Immediately after the Voidbinder's invasion, I heard footsteps pounding toward me, fast and frantic, boots striking stone with the urgency of men who already knew something was wrong before anyone had told them. I did not need to look to know who it was. I could feel them. All ten princes, rushing through the corridors as if the palace itself had sounded an alarm in their blood.
As I stood alone in the hallway, heart still racing, one sharp thought cut through my fear with bitter humor: maybe I should get a private bodyguard. The idea barely survived its own birth. What would that change? The Voidbinder had just infiltrated the castle like smoke through a crack. If I hired a guard, what stopped him from killing that guard, wearing their face, and standing beside me with perfect loyalty until the moment he decided to end me? The thought made my skin crawl.
