The rumors were everywhere.
They slipped through the palace like poison carried on soft voices. Servants whispered in corridors. Guards spoke in low tones during their shifts. Even the nobles pretended not to stare when I passed.
Dane of Stonehaven was coming.
Some said he was ruthless. Others said he had never lost a battle. Some claimed he ruled with iron and no mercy at all. By midday, I had heard enough to last a lifetime.
I sat before the mirror as my maid Liora brushed my hair. Her movements were slow, careful, as if she were afraid I might break beneath her hands.
"Can you stop looking at me like that?" I said.
She froze. "Like what, my princess?"
"Like I'm already gone."
Her grip loosened. "Everyone is afraid for you, my princess."
I met my reflection. The girl staring back looked calm, composed, every inch the Princess of Aurelia. No one could see the storm beneath the surface.
"They should be afraid of him," I said quietly.
Liora hesitated. "They say he… is not kind."
"Neither am I," I said, and smiled.
The door opened without a knock.
My uncle, Lord Serrin, stepped inside. He had never bothered with permission. He always entered as if the world already belonged to him.
"The future Queen of Stonehaven," he said, folding his arms.
I rose slowly. "I am not his future anything."
"Denial does not change reality," he replied.
"I will not marry him," I said. "Find another way."
"There is no other way," he said. "And you know this."
I walked past him to the window. The city lay below, peaceful and unaware.
"Then let the kingdom burn," I said.
The room went still.
Even I was surprised by my own words.
Lord Serrin's tone hardened. "Careful, Amara. Those flames will reach the people first."
I turned back to him. "Do not use them against me."
"I am reminding you of your duty."
"My duty is not to be traded like gold or land," I snapped.
He stepped closer. "Your duty is to rule. And rulers make sacrifices."
The word echoed in my mind.
Sacrifice.
When he left, the room felt heavier than before.
I dismissed Liora and paced alone, anger twisting inside me. Every part of me rebelled against what was coming. I imagined the man I was to marry. Cold eyes. A hard mouth. A ruler who saw me as nothing more than a treaty with a pulse.
I hated him already. Not for who he was, but for what he was taking from me.
That evening, I returned to the balcony. The city moved on as always. People laughed. Children ran. Merchants bargained. Everything looked the same, yet everything felt wrong, as if fate had shifted while I wasn't looking.
"I will never marry him," I whispered into the wind.
The wind offered no comfort. Only the truth I refused to accept.
Behind me, a soft voice broke the silence.
"There is something you should know."
I turned. Liora stood frozen in the doorway, her face pale.
"What is it?" I asked.
She swallowed. "The messengers returned from the border."
"And?"
"They say Dane did not demand the marriage."
My breath caught.
"He demanded the princess," she continued. "But he refused the terms that would make you powerless."
The world tilted.
"They say he insists," Liora whispered, "that once you are married, no one in Aurelia not even the council will command you without his consent".
I stared at the city below.
For the first time since the rumors began, fear gave way to something else.
Curiosity.
I had seven days left.
And no matter how hard I fought it, the path ahead had already been chosen.
But perhaps… not in the way they expected.