Chapter 5 In the Darkest Hours

The hours until midnight crawled by like years. I tried to eat dinner, but every bite turned to ash in my mouth. I tried to rest, but sleep was impossible. The mysterious man's words echoed in my head over and over.

Information about the night your parents died. Information that changes everything.

What could he possibly know that I did not already know? My family was murdered in their beds. The Ironfang Pack had slaughtered them all to steal our throne. What else was there?

When the palace finally grew quiet, I slipped from my room like a ghost. The halls were dark except for a few torches that cast dancing shadows on the walls. Every step felt too loud. Every breath sounded like thunder.

The old chapel sat in the forgotten part of the palace. Dust covered everything, and spider webs hung from the ceiling like funeral veils. Moonlight streamed through broken windows, making everything look pale and dead.

I waited in the shadows, my heart beating so hard I thought it might burst. What if this was a trap? What if Prince Rhett had set this up to catch me admitting who I was?

"Princess."

I spun around to find the mysterious servant standing behind me. How had he moved so quietly?

"Do not call me that," I whispered. "That name died with my family."

"Did it?" He stepped closer, and in the moonlight I could see his face clearly for the first time. There was something familiar about his features, something that made my chest ache. "Or have you simply been hiding from the truth all these years?"

"What truth? My family is dead. The Ironfang Pack killed them."

"Your family is dead, yes. But the Ironfang princes did not kill them." His words hit me like a physical blow. "They were not even in the kingdom that night."

The world spun around me. "That is impossible. Everyone knows they led the attack."

"Everyone knows what Queen Mother Isadora wanted them to know." He reached into his coat and pulled out something wrapped in old cloth. "The princes were away fighting a border war. They did not return until three days after the massacre."

My legs gave out. I sank to my knees on the dusty floor, staring at him in shock. "No. You are lying."

"I wish I was, child." He knelt beside me and unwrapped the object in his hands. It was a silver locket, tarnished with age. "Do you recognize this?"

My breath caught. It was my mother's locket, the one she wore every day of her life. I had seen it around her neck in the last painting done before her death.

"Where did you get this?"

"From her body that terrible night. I was there, Princess. I saw everything." His voice was heavy with old pain. "I was supposed to die with the rest of the royal guard, but I survived. Barely."

"Who are you?"

"Marcus Vale. I was captain of your father's personal guard." Tears rolled down his weathered face. "I failed them. I failed you. But I have spent twenty years trying to make it right."

Captain Vale. I remembered that name from my childhood lessons. He had been my father's most trusted friend.

"If the princes did not kill my family, then who did?"

"Queen Mother Isadora and her allies. She wanted the throne for her sons, but she knew your father would never give up his crown willingly. So she waited until the princes were away and struck in the darkness."

My mind reeled. Everything I had believed, everything that had driven me to this place, was wrong. The three men I had come to destroy were innocent of my family's murder.

"Why tell me this now?" I asked.

"Because you are in terrible danger, Princess. Isadora knows you are alive. She has always known." He pressed the locket into my hands. "She let you live because she thought a powerless omega could never threaten her. But now that you are here, in her palace, she grows suspicious."

"The list Prince Rhett had..."

"Was given to him by his mother. She wants to see what he will discover, how close he will come to the truth." Marcus grabbed my shoulders. "You have to leave tonight. If you stay, she will kill you just like she killed them."

Before I could answer, footsteps echoed in the chapel. We both froze as a familiar voice cut through the darkness.

"Well, well. What do we have here?"

Prince Rhett stepped into the moonlight, his green eyes glittering with dangerous interest. Behind him came two palace guards, their hands on their sword hilts.

"A secret meeting in the dead of night. How very interesting." His gaze moved from me to Marcus and back again. "And you, little omega, seem to have found yourself a friend."

"My Prince," I stammered, trying to hide the locket in my dress. "I could not sleep. I was just walking."

"Walking? In the old chapel? With a man I do not recognize?" Rhett smiled, but it was cold as winter. "How curious that your walking brought you to such a forgotten place."

Marcus stepped in front of me, his hand moving to a hidden weapon. "Run, Princess. Get out of here now."

"Princess?" Rhett's eyebrows shot up. "Did he just call you Princess?"

The game was over. My cover was blown. But as I looked at Prince Rhett's shocked face, one thought burned bright in my mind.

If the princes were innocent, then everything had changed. My enemies were not the men I had come to seduce and destroy.

My real enemy was the woman who ruled them all.

"Guards," Rhett said quietly, never taking his eyes off me. "Arrest them both."

As the soldiers moved forward, Marcus drew his hidden blade and threw himself at them. "Run!" he shouted over the clash of steel. "Find the truth! Make them pay!"

I ran into the darkness, clutching my mother's locket, with Prince Rhett's voice echoing behind me.

"Find her! Do not let the Moonspire heir escape!"