Aurora’s POV
I didn’t leave in anger. I left in silence.
That mattered because anger would have pulled me back. Anger would have made me reckless. Silence was cleaner. Stronger. It wrapped around my heart like armor and kept it from breaking as I slipped through the palace’s forgotten veins.
The side entrance waited exactly where Mother once showed me, behind the east wing, past the vine-choked wall where the stones sank unevenly into the ground.
No guards. No torches. Just darkness and the quiet hum of secrets buried too deep for the court to remember.
My fingers brushed the hidden latch, and the gate opened with a soft metallic sigh, like it had been holding its breath for me all these years. I paused there.
For one heartbeat, I imagined Zayne turning the corner. I could hear his
