forests. Her royal blood meant nothing now.
And still, in her dreams… she saw a woman.
A woman with kind eyes, brown curls, and a sad smile.
A voice whispered her name: Alina… my daughter…
She didn't know who the woman was.
But something inside her whispered that finding this woman was the key to everything.