Chapter 3

Before I left the pack, my father pressed a crest carved with a wolf's head into my hand.

It marked me as a member of the pack's inner circle. He told me to keep it on me for protection on the road.

When the carriage passed through a small border town, I asked the driver to stop at an apothecary. Inside, I traded the crest for a packet of grayish-white powder.

"Purified wolfsbane," the herbalist said with a grin that split his dry lips. "Just a pinch will stop a heart. Be careful not to touch it."

I tucked the packet carefully into my sleeve. My heart raced as fear and excitement surged through me.

My father had given me that crest to keep me safe on the road and to keep his own hands clean. Now it had bought exactly what I needed to escape.

I wondered if they'd be sad when they saw I was dead.

Probably not.

When I returned to the castle, my chambers were almost unrecognizable.

The nameplate was gone from my door. Someone had replaced my favorite linen tapestry with fussy velvet.

Maids were hauling my things out, one trunk after another.

Sera sat in a wicker chair with a stack of notes. She read them one by one, tossing each into the brazier.

They were the notes Kyle had left me over the past two years.

They said, "Take your medicine on time," "Wait for me," and "Don't be scared."

Firelight lit her delicate face as she gave a scornful smile. "His sweet talk never changes, does it?

"On those nights you were burning up with fever, did you really think Kyle stayed up because he couldn't bear to see you suffer?"

Her words stung.

I remembered those feverish nights, the hazy moments between dreams.

I could still feel him gently tucking the damp hair on my cheek behind my ear.

Was that fake too?

The notes crackled in the brazier. As the writing turned to ash, so did my last excuse for believing him.

"That night, the rogues were on the move. Kyle canceled every meeting on purpose and stayed by your bed so everyone would think he'd lost his mind over you."

Sera poked at the ashes. "Meanwhile, his best soldiers slipped into the enemy camp and found out where I was."

So that was it.

The one moment I'd believed was real had only been part of his plan to save the woman he truly loved.

Kyle came down the hallway. He saw the brazier and the notes and frowned, but he didn't stop Sera.

"You'll drink the potion tomorrow at noon." Kyle sounded as though he were giving a military order.

"Not noon." Sera cut in right away. "Tomorrow afternoon is my coronation. If her burial overlaps it, that's bad luck. Make it an hour earlier."

Kyle barely paused before waving a servant over. "Move it up an hour. See to it."

I clenched my fists until my nails dug into my palms. Even my death had to make way for her coronation.

I lowered my eyes and rubbed the paper packet of wolfsbane in my sleeve between my fingers.

Then I poured all the grayish-white powder into the bottle of dark blue sleeping potion.

They thought I was drinking a potion that would fake my death for three hours.

Only I knew it would free me from this wretched world for good.