Chapter 1

Utter chaos was an understatement for what the staff was enduring right now. There wasn’t a staff member who wasn’t juggling what felt like a million things today, and to make matters worse, the princess had disappeared.

Her handmaiden had done her best to keep her eyes on the princess at all times, but when her exhaustion got the better of her and she shut her eyes for a second too long, her ward disappeared. They knew she had perfected the art of running away from her responsibilities – especially the ones she felt taxing – and they’d done their best to take extra precautions, but it still hadn’t been enough.

The staff figured they had about fifteen minutes before the queen found out, so they searched all the places in the palace they knew she would try and hide. She’d been complaining for days about wanting to cancel her Coming-of-Age Ceremony, but it was falling on deaf ears. A tradition was tradition, and there was no way she could talk herself out of this.

Which is why she was hellbent on making today as difficult as possible for those involved, both intentionally and unintentionally. The princess preoccupied herself with her fiance in the far reaches of the palace in her family’s library. Despite his better judgment, he’d succumbed to her requests and helped her slip away from her handmaiden. He swore he would apologize to her at some point tonight.

Right now, though, the two of them were pressed against a bookcase that stood four stories tall in a forest of similar shelves, either the exact height or taller. While some shelves had their books neatly arranged with the lightest film of dust, others were messier. Their books lay sides or tilted at angles with the occasional piece of paper or marker sticking out of them. Stacks of books were scattered about while others were arranged against the floor with their pages exposed.

The librarians had tried to get a handle on the dismay of the books, but the prince carried on like he always did and did as he pleased. The upside is that he always took care of the books and never returned them in any condition other than what he received them. It was enduring, but the librarians accommodated him and straightened up lightly after him to ensure no one else in the palace trampled the books.

“Fifteen minutes,” her fiance breathed when he pulled away from her. He was a rugged young man with dark skin and black hair that was loc’d and hanging slightly past his shoulders with several strands on either side being pulled back to serve as a hairband to keep his hair back. His dark brown eyes were fixated on her silver eyes, which had the slightest blue tint, and he chuckled when she pouted. “You have a million other things you should be doing right now. Fooling around with me isn’t one of them.”

“Yeah, but it can be,” she affirmed. She carefully ran her hands against his old scars and rough patches and delighted in how he tensed up. She knew he was trying his best to behave, and she would ensure he misbehaved. Even if it was for fifteen minutes.

She slid her hands up his chest and back around his neck before pulling him back down to kiss her. He obliged quicker this time, and she was content with that. Her dark brown hair was still wild with its natural curls and pulled back into an afro-puff ponytail, and her brown skin didn’t carry nearly as many scars as her fiance save the one that covered her shoulder.

“Mm, Alexandra,” he grumbled.

She pouted. She loosened her hold on him and watched as he looked down at her with that stern expression he’d get when she’d been caught, “I don’t even want this stupid party anyway. This is more for my parents than it is for me.”

He gently caressed her cheek, “I know, but at the end of the day, it’s important.”

“For literally everyone except me,” she argued. “Mother and Father said tonight is to show I’m suitable for the throne. It all sounds like unnecessary nonsense to me. I shouldn’t have to prove myself to anyone.”

“It is more of a political ploy than an actual birthday party; I’ll admit that,” he said with a shrug. “But, you royals always tend to do things with layers of veiled meanings beneath.”

“You say that like you’re not about to become one of us ‘royals’ in the next few weeks, Drake. They haven’t been beating you up too much in the Kings’ Guard, have they?”

“Ah, that’s right,” he hit his forehead with his palm, “we are engaged, aren’t we? When are we getting married again?”

“You’re an ass.” She shoved him in the chest, but he didn’t move.

He simply laughed, “I’m just messing with you.”

He leaned down and kissed her forehead, and despite her irritation with his roundabout way of getting her to comply, she hugged him. She rested her chin on his chest and looked at him, and he flashed the perfect grin she loved. She nestled into him and sighed as he returned her hug and rested his chin on the top of her head.

It was true that she didn’t want to participate in tonight’s festivities, but she’d genuinely been dreading the day for the last year. It wasn’t even forty-eight hours after her seventeenth birthday that her mother had already started planning her Coming-of-Age Ceremony. The guest list included anyone of any importance, and Alexandra was expected to keep them entertained for several hours.

