Lady Erin was gone. The mysterious woman who had come from an unknown place, only to appear in the kingdom of Aurea with the Prince after a month of his disappearance; the woman whose features and way of speaking and moving and dressing were every bit different from those of the people of Aurea; the woman who the Prince Alaric chose so publicly in the middle of a gathering—gone.
Guards and knights and workers didn’t know where she went. Giles was possibly the last to have seen her during school hours—but that was it. He had left Erin in the room before he had gone to find Almina, and no one saw Erin again after that. She did not train in the Grounds. She was not anywhere in her room that night, waiting for Alaric to have dinner with. She was not seen in the castle since midday.
Alaric s
