The palace was quiet, too quiet.
Not the calm of sleeping servants or the hush of silk robes brushing ancient stone. No, this quiet breathed. It pulsed. It whispered.
Seo Yena pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders as she walked the shadowed corridor between the servants' quarters and the eastern garden. The moon hung low and full, casting a pale glow over the tiled rooftops. Every so often, a breeze stirred the paper lanterns, but it wasn't the wind that made her uneasy.
It was the whispers.
She heard them again low, breathy murmurs curling through the air like smoke. They came from nowhere. From everywhere. Only she could hear them.
"He's watching… watching… watching…"
She paused mid-step. The voices always grew stronger near the garden. She clenched her fists, nails digging into her palms. Ignore it. You promised. No spirits. No visions. No trouble.
"Yena!"
She jumped. It was only Minji, another maid, clutching a rolled-up mat.
"You've been summoned," Minji said, eyes wide with a mixture of awe and fear.
"Summoned?" Yena blinked. "By whom?"
Minji swallowed. "The Crown Prince."
The mat slipped from Yena's fingers.
Yena had never been inside the eastern wing before. No servant entered without cause and none returned unchanged. They said the Crown Prince, Joon, was cursed. That those who looked too long into his eyes saw their own death reflected back.
As she followed the silent guard through the palace halls, her feet barely touched the floor. Lanterns flickered. Curtains stirred where there was no breeze. The stone beneath her sandals seemed colder than it should be.
The door to his chambers loomed ahead, carved with phoenixes and tiger lilies. Before she could gather her breath, the guard pushed it open.
"Enter," he said.
Yena stepped in and the door closed behind her with a sound like a final breath.
He stood by the window, bathed in moonlight.
Tall, motionless, clothed in black robes embroidered with silver thread. His face was partially hidden beneath a veil of his own dark hair. Yet even from across the room, his presence struck her like cold water.
"You are Seo Yena," he said without turning.
Her voice barely found its way out. "Yes… Your Highness."
"You hear them."
She froze. "Hear… what?"
He turned then, slowly, and met her eyes. There was no malice in his gaze, but there was something worse knowing.
"The voices," he said softly. "They speak to you. Just as they speak to me."
She took a step back. "I don't know what you mean"
"You lie." His voice was calm. Not accusing. Just… certain. "They warned me someone would come. A girl born with sight, marked by the moon. The one who would either lift the curse… or kill me."
The silence between them stretched.
"I summoned you," he continued, "because I don't have time for fate to decide which."
He stepped closer, the moonlight trailing behind him like a cloak.
"So tell me, Seo Yena… are you here to save me or destroy me?"