By the time Lisette returned with the potion, I had changed into my old clothes. My human clothes. I strapped my bow and the bag to my back and thanked her for the potion.

“What are you going to do?” she asked. “I’m worried for you.”

“I’m going to get answers,” I said. “Don’t breathe a word to anyone about what you’ve seen tonight or what you’ve done. I’m trusting you, Lisette.”

“I won’t, Princess,” she said. “If anyone knew, I would already be dead.”

“Lisette, I know you’ve already done so much, but I need to ask one more favor of you,” I said.

She nodded. “I will help you, Princess.”

“There is a guard named Ezrah,” I said. “Do you know him?”

“I know his face, yes.”

“I need you to find him for me. Tell him we leave tonight,” I said. “Tell him to meet me in the south garden in four hours. Can you do that?”

“I will find him,” she said.

I said goodbye to her, and stepped out onto my balcony. I had no idea what truth I would find in the dungeons and in my father’s eyes tonight, but I prayed this was a risk worth taking.

I had spent the years after Jackson slipped away from me doubting my own intuition. Feeling that I must have been a fool to believe he loved me. But over the past few months here in the castle, I’d started to connect to that intuition again, trusting that the things I knew to be true were real.

I had been wrong about Jackson, but maybe it was as simple as a tragic change of heart. Losing his brother had changed him in ways neither of us could have predicted. I could no longer use that loss as a shield to guard my own heart.

Pain was inevitable, but if we could somehow learn to rise from the ashes of our hopes and dreams once they burned to the ground, maybe we could also learn to rebuild.

To dream again.

I gripped the potion in my hand and took a leap of faith, jumping from the balcony and shifting into smoke. I soared through the night, finding my way to the east wing of the castle. I stuck to the shadows like darkness itself.

Carefully, I made my way down to the lower dungeons, thankful to find it still empty.

I walked to the back of the hall and stepped into the final cell, my heart beating wildly. I removed the key from my bra, and with trembling fingers, I placed it into the lock.

For a moment, I hoped it wouldn’t work. Maybe Tatiana had been telling me the truth about the shaman. Maybe this key was not a match at all.

But the lock clicked open and something shifted in my heart.

Tatiana had lied.

But she had given this key to Aerden long before Kael ever arrived in this city. Had she found it? Stolen it? Or did she have something to do with Kael’s presence here?

I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Kael was her enemy. Besides me, he was the only person blocking her and her husband from taking the throne when my father died. I didn’t think she would be working with Kael, but something tied them together. I just couldn’t figure out what.

I swallowed and opened the door, making sure to remove the key before I shut the door behind me.

Inside, it was dark and cold. I was certain my magic wouldn’t work here, since we were so close to the dungeons, but when I reached for my power, I was surprised to find it waiting for me. I conjured a small light and looked around, realizing I was in an ante-chamber of some sort.

The ceilings were several stories high, and in front of me, an enormous door had been carved into the stone. More of the strange markings from the previous door were etching into this one, but there was no place to insert a key. Nervous, I stepped forward and ran my hand along the symbol of a crown etched into the surface.

My heart raced as the giant door swung open. I shifted to shadow, scared that someone inside might discover me here. I waited in the darkness, fear flowing through me, but no one came searching for intruders.

After a moment, I finally reformed and stepped into the room. The ceilings were massive here, too, reminding me of the Underground where the Resistance Army lived. Had this place been created by trolls in some ancient day? The stonework was the same, and it was possible the carvings on the door matched those of the Underground, but I couldn’t be sure.

It was so dark, however, that I could only see a few feet in front of me. I pushed my light deeper into the room, knowing I was close to secrets I was never meant to learn. But nothing had prepared me for this.

My eyes widened, and the air around me grew so cold, I was frozen to the spot, my body shivering.

I shook my head, not wanting to believe this could be true. Andros had come to me back at Brighton Manor with rumors, but I never dreamed it could have gone this far.

I suddenly understood the sheer massiveness of the door. The sleeping creatures entombed here were easily three or four times my own height, and each of their chests spanned at least fifteen feet wide.

Stone Guardians. Rows of them so far back in the darkness, I couldn’t even begin to count. Hundreds, maybe.

Andros had said there might be one Stone Guardian here in the city, and that had terrified us, but this? It was unimaginable.

I was too shocked to even cry out or run away. I could only stand and stare.

When I finally found my voice, it came out as a whisper. A plea. A curse.

“My God, Father, what have you done?”