The Coming-of-Age Ceremony had been a tradition in Alexandra’s family long before her grandparents were even thought of. It was a time when a young royal joined the ranks of their kinfolk in serving the community in a more hands-on role. They were seen as no longer children but as adults who had a say in how things were. In Alexandra’s case, however, it was that fragile period when a monarch was ready to step down and allow their heir to succeed them.

The rumors of her father’s retirement had been swirling for months, but she hadn’t received confirmation from her father on whether the stories were true. In most cases, Alexandra wouldn’t be allowed to marry until her twenty-first birthday, but she was scheduled to get married during the Sapphire Moon in just a few weeks. It’d been odd, especially considering it was at her father’s recommendation, but she had chalked it up to him, allowing her and Drake to marry sooner rather than later.

However, if this was her father’s way of ensuring she was married right before she succeeded him, then it meant it could be any day before he announced his retirement and Alexandra’s imminent succession. Her head throbbed at the prospect of it all, but she tried her best to push those thoughts aside, focusing only on tonight.

“Found you!”

Alexandra jumped and yelped while Drake rolled his eyes. Savannah, one of Alexandra’s oldest friends and Drake’s colleague, leaped out from behind a bookshelf and made her presence known. She was a beautiful young woman with freckled light brown skin, frizzy red hair, and striking green eyes. She wasn’t in her usual Kings’ Guards attire but casual clothes instead, which helped Alexandra understand why she hadn’t heard her approach.

“I didn’t even know you were back already,” Alexandra breathed. “When did you get back?”

“Not too long ago,” she answered. “I was discussing the security plans tonight with my dad when one of your handmaidens came running through saying you had disappeared. I figured you would’ve hidden somewhere in here, so I came looking.”

“Right,” she groaned.

“Hey, better me than your mom, though, right? I ran into her on my way here,” she shared. “I managed to convince her I’d find you, but I don’t know how long that’ll hold her off before she’s back trying to hunt you down.”

This caused a sudden sense of urgency in Alexandra, and she rubbed the back of her neck, “I guess I should head back then?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Drake agreed.

“Right. I’ll do that.” She kissed his cheek quickly before running off, “I love you.”

“Pass the moon,” he called.

“And into the everlasting stars,” she called back before hurrying out of the library.

Savannah faked a gag, “Gross.”

“Shut it.” He playfully nudged her as he passed, “Let’s go before Sander decides to send a search party after us, too.”

As Drake and Savannah returned to their duties, Alexandra hurried through the halls back to her room. She apologized profusely to the staff looking for her and thanked the others who worked on finalizing the last preparations for the party. She got an earful from several maids and caretakers who scolded her for disappearing, and she made sure to beg for their forgiveness. While some took more convincing than others, she was forgiven in the end by them all and allowed to continue.

However, despite the urgency of her much-needed return, she took the long way back to her room. She passed the old portraits of her older relatives and bypassed her great-great-great grandfather’s study. She had never stepped foot inside in her twenty-one years, but she remembered many nights when she and her brother would camp outside and wait for him to exit. Sometimes they’d end up spending the night outside his door and awake in the morning in their beds; other times, he’d come out and take them back to the library and tell them stories of the past.

There had been times when Alexandra attempted to enter, but either the door was locked or some unknown presence talked her out of trespassing. She’d only caught brief glimpses of the inside between him entering and exiting, but even from the outside, she couldn’t see it. She had tried on multiple occasions, but the curtains rarely were opened. All she knew about what lay inside was that he kept his journals there, unlike the rest of her elders, who had kept their journals in the library.

She passed the Meeting Hall where the High Council often met to complain about her, and she could hear a few of them had preemptively gathered to discuss the choice of colors and the “unapproved” guests list. Alexandra had given up trying to please them a long time again and often enjoyed giving them things to complain about. She wondered if she’d be able to get away with switching to sneakers instead of heels partway through the party to at least cause half the High Council to faint.

She hadn’t fit into their traditionalistic views and expectations of a princess, but it hadn’t been from a lack of trying. She had done everything they asked of them but learned in her spare time that she was better suited for what they’d classify as “Prince Lessons.” Her magical prowess exceeded that of all the students in her class, and though it’d always leaned more on the untamed and unpredictable side, she’d managed somehow. She still remembers their faces when she won her academy’s Celestial Tournament. She’d beaten out the hopeful and incredibly embarrassed him.

Granted, the hopeful had been Drake, but he put up a good fight at the end of it. Now, however, she wouldn’t stand a chance of beating him. He’d taken that loss personally and ensured that if he were going to serve on the King’s Guard, he’d need to be stronger than the person he was tasked to protect, and he’d done exactly that.

