THE FORGOTTEN HEIRESS OF THE MOON KINGDOM

The forest wanted me dead. That's how it felt, anyway.

Branches raked my arms as I tore through the darkness, barely seeing where I was going. Roots and rocks caught my feet bare, bleeding, stinging with every step. But stopping wasn't an option.

Horses crashed through the trees behind me.

"She's heading north!"

"Don't let her escape!"

"Find the girl!"

My heart hammered like it wanted to break my ribs.

A few hours ago, I was just a servant girl on an errand for Lady Moreau. Now? Royal soldiers hunted me for a necklace I'd never even touched.

I shoved through tangled branches and nearly slipped down a slope. I caught myself, cradling the rough bark of a tree. For a second, I shut my eyes and hoped they'd missed me. Maybe I could actually hide.

The silence said otherwise.

Horses stopped. No sounds now. The kind of quiet that freezes your blood.

I peeked through the darkness. Soldiers. Silver armor glowing ghostly in the moonlight.

My stomach bottomed out.

One of them pointed his sword at me. "There she is."

I stepped back, breath shaky. "Please, I didn't steal anything."

He didn't bother to answer.

Another soldier dismounted. "She matches the description."

I barely managed to find my voice. "What description? I don't know what you're talking about."

They started to close in. I turned. More behind me. Trapped.

A horse approached different this time. The whole group stiffened.

A black stallion appeared, and the man riding it looked nothing like the rest. He wore a long black coat over dark armor, with a silver crest that glinted in the dim light. His hair was messy from the wind, but his face was calm. Way too calm.

He locked eyes with me, and my whole chest clenched. I'd never seen him before, but something about him hit me deep.

A soldier bowed low. "Your Highness."

Prince Kael Draven. The Crown Prince. The Black Prince. I'd heard the stories, even from the kitchen maids he had a reputation for being ruthless. Soldiers feared him.

He didn't look at my torn dress or bleeding feet. He just stared straight into my face.

For a long, silent moment, he just watched me. His expression barely changed, but I swore I caught a flicker of recognition then it vanished.

"Is this the girl?" His voice was soft.

"Yes, Your Highness."

I swallowed. "Prince Kael..."

His eyes sharpened. "How do you know my name?"

"Everyone knows your name."

He stepped down from the horse, boots crunching on the wet ground. He came closer. I stumbled back, pressing into a tree.

He stopped just out of reach. "What did you steal?"

"Nothing," I insisted.

A soldier jumped in. "We found evidence in her room."

"That doesn't mean I stole it."

Kael stayed unreadable. "Search her."

A soldier grabbed for me. I shook my head, backing up until tree bark dug into my shoulders. "No! I didn't steal anything!"

He gripped my arm, rough and cold. I struggled. "Let me go!" I begged Kael. "Please, I swear!"

The soldier checked my pockets and sleeves. Came up empty. "Nothing, Your Highness."

Kael's eyes narrowed. For just a second, I wondered did he believe me? His gaze dropped to my wrist.

A silver crescent faint, but visible even beneath the grime.

He went still.

"Where did you get that?" His voice sounded different. Not angry. Scared.

I looked down. "What?"

"The mark."

I rubbed my wrist. "I've always had it."

He looked like he'd seen a ghost. "Impossible."

"What is?"

He didn't answer me. His attention snapped back to the soldiers. Suddenly his voice turned to ice. "Kill her."

Everything in me froze. "What?"

Swords scraped out of their sheaths.

"You can't be serious," I choked.

Kael's face didn't move.

I spun, desperate for an escape. But there was nowhere left to go.

A sword slashed out pain exploded in my arm. I screamed in shock and fear, hot blood running down my sleeve.

And then the world shifted.

Kael staggered. He clutched his chest like he'd been stabbed. Soldiers stopped in confusion. "Your Highness?"

