Rayne hesitated, chest heaving. The left path looked safer, but light could mean people.
Still, she didn't come this far to hide again.
She took the left tunnel.
The passage opened into a narrow storage room-dusty and filled with crates. Light streamed through a tiny barred window. She blinked as her eyes adjusted.
A figure stood in the far corner.
Rayne froze.
The figure stepped into the light.
It was a young servant girl. Her eyes widened in shock.
"You! how did you..."
With her hands raised, Rayne muttered, "Please don't scream." "I didn't come here to harm anybody."
Her eyes strayed to the chains. She opened her mouth but made no sound.
Then she did something unexpected.
She closed the door quietly and said, "Follow me. Quickly."
Rayne stared. Why do you want to help me?
Because, the girl said in a tremulous voice, "they're going to kill you." "And I'm fed up with acting like I don't see it."
Rayne didn't move at first. She just stared at the servant girl-maybe fourteen, maybe fifteen-small, sharp-eyed, and shaking. The girl's plain uniform was stained at the hem, and her hands trembled as she reached for a hidden latch behind the crates.
"I don't understand," Rayne whispered. "Why help someone like me?"
The girl flinched. "Because I saw what they did to the last one like you."
Rayne's blood turned cold. "There was another?"
The girl nodded and shoved one of the crates aside, revealing a gap in the wall just wide enough for a body to slip through. "Two winters ago. A boy with silver in his eyes. They paraded him through the court. Then they fed him to the beasts."
Rayne's stomach twisted. Her knees felt weak beneath her.
She crawled forward, the chains dragging softly. "What makes them so terrified of us?"
"I couldn't tell," the girl said. "But you glow like the moon. And the moon always means change."
The words struck something deep in Rayne-something old and unspoken.
The girl motioned for her to follow. "This tunnel leads under the palace kitchens. The guards don't go there at night."
Rayne didn't hesitate.
The tunnel was wider now, lit faintly by flickering torches that hadn't been tended in days. Rats scattered at their footsteps. Mold clung to the stone. As though anticipating someone or something to appear from the shadows behind them, the servant girl looked over her shoulder every few feet.
"What's your name?" Rayne asked, voice low.
"Lira."
"Thank you, Lira. I'm not sure what might have happened if...
Lira said, "Don't thank me just yet." "We're not out."
Minutes passed. Rayne's breath grew ragged. Her arms ached. The chains were tearing her skin raw. But she kept going. Because even a sliver of freedom was better than sitting and waiting for death.
Finally, they reached a grate. Lira pressed her fingers to it, then whispered, "This opens to the old cistern. Once we cross it, we can reach the outer courtyard."
She tugged at the rusted bolts.
Then froze.
Bootsteps.
Slow. Heavy. Echoing.
Rayne shoved Lira aside and ducked behind the wall. She held her breath.
From the far end of the tunnel, two armored figures appeared.
One of them sniffed the air. "She's been here."
"Impossible. She was chained."
"She was," the first voice growled. "But she's not now."
Rayne didn't recognize the voices, but they were clearly not ordinary guards. They moved like hunters. Precise. Quiet. And deadly.
Lira's face paled. "Moon-bound," she mouthed. "Trackers."
Rayne's pulse thundered in her ears. She had to move-now.
Lira mouthed, "Run."
But Rayne shook her head. "We won't outrun them down here."
She scanned the tunnel. There, above the cistern-a broken scaffold.
Rayne turned to Lira and whispered, "Go ahead. When they follow me, you run for the gate."
"What? No...!"
Rayne didn't wait. She burst from the hiding spot, chains clanking, and ran toward the scaffold.
Boots thundered after her as the trackers roared.
As the decaying woods cracked beneath her, Rayne scrambled up them like a savage animal.
The top beam groaned.
She reached the ledge and jumped.
The scaffold collapsed behind her in a crash of wood and dust, blocking the tunnel.
One tracker dove too late and was buried under debris.
Rayne landed hard, pain shooting up her legs, but she didn't stop. She limped forward, the cistern water brushing her feet as she dragged her chains through the shallow basin.
Lira appeared behind her moments later, face pale, eyes wide. "You're insane."
Rayne smiled grimly. "That's what the prince said."
They slipped through the cistern's exit, emerging behind the old armory. Above them, the sky had turned to pale grey. Dawn.
The palace loomed behind.
Freedom was a breath away.
"Go left," Lira said, pointing. "There's a gate by the west wall. It's old-almost forgotten."
They ran.
Rayne's legs screamed. Her chains felt like fire around her ankles. Her throat was raw. But she ran.
They reached the gate just as horns began to sound across the palace.
She looked at Lira. "You have to go back."
"I won't..."
"They'll kill you if they catch you. Please."
Lira hesitated, then grabbed Rayne's wrist. "Then survive, Rayne. Make it worth it."
Rayne nodded, tears in her eyes. "Thank you."
Lira turned and disappeared into the shadows.
Rayne pushed through the gate, heart pounding...
And ran straight into Prince Kael.
Eyes fixed on hers, he stood in full armor with guards on either side. Cold. Sharp. Unforgiving.
The chains on her ankles clinked.
Her breath caught.
She was trapped again.
Kael's gaze flicked to the blood on her hands, the glowing mark on her skin.
"You just can't help yourself, can you?" he said.
Rayne stared at him, chest heaving.
"I heard them," she said. "They were going to kill me."
"And you thought escaping would make you look innocent?"
"I am innocent!"
He stepped closer, voice low and dangerous. "You are not innocent. You are Moonborn. That alone makes you a threat."
The guards moved forward but Kael raised a hand.
He looked at her for a long moment.
Then, with a sharp breath, said, "Put her in the lower cells. Solitary. No visitors."
Rayne's knees gave out as the guards seized her.
As they dragged her back toward the palace, Kael watched in silence.
And Rayne realized...
He didn't want her dead.
Not yet.
But he would break her.
Piece by piece.
Until she forgot the girl she used to be.