POV: Mason
The palace didn’t sleep anymore.
It waited.
Every corridor was lined with armed guards, every shadow watched twice, every breath measured. The attack on the nursery had torn the illusion of safety straight out of our walls. We weren’t preparing for war anymore.
We were already in it.
I stalked through the lower levels with my commanders flanking me, the scent of fear and metal thick in the air. Whoever let those assassins inside hadn’t just betrayed the crown.
They had betrayed Riley’s child.
And that was unforgivable.
“They knew the exact shift change,” one of the guards muttered. “They slipped in right between rotations. No alarms tripped until the inner wards collapsed.”
“Which means,” I growled, “someone gave them the timing.”
We reached the holding chambers where