Pass the Meeting Hall was her father’s study. She often thought he spent too much of his time there, and while she was sure today would be the day he rested, she saw that his office door was slightly opened. While Alexandra wondered if she’d end up like that in the future once she assumed his throne, she considered killing time with her father. She wanted to delay the inevitable bombardment by her handmaidens for just a few more minutes, but as she approached her father’s door, she heard her mother. The frustration was apparent in her tone, and Alexandra hesitated.

“We need to figure something out, James,” her mother pleaded. “We’ve done all we could to find answers, and we’ve found nothing that works. The Sapphire Moon is in less than a month, and we are running out of town. Hell, we’re practically out of time.”

“You don’t think I know that?” her father argued. “I have been trying to find something that has some semblance of a solution for weeks now, and there’s no guarantee that any of them will work. There are too many risks, Love.”

“We should’ve handled this properly years ago, James,” a familiar voice urged. “I hate to suggest it, but maybe it’s time for execution to be considered. If we delay this any further, the consequences won’t only be dire; they’ll be widespread. We need to be smart about how we proceed now.”

“Absolutely not!” both her mother and father bellowed.

“Let’s let that be the last-ditch solution, okay?” another voice suggested. “Have we really exhausted all of our options? I’m sure we can speak to Lady Sol. She’ll be here tonight, won’t she?”

“Lady Alexandra?”

She flinched. She looked over her shoulder to see the head butler, Carmichael, standing just behind her. He’d been working for her family long before she – and even her father – were born. He had helped raise many of them over the years, and though Alexandra wasn’t exactly sure how old he was, he was old enough to have wrinkles burrowed on his face and what felt like centuries behind his eyes.

“Carmichael,” she whined in a hushed whisper.

Then, her father’s study door opened fully, and he stepped out. He was a tall man with an overwhelming aura of intimidation. His dark skin had a dim glow and bore its own myriad of scars from his days as a member of the King’s Guard before he succeeded his father. His silver eyes seemed to default to piercing, and his dark brown hair was freshly cut and clean.

“There you are,” James breathed. “They’ve been looking for you all over. Where did you go?”

“The library,” she answered honestly.

He arched an eyebrow, “To do what, exactly?”

“Read?”

“Go, please, before Henrietta has an aneurysm,” James pleaded.

Alexandra looked back at Carmichael and stuck his tongue out at him. He responded with his own tongue out, and she rolled her eyes. He shickered before gently patting her head and returning to whatever duties he tasked himself with for the day.

Before she left, though, she looked at her father, “Is everything okay?” She hadn’t wanted to ask, but the conversation she mistakenly overheard gave her pause. She couldn’t even begin to figure out who they were talking about, but it had to be serious for something to rile up her parents like that.

“Yes,” he answered too quickly. “Why do you ask?”

She knew that he already knew that she’d been outside the door, but it wasn’t clear how long she’d been out there. She shook her head, “I thought I would ask. Today seems to be taking its toll on everyone.”

He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes, “Everything is fine. Now go and get ready.”

“Okay.” She watched as he returned to his study and shut the door completely this time. Eavesdropping was going to be impossible now, so she headed off to her room.

She couldn’t think of anything her parents would be involved in that would require assistance from Lady Sol. Sol Magicis was one of the most prolific Mages in the entirety of the Celestial Realm. After her retirement as the Queen of Mages, Sol had spent her days living in a secluded cabin somewhere in Mage’s Territory. Very rarely did she make appearances in public now, and honestly, Alexandra didn’t even know she’d be attending tonight’s party. Alexandra couldn’t remember if Sol participated in her granddaughter’s Coming-of-Age Ceremony earlier this year in the Spring.

Then she recognized who the other two voices belonged to: Orion and Raven Pierce. Her parents had always been close with the Werewolf monarchs, but she hadn’t expected them to arrive hours ahead of time. And she was sure she would’ve heard them be announced the minute they stepped onto the palace grounds, but she was wondering if anyone knew they had already arrived.

Alexandra had grown up alongside their children and practically considered them family, so she wasn’t entirely surprised that there’d been a secret amongst their parents, but she’d never heard them so stressed out before.

The more she thought about it, the more stressed out she was about it all, and once again, her head started to throb. She refocused on the day’s events and figured she’d investigate later. For now, she would need to deal with a severe reprimand from Henrietta.