The corridors blurred around Alina as she followed Prince Sheen, her pulse still pounding from the attack. The weight of his grip on her wrist was firm yet controlled, guiding her through the labyrinthine palace halls with purpose.
Neither of them spoke.
It wasn't until they reached the seclusion of a hidden chamber—a dimly lit alcove behind one of the ornate council rooms—that he finally let go, his dark gaze pinning her in place.
"You were never supposed to be here."
The words sent a chill down her spine.
Alina's throat was dry. "What?"
His expression remained unreadable, but there was something in his eyes—something knowing, something deliberate.
"They will come for you now," he said quietly, as if stating an inevitable fact. "Tonight was only the beginning."
Her pulse quickened. "Why? I—I'm just a servant."
A wry smile, fleeting, almost bitter. "No, you are not."
Alina's breath caught. The way he said it—not a question, not an accusation, but a truth he had already accepted.
"Then tell me what I am," she demanded, her frustration breaking through the shock. "You speak in riddles, you warn me away, but you—"
She stopped herself before admitting too much. He had saved her. Again.
The prince studied her for a long moment before finally stepping closer, his presence filling the small space between them. When he spoke again, his voice was softer, but no less unsettling.
"You were not meant to be here, and yet you are," he murmured. "Fate does not make such mistakes."
Alina felt her world tilt.
Her arrival in this world—an accident, a cruel twist of fate—was not an accident at all?
She shook her head. "That's impossible."
His gaze never wavered. "Is it?"
A shiver ran through her. "If that's true… then what does it mean?"
Prince Sheen exhaled, his eyes flickering with something unreadable. "It means that your place in this court is no longer a question of survival, but of power."
Alina swallowed hard, the weight of his words pressing against her like an invisible force. Power? She had none. She was just a woman out of place, out of time—
Yet, deep in her bones, she knew.
She was no longer invisible.