THE PRINCE BENEATH THE BLACK CROWN

The first time I realized my family was afraid of me was the time they locked my bedroom door from the outside, not because I'd done anything wrong or because I'd tried to escape, my father had simply decided that tonight I was finally old enough to learn the truth, I stood barefoot in the middle of my bedroom, staring at the heavy oak door. The lock had clicked only moments ago and my heart was already hammering. "Father?" No answer. I crossed the room and tried the handle but it didn't move. "Father!" Still nothing, then I stepped back. For eighteen years I'd lived in the eastern wing of Valora Manor, my family called it protection, they said the world beyond our gates was dangerous, that a young woman of my bloodline had no business wandering among strangers I'd never really believed them. The guards outside weren't there to keep strangers away from me, they were there to keep me in. I went to the window. Three guards stood below , two at the garden gate, one beneath my balcony and for the first time I noticed something strange. They weren't watching the forest but were also watching my room,watching me as a chill moved down my spine and I pulled the curtains shut, something was wrong, very wrong. Earlier that evening my father had summoned me to the dining hall. He'd been unusually quiet, and my mother wasn't there, nor was my brother Elian, only my father and three men in the royal colors of the D'Arcy Kingdom, seated around the long table. I remembered the way they'd looked at me, not like a daughter, not even like a person. Like something that had finally arrived at the correct destination. My father's words came back to me. "Seren, there is something we need to discuss." I laughed nervously, "That sounds serious." He hadn't smiled, "You are getting married." I thought I'd misheard him, I hadn't. A knock sounded against my bedroom door, it was three slow knocks, then silence. I froze. "Who is it?" "It's me," Elian. I rushed to the door, "Open it." "I can't," He cursed under his breath. "Move away from the door, Seren." "Why?" "Just do it." Something in his voice made me obey, so I stepped back. A key turned, the door opened a few inches, and Elian slipped inside before locking it again behind him. My older brother looked nothing like himself, His usually neat black hair was disheveled, and there was a cut across his cheek. "What happened to you?" "Nothing." "You're bleeding." "It isn't important." He wouldn't look at me. "Elian, what is happening?" He glanced toward the windows, then the door, and finally at me. "They're taking you tomorrow." My stomach dropped. "Taking me where?" He didn't answer. "Elian." He swallowed. "To the D'Arcy Kingdom." "No." My head was already shaking. "You said Father was arranging a marriage. I thought he was joking." "He wasn't." "Who?" His silence was answer enough. I whispered the name myself. "Riven D'Arcy." He looked away, and I understood, in that moment, exactly why everyone had heard that name. Riven D'Arcy the Crown Prince beneath the Black Crown, the Prince of Ruin, the man mothers invoked to frighten their children into behaving. The prince whose enemies disappeared, whose own people lowered their eyes when he passed, the prince who had never taken a bride. Until now. "Why me?" I whispered. Elian's eyes met mine. "I don't know." That was the first lie. I knew instantly that my brother had always been a terrible liar, at least to me. "Tell me the truth." "I am telling you." "No." I stepped closer. "You're scared." He didn't answer. "You're scared of him." His jaw tightened. "Yes." That single word frightened me more than every rumor I'd ever heard about Riven D'Arcy combined. Elian grabbed my hands. "Listen to me. Whatever happens tomorrow, don't provoke him." "I'm not marrying him." "You don't have a choice." "I always have a choice." "Not this time." His voice cracked. I pulled my hands away. "Why are you all treating me like I'm being sent to my execution?" He looked at me for a long moment before he finally answered, quietly. "Because we don't know what will happen when he sees you." My blood went cold. "When he sees me?" Before he could explain, footsteps sounded in the hallway. Elian stepped back from me immediately. Someone stopped outside my door, and a man's voice followed. "Prince Riven has arrived." The color drained from Elian's face. I stopped breathing. "What?" "He arrived tonight," the guard continued. "The wedding will proceed at dawn." Elian looked at me. "He wasn't supposed to come until tomorrow." Another voice answered from the hallway. "He changed his mind." The footsteps moved off. I turned to my brother. "He's here?" He nodded. "In our house?" "Yes." A strange fear crawled through me. I'd spent years trapped behind these walls because my family swore the outside world was dangerous, and now the greatest danger I'd ever known had just walked through our front gates. And somehow, he had come for me. Elian reached for the door. "Where are you going?" "To speak with Father." "You're leaving me here?" "I'll come back." He opened the door, then stopped. "Elian?" He looked over his shoulder. "If anyone asks, you were never told about the marriage." "What?" "Promise me." "Why?" His eyes held something I'd never seen in them before. Fear. "Because if they know you already know, they'll change the plan." The door closed behind him, and I stood alone. The silence felt heavier now. I went back to the window. The guards were still there, but there was someone else in the garden now, a tall man dressed entirely in black, standing beneath the old silver tree with his back to me. I couldn't see his face. Somehow I knew anyway. “Riven.” My heart started pounding. He turned slowly, and even from that distance I felt his gaze land directly on my window, it landed on me, I stepped back. He didn't move neither did I. Then he lifted one hand not a wave but a warning. The curtain fell from my fingers and I stumbled away from the window. There was no way he could have known I was watching. Unless…. A soft sound came from behind me and I froze. “Tap”came from the wall, I turned slowly, and it came again “ tap, tap” and my eyes went to the old painting hanging beside my bed, a portrait of my mother that had been there for as long as I could remember, except now it was crooked. I approached it carefully, touched the frame, and pulled the portrait swung outward, revealing a narrow opening in the wall, my breath caught. There was a hidden compartment, and inside it, a small black box I'd never seen before. My hands were shaking as I opened it. Inside was a single letter. It was my name written across the front “SEREN” in handwriting I recognized instantly as my mother's, but my mother had been dead for twelve years. I broke the seal. There were only three lines. My daughter, if they have finally decided to send you to the Black Palace, then they have run out of ways to hide you. My heart stopped, I kept reading. Do not trust the king. And the last line. And whatever you do, never let Prince Riven discover what you are. I stared at the words. What I was? What did that even mean? A loud knock struck my bedroom door and I nearly dropped the letter. "Seren?" My father's voice. "Open the door." I folded the letter quickly and hid it beneath my dress, "Seren!" I walked toward the door, my fingers reaching for the handle and then I heard another voice behind my father's, Deep and Calm. One I'd never heard before, and yet I knew exactly who it belonged to. "Let her open it herself." My blood ran cold. The voice continued, soft as a held breath. "I've waited eighteen years to meet my bride." The door unlocked and for the first time in my life, I wondered whether my family had been protecting me from the world or protecting the world from me.