He didn't answer. He dropped to one knee, gasping. Blood slipped through his fingers only, his chest wasn't wounded. I stared. Then pain pulsed in my arm again, stronger.

At that exact second, Kael gasped the same pain, I could see it hit him.

His jaw clenched as he tried to understand. "What is happening?" a soldier whispered.

Kael ignored it. His eyes stayed on mine. Something shivered under my skin a warmth in my blood. I looked down. The silver mark on my wrist started to glow.

Kael's mark was glowing too.

He stared at me, not confused anymore afraid. Real, bone-deep fear.

He glanced at his bloody hand, then my arm, understanding settling in.

His blood, my cut. A connection as impossible as magic.

The forest, the soldiers everything faded. Just his eyes and the wild, thundering beat of my heart.

Kael got to his feet slowly. His voice shook, barely above a whisper.

"What are you?"

"What are you?"

That question haunted Elara as she disappeared into the dark.

She didn't stick around to find out.

She just ran.

Branches slapped her cheeks, tearing at her as she crashed deeper into the woods, clutching her bleeding arm.

She didn't have a plan. Didn't need one.

There was only one thing she knew for sure: Prince Kael Draven wanted her dead.

And yet

He'd looked terrified when she got hurt.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw nothing. No soldiers. No horses. The prince was nowhere in sight.

Still, she kept running, even when her lungs began to burn and her legs threatened to give out.

Finally, she stumbled into a clearing and dropped hard beside a massive old tree.

For a while, she just lay there, gulping for air.

Then her focus shifted to her arm.

The cut didn't look as bad as she'd thought. Really, it was the silvery mark that caught her eye a perfect crescent moon on her wrist, glowing under her skin.

Cautiously, she touched it. It was warm. Strangely warm. Almost like it had a pulse.

"What are you?" she whispered repeating Kael's question to the crescent.

Right then, the mark throbbed.

She yanked her hand back, startled. "No."

She stared. The silver faded.

She told herself it was just exhaustion, or a trick of the night. Everything since the prince first found her had felt like a bad dream.

Elara closed her eyes, but Kael's face wouldn't go away.

His cold, official stare. His drawn sword. His harsh command.

Kill her.

Yet the shock in his eyes when she was hurt still nagged at her. And then his blood.

Why had he bled?

She'd seen it, soaking through his shirt. But she hadn't seen any wound.

She stood, swaying a little.

"I need to get home."

She hadn't even taken three steps before the distant thunder of horses cut through the air.

Her blood turned to ice.

They were coming. Again.

She ran.

Miles away, Prince Kael lingered in the clearing.

His men had scattered after the girl, tearing through the trees, but he'd stayed behind.

His eyes stayed glued to the spot where Elara disappeared.

A soldier crept up behind him. "Your Highness?"

Kael didn't answer.

"Should we keep searching?"

Kael looked down at his hand. Blood covered his palm. His own blood, he was sure, but he couldn't find any cut.

Slowly, he pulled off his glove.

There it was silver crescent, just like the one on the girl's wrist.

His jaw clenched. No way. He'd only seen that symbol once, buried deep in a forbidden book his father kept hidden in the royal archives.

Kael squeezed his fist around the mark. "Get my horse."

The soldier hesitated. "And the girl?"

A muscle jumped in Kael's jaw. "Find her."

"Alive?"

Kael waited a beat, silent, hand tight on the mark, which grew warmer too warm.

A stab of pain shot through his chest. He doubled over.

"Your Highness!" the soldier called, rushing toward him.

Kael waved him off. "Stay back."

He shoved himself upright. Just like that, the pain was gone.

He stared at the darkness, uneasy.

There was something between him and that girl, something ancient and electric. He hated not knowing what it was especially when it put his life in danger.

"Search the eastern woods," he snapped.

"Yes, Your Highness."

"And don't touch her."

The soldier frowned. "But you told us to kill her."

Kael's eyes flashed. "I changed my mind."

