Princess Of The Skulls - Chapter 19: Chapter 19

My wedding day began with blood.
I woke before dawn to find a severed finger on my pillow, still warm and wearing a ring I recognized—
Master Dorian's signet. There was no note, no explanation, just the grisly message that one of our key allies had been compromised.
I didn't scream. I didn't panic. I simply picked up the finger, wrapped it in silk, and began calculating how this changed our plans.
Kael materialized from the shadows beside my bed, moving with the deadly silence that meant he'd been awake and alert for hours. "When did you find it?"
"Just now. How long have you been watching?"
Since midnight. No one entered this room." His eyes were hard as winter steel. "Which means someone wanted us to find this, and they had access to Master Dorian hours ago."
I climbed out of bed and began dressing in the practical clothes I'd laid out the night before—dark leather and steel, suitable for fighting rather than ceremonies. The elaborate wedding gown would come later, but first, I needed to understand what we were truly facing.
"The finger is still warm," I observed, examining it more closely. "Either he's been dead less than an hour, or ."
"Or someone has been keeping pieces of him fresh for maximum psychological impact," Kael finished grimly.
I wrapped the finger more carefully and placed it in a small box on my dressing table. "We need to know if the others are safe. If this is the beginning of a systematic elimination of our allies, we need to adapt our plans immediately."
"Already working on it," Kael said, moving toward the window. "Give me twenty minutes to check on.
Captain Marcus and Elena. Prince Aldric should be relatively safe in his quarters, but Matthias and
Lady Lydia ."
"Lady Lydia might be the one who provided access to Master Dorian," I reminded him. "Be careful."
After Kael left, I spent the predawn hours in meditation, reaching out through the skull pendant to touch the spirits of the recently dead. Master Dorian's soul was there, recently departed and still coherent enough to communicate.
The crypt, his spirit whispered through the bone. They know about the crypt. Changed the location. Deeper.
Old foundations. Bone-binder has anchors prepared.
I pressed for more details, but the connection was fading as his spirit moved toward whatever came after death. Before he disappeared entirely, he managed one more crucial piece of information: Trust the prince. Not what he seems. Protect him.
When Kael returned, his expression was grim but not catastrophic. "Captain Marcus and Elena are alive and secure. Matthias is missing—his room shows signs of struggle. Lady Lydia ." He paused. "Lady Lydia is in her chambers, but she's not alone. There are voices I don't recognize."
"How many?"
"At least three. They're being quiet, but not quiet enough." He moved to my weapons cabinet and began selecting knives. "Do we abort?"
I considered this while braiding my hair in the warrior's knot my mother had taught me years ago.
"Aborting means the cult wins by default. They get their ritual, their binding, and control of both kingdoms. The only question is whether we can still succeed with compromised intelligence and fewer allies."
"That's not much of a question. The answer is no."
"The obvious answer," I corrected, "is that our original plan can't succeed. But that doesn't mean we can't achieve our objectives through different means."
Kael turned from the weapons cabinet, a throwing knife balanced in each hand. "What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking that if they know about our plan to disrupt the ritual, they'll be prepared for that specific threat. But they won't be prepared for me to embrace the ritual instead of fighting it."
"Explain."
I moved to the window and looked out at the castle courtyard, where servants were already beginning preparations for the day's festivities. "The soul-binding ritual requires the willing participation of both parties. If I participate but subvert the magical working from within, I might be able to turn their power against them."
"That's insanely dangerous. Soul magic isn't something you can partially control—if you engage with it and lose, you lose everything."
"And if I don't engage with it at all, I lose everything anyway." I turned back to face him. "The difference is that way, I might take some of them with me."
Kael was quiet for a long moment, studying my face with the intensity he usually reserved for potential assassination targets. "You're not planning to survive this, are you?"
"I'm planning to win. Survival is secondary."
"That's not an answer."
I met his eyes steadily. "It's the only answer that matters. The cult has been planning this for years. They have superior numbers, better information, and more resources. The only advantage we have is that they don't expect me to be willing to die to stop them."
"And what about what I want?" The question came out rougher than I think he intended.
"What you want doesn't change what needs to be done." I moved closer to him, close enough to see the flecks of gold in his dark eyes. "But if you're asking whether I care about leaving you behind, yes. I care more than I should."
He set down the knives and reached for me, pulling me against him with desperate intensity. For a moment, we weren't assassin and target, or allies in a desperate plan, or even lovers caught between duty and desire. We were just two people who might not see another dawn.
"There has to be another way," he said against my hair.
"If there is, I haven't found it. And we're out of time to keep looking."
A soft knock at the door interrupted us. "Your Highness?" Elena's voice was carefully neutral. "Lady Lydia is here to help you prepare for the ceremony."
I exchanged a look with Kael, who was already moving toward his hiding place. "Send her in."
Lady Lydia entered with a bright smile that didn't reach her eyes and a train of servants carrying the elaborate wedding gown. "Good morning, darling. I hope you slept well."
"As well as can be expected, the night before one's wedding."
"Of course. These things are always nerve-wracking." She gestured to the servants, who began arranging the gown and jewelry. "I thought we might have some private time to talk while you're being prepared.
Girl talk, you understand."
I understood that she wanted to ensure I would be cooperative during the ceremony, either through persuasion or through threats. "I'd like that."
As the servants worked, Lady Lydia kept up a stream of cheerful conversation about the ceremony, the feast, and the political implications of the marriage. But I caught the subtle questions buried in her chatter —questions about my plans for the day, my mood, and my intentions.
"Are you planning to visit your mother's tomb this morning?" she asked as one servant fastened the intricate beadwork of the bodice.
"I hadn't decided. Why?"
"Oh, I just thought it might be meaningful. A way to honor her memory on such an important day."
I looked at her reflection in the mirror, noting the tension around her eyes. "Perhaps later. I have some other preparations to attend to first."
"What sort of preparations?"
"The kind that ensures I'm ready for whatever this day brings."
She was quiet for a moment, then smiled that bright, false smile again. "Of course. I'm sure everything will go exactly as planned."
As she left with the servants, I caught sight of Kael's reflection in the mirror behind the curtains. He'd heard everything, and his expression was as grim as mine felt.
"She's compromised," he said once we were alone.
"Yes. The question is whether she's been turned by the cult or whether she's pursuing her agenda."
"Does it matter?"
I considered this while examining the elaborate wedding gown. It was beautiful, embroidered with silver thread and precious stones, but it was also a costume for a performance that might end with my death.
"It matters because it tells us what kind of betrayal to expect and when." I picked up the skull pendant from my dressing table and fastened it around my neck, where it would be visible above the gown's neckline. "If she's working with the cult, she'll try to ensure I'm vulnerable during the ceremony. If she's working for herself, she'll wait until after the ritual succeeds and then make her move."
"And if she's working for someone else entirely?"
"Then we're facing an even more complicated situation than we realized."
As I finished dressing, I felt the weight of the day settling around me like armor. In a few hours, I would walk down the aisle toward either marriage or death, and I still wasn't certain which outcome would serve the greater good.
But I was certain of one thing: whatever happened, I would face it as my mother's daughter, with steel in my spine and death in my hands.