She ran.

  She didn’t stop to think. Didn’t look back. She just ran—fast, blind, lungs burning. Her heart slammed in her chest like it wanted out. Her legs kept moving even though they screamed at her to stop.

  She didn’t even know where she was going.

  Just away.

  Away from the dining hall. Away from the blood. Away from the look in Cole’s eyes right before everything went dark.

  She turned a corner too fast, nearly tripping over a cracked stone tile. The palace walls blurred past her. Her feet knew the way before her mind did.

  This hall. That statue.

  Something clicked in her memory.

  I’ve been here before.

  Not recently—years ago, when she was still allowed to wander. When she was just a weird little kid no one paid attention to. Back then, she used to sneak around the palace, hide in crawl spaces, follow the servants, explore the cracks in the walls no one else cared about.

  And one night, she followed a maid.

  She’d watched her press a part of the wall by the statue. A hidden door opened, and Zora remembered thinking it felt like magic.

  She found it again now, just where she remembered.

  The statue. The rug. The faint groove in the stone wall.

  She shoved the rug out of the way and pressed the panel.

  Click.

  It opened.

  Zora ducked inside, slammed it shut behind her, and the world went dark.

  It was pitch black.

  The kind of dark that made your chest tighten, like it was folding in on itself. The air was thick and dusty. Old. But she didn’t stop.

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  Her hand found the wall and she followed it, moving fast but careful. Her breathing echoed weirdly in the space—loud and uneven.

  She didn’t know how far the tunnel went, but she didn’t care. As long as it led out, she’d take it.

  And her head—gods, her head was spinning.

  What she did back there… it wasn’t just a flare-up.

  She’d hit them. Hard.

  Not just noise in someone’s mind—she got in. Deep enough to make Cole stumble. Deep enough to shut them both up.

  It hadn’t been clean. It was messy, raw, fueled by nothing but panic and anger and everything she’d shoved down for years.

  And somehow, it worked.

  Zora didn’t even know how to feel about that.

  Part of her was terrified.

  The other part? Relieved.

  She didn’t feel guilty. Not really. Not about the king. Not about Nyra. Not even about the others. After everything they did to her, she felt... free.

  And that scared her too.

  The tunnel went on and on. Narrow turns, low ceilings. She had to duck in places. Her cut finger stung every time it brushed against the stone.

  Then—air.

  Cold, moving air.

  Zora stopped. Held her breath. Felt it again.

  A breeze.

  She followed it, faster now. The air got cooler. The tunnel started sloping up. She turned a corner and—

  Light.

  Faint silver light ahead.

  She shoved the last panel hard and it groaned open just enough for her to squeeze through.

  She fell out onto dirt.

  The forest.

  Real air hit her like a slap—sharp, cold, fresh. For a second she just stood there, blinking at the sky like it was something she’d never seen before.

  The moon was low. Trees surrounded her. Everything smelled like leaves and earth and not the palace.

  She took a shaky step forward, then another.

  Turned back just once to look at the tunnel. It was already half-covered in vines and rock. Disappearing like it had never been there.

  Zora wanted to drop right there and sleep for a week. Her legs were dead. Her lungs still ached.

  But she couldn’t stop. Not yet.

  She didn’t know if they’d follow. Or if someone else would. Maybe Cole was still sitting in that room, bleeding and pissed and ready to send the whole kingdom after her.

  She had no map. No bag. Nothing but a bloody hand and a head full of noise.

  But she was out.

  She was out.

  And for the first time in her life…

  She was finally free.