Silver Queen of Lunar Ridge
I stood at the far end of the grand gallery on the second floor, a dry microfiber cloth in my hand as I slowly wiped down the stone frame of a massive stained-glass window.
My body felt hollow, a dull, throbbing ache radiating from the center of my chest where my royal magic lay tightly coiled. The midnight excursion into Cassandra’s archive had cost me dearly. The internal fire had left my throat raw, and every time I swallowed, the taste of dry copper reminded me that my time was running out. But inside my pocket, the small plastic weight of the digital flash drive felt like a loaded weapon.
“Today is the day the trap springs,”I thought coldly, my eyes fixed on the heavy double doors of th