The silence in the room stretched so thin I could hear the soft crackle of the fire. I slowly lowered the piece of bread onto the silver plate, leaving dirty gray smudges on the crust.
"If they are all in the ground," I said, my voice tighter than I wanted, "why did you let me eat?"
The man didn't move. He stood like a monument carved from the palace's black stone.
"Because you were starving," he said. "And if I wanted to poison you, I wouldn't waste the kitchen's good chicken."
He stepped back, resting one hand lightly on the pommel of his sword. The movement looked natural, yet it carried the quiet promise of a strike too fast for me to see.
"My name is Cassian," he said. "Captain of the Bloodguard. Your personal shadow from this moment until the day you die, or the day I do."
I slowly rose to my feet, wiping my greasy palms on my trousers. I hated how much taller he was and how easily he blocked the firelight.
"I don't need a shadow. I need my knife back, and I need to return to the Lower Ward."
"The Lower Ward is gone for you," Cassian said. "The girl who lived in the salt-fish alley died the moment they put her in that carriage. You are Arianna of House Lowen now, whether you want to be or not."
The name hit me like a blow.
Arianna.
It was the name my mother had whispered on her deathbed, a secret buried beneath ten years of grime, theft, and survival. I had gone by Ari since I was eight. Nobody in the slums knew my full name.
"My mother was a laundry maid," I said through gritted teeth. "She died of lung-rot."
"Your mother was the daughter of the King's second brother," Cassian corrected, his amber eyes never leaving mine. "She fled the palace twenty years ago during the Great Purge. She changed her name, but she couldn't change your blood. Right now, blood is the only currency this palace cares about."
He walked past me, his boots making a faint rhythm against the thick rug. Stopping beside the canopy bed, he pulled back the dark green velvet curtains with one gloved hand.
"The King is dead," Cassian continued, his back still turned. "He died three months ago without a direct heir. The crown passes through the bloodline. First went Prince Julien. A sudden illness. Then Lord Thomas. A carriage accident. Then Lady Clara. She fell from the North Tower."
"Three," I whispered as the horror settled into my bones. "They were all murdered."
"They were removed," Cassian replied. "Which leaves you, the fourth and the last of the bloodline."
He turned to face me. The firelight caught the hard lines of his jaw.
"Duke Varn now controls the Regency Council. He wanted to leave you in the Lower Ward until he found a quiet way to dispose of you. I found you first."
"To protect me?" I let out a cold, humorless laugh. "Or to keep me in a prettier cage until it's my turn?"
"Both," Cassian said. "A living heir is useful. A dead one is not. Get some sleep. Tomorrow you will be presented to the Court, and they will look for any reason to execute you before the coronation. Do not give them one."
He didn't wait for an answer. He strode to the door, his dark cloak trailing behind him. A moment later, the lock clicked from the outside, leaving me alone in the shifting firelight.
I stood motionless, listening to the crackle of the dying embers as my heart pounded against my ribs.
I walked slowly to the bed. The velvet was softer than anything I had ever touched, yet it looked more like a shroud than a place to rest. I climbed onto the mattress, leaving dark streaks of mud across the silk sheets. I didn't care. I wasn't going to sleep beneath the covers like an honored guest.
I reached for the heavy feather pillow, intending to drag it onto the floor so I could sleep with my back against the wall.
As I lifted it, something white caught my eye.
A small piece of folded parchment was tucked beneath the silk casing.
I snatched it up, my fingers trembling as I unfolded it.
Written in dark, rusty ink that smelled faintly of iron was a single elegant sentence.
The fourth chair is already waiting for you in the crypt.
The silence unsettled me more than the cold ever could.
In the Lower Ward, nights were filled with shouting, barking dogs, coughing neighbors, and barges moving along the river. Here, the palace was almost silent. Every creak in the old timber made me tense. Every whisper of wind beneath the door sounded like someone waiting outside.