The soldier bowed and hurried off.

Kael stared at the silver crescent on his hand, his father's old warning echoing in his mind:

Never wake the Moon.

He squinted at the night. "Who are you?"

Elara made it to the edge of the woods just as dawn started to break. The sight of the little cottage nearly made her cry.

Home.

She hurried toward it then froze.

The door stood open.

Her heart dropped.

She crept forward. "Mrs. Vale?"

No answer.

She pushed the door open; the cottage was a mess. A chair knocked over, a cup shattered on the ground.

Elara barely breathed. "Mrs. Vale?"

She searched every room. Nothing. Nobody.

Then, on the kitchen table a folded note.

Her name, scrawled across the paper:

ELARA.

Her hands shook as she opened it.

RUN. DO NOT RETURN.

She stared, cold and sick.

Someone had taken the only person she'd ever called family. Why?

She turned to the window. From outside: hoofbeats.

One horse. Another. Then more.

Royal soldiers.

They'd found her again.

Elara spun around desperately. Nowhere to hide.

Then she felt it heat, rising under her sleeve.

She looked down.

The silver crescent on her wrist was blazing now, bright as real moonlight.

"What is happening?"

She put her fingers to it

BOOM.

A deep, ancient bell note rolled through the land.

Elara stopped in her tracks.

Miles away, inside the royal palace, everyone froze servants, guards, even the king himself. For eighteen years, the palace had heard nothing from the old Moon Temple.

But now, high above in the eastern tower, the great silver bell began to ring.

On the echo rattled the palace.

Twice the king's hands trembled.

Three times an old servant crumpled to the ground, sobbing.

"No..."

The king stared at the distant tower. "That's impossible."

The bell rang again a fourth, final note.

He whispered a name no one had dared speak for eighteen years.

"Princess Elara..."

Deep in the woods, Elara heard the echo die.

Outside her cottage, the soldiers suddenly fell quiet.

The silver mark on her wrist grew almost blinding.

And for the first time, a voice slipped inside her head.

A woman's voice soft, ageless. Waiting.

"My child..."

Elara almost couldn't breathe.

The voice whispered again.

"You have finally awakened."

Elara sprinted until her chest burned and her breath came in ragged gasps.

Branches clawed at her arms as she crashed deeper into the forest, slipping on slick leaves and tripping over hidden roots.

She didn't care where she went. She just knew one thing.

She couldn't go home.

Not after the soldiers burst in. Not after that note:

ELARA. RUN. DO NOT RETURN.

And especially not after the strange, silvery mark that was suddenly glowing on her chest.

It pulsed now, just below her torn dress. Every so often, warmth would ripple through her, hot and bright then a sharp jolt, like something inside her was shaking itself awake.

"Stop," she muttered, pressing a shaky hand over her heart.

The light flickered out.

She sucked in a breath, relief washing through her, just for a second.

Then snap.

A tree branch cracked behind her.

Elara froze. Her heart hammered so loud she thought for sure it would give her away.

Were the soldiers already on her trail?

She spun, peering through the dark. Nothing. Only trees, the shadows breathing.

She ran on. She didn't dare stop. It felt endless a blur of tangled branches and soggy earth until finally, a small crooked cottage peeked out from behind the trunks.

Smoke twisted from its odd, leaning chimney. A lantern glowed by the door.

She remembered who lived here the village healer, Mother Mira.

If anyone understood what was happening to her, it'd be Mira.

Elara rushed up and knocked, once, then twice, then three times her fist trembling.

"Mother Mira?"

No answer.

She knocked again, more desperate. "Please. I need help."

At last, the door creaked open.

Mother Mira stood on the other side: silver hair loose down her back, sharp eyes scanning Elara from head to toe.

"Elara?" she said, voice scratchy but surprised.

"Please," Elara whispered. "Something's wrong with me."

Without hesitation, the old woman stepped aside. "Come in."

Inside, the cottage was thick with the scent of herbs and dried flowers. Dozens of glass bottles lined the shelves, filled with weird, glowing liquids.

Mira shut the door behind them and bolted it. Then she turned around.

"What happened?"

"I... I don't know." Elara's own voice sounded strange thin and far away. "The royal soldiers they found me. And then..." She swallowed. "Something changed."

"What do you mean?"

Elara hesitated, hands shaking, then pulled her collar down.

The mark shone there, a crescent of silver, bright against her skin.

Mother Mira stared. Her face went paper-white. The cup she was holding slipped from her hand and shattered on the floor.

Elara jumped at the noise. "Mother Mira?"

The old woman just stared at the mark. Not confused. Not curious. Terrified.

"No..." The word barely made it out.

She stepped back, shaking her head. "No, no, no..."

"What?" Elara pressed, panic rising.

Mother Mira's eyes met hers. "Where did you get that?"

"I don't know. It just appeared it wasn't there before, I swear." Elara's voice came out too loud, desperate.

"How long?"

"Tonight," she said.

Mother Mira stared a few seconds more.

Then, so quiet Elara almost missed it: "The Moon Princess..."

Elara blinked, uncertain she'd heard right. "What?"

Mira's gaze slid toward the window. "The Moon Princess."

Elara frowned. "Who is that?"

No answer. Not at first.

"Mother Mira?" Elara stepped closer.

"You shouldn't have come here," Mira said suddenly, her voice trembling.

Elara felt a chill crawl down her neck. "Why?"

Moving fast, Mira pulled the curtains closed, double checked the lock, then hurried back. She grabbed Elara's shoulders, her grip surprisingly strong.

"Listen to me," she said, her voice fierce.

Elara could barely breathe. "You're scaring me."

"You need to leave," Mira said.

"What?"

"Tonight."

"Why?!" The urge to cry rose up, tight and hot.

Mira glanced at the silver mark again, eyes haunted. "Because that mark shouldn't exist."

Elara's heart thudded in her chest. "What does it mean?"

The old woman hesitated.

"It means someone lied."

"Who?"

For a moment, guilt flickered across Mira's face mixed with fear.

"They told everyone the Moon Princess died eighteen years ago."

Elara's world seemed to tilt. "The princess?"

Mira nodded. "Princess Elara Lunaris."

The name hit her hard deep and inexplicable. Something shifted inside. Suddenly, a memory flashed in her mind a woman with flowing silver hair, a crown. Warm arms wrapped around a small child.

Then darkness.

Elara staggered, grabbing her head.

"Ah!"

Pain shot through her skull, vision blurring.

A voice, gentle and distant, echoed in her mind: My little moon...

She gasped and the vision vanished.

Mira caught her by the elbow. "What did you see?"

Elara could barely get the words out. "I don't know."

Something in Mira's expression softened now-sadness, deeper than fear.

"How old are you?" the old healer whispered.

"Eighteen."

Mira's fingers trembled against Elara's skin. "Eighteen," she repeated, like the number itself was a curse.

"Mother Mira," Elara choked out, "What aren't you telling me?"

The old woman looked her straight in the eye.

"You were brought to this village eighteen years ago." Her voice was quiet.

Elara's heartbeat was a drum in her ears. "What?"

"You were only a baby."

Elara stared, reeling. "Who brought me?"

Mira shook her head. "I don't know."

"You're lying." Anger flared now, pushing past her fear.

Mira squeezed her hand. "I'm trying to protect you."

"From what?"

Mira didn't answer; instead, she reached out, cold fingers wrapping around Elara's.

She fixed her with a steady, urgent gaze.

"If they learn you survived..." She squeezed tighter. "They will come for you."

Elara almost stopped breathing. "Who?"

Mother Mira's eyes filled with dread.

And then she whispered, so soft it barely broke the silence

"The people who made sure the Moon Princess never claimed her throne."