Astrid
Only a few minutes ago, every lantern strung across the courtyard had looked magical. Now they just looked like something to hide behind.
I tried to reason with myself as we kept walking. The King probably attended academy events all the time. Hundreds of students would be at the carnival. He wouldn’t have any reason to notice one scholarship girl in a crowd that size.
Except I wasn’t just any scholarship girl. I was the daughter he’d spent years hunting.
"You were excited two seconds ago," Ivy said, glancing at me.
I forced a smile. "I’m still excited."
"You look like someone just told you the carnival’s been cancelled."
"I’m just tired," I said, and left it there.
I couldn’t tell her the truth. The more people who knew anything real about me, the more likely someone eventually put the pieces together.
As we crossed further into campus, I started noticing things I’d missed before. Royal banners already hung along the main buildings, gold thread catching the light. Staff rushed between buildings with clipboards and armfuls of decorations. Unfamiliar guards stood posted near the gates, more of them than I’d ever seen on campus before.
"Is this normal?" I asked.
Ivy glanced around. "For a royal visit? Probably."
I watched one of the guards scan the crowd. "He really needs this much protection?"
"He’s the King," Ivy said, shrugging.
I made myself keep walking, though the real reason for my unease had nothing to do with how many guards he traveled with.
He wasn’t simply visiting Moonshade. He was coming close enough to find me.
A few corridors later, I caught the tail end of a conversation between two older students, their voices low but not low enough.
"Apparently the King’s search hasn’t stopped."
"For his daughter?"
"Yeah. The bastard girl."
My steps slowed without my permission.
"I heard they’ve searched several territories already."
"Then she must be hiding somewhere."
The first girl laughed. "Imagine being hunted by your own father."
I kept walking. I didn’t look back. I didn’t let my face show anything at all.
But my pulse was pounding hard enough that I could feel it in my throat.
I thought about my mother, about the night she’d shoved me behind that wall and told me not to make a sound. Never let the royal blood discover what you are. For the first time since arriving, I wondered whether coming to Moonshade had been a mistake from the very beginning.
I considered, briefly, just going back to the apartment. Telling Ivy I felt sick. Disappearing before the King ever arrived.
Then I remembered how excited Ivy had been about the carnival, all the work everyone had put into it. I remembered that Reed and Xander were part of the royal presentation itself. If I vanished now, people would notice. That felt riskier than staying.
I’ll go to the carnival, I told myself. Keep my head down. Stay far away from the royal section. Survive one night.
I found the twins later, both of them in the middle of preparing for their carnival duties.
"Why do you look like someone just told you there’s no food at the carnival?" Xander asked immediately.
"I’m fine," I said.
Reed studied me with that quiet, unreadable look I was starting to recognize too well. "You’re doing it again."
"Doing what?"
"Saying you’re fine."
I didn’t have a good answer for that.
Xander looked between us. "She’s definitely not fine."
"Thank you for your expert diagnosis," I said dryly.
"Anytime," he said, grinning.
The humor loosened something in my chest, just briefly. But Reed didn’t let it go entirely.
"Is it the King?" he asked.
I froze, just a half second too long. He noticed.
"I’m just nervous," I said quickly, shaking my head.
He didn’t push. Instead, quietly, "You don’t have to stay near him."
"What?"
"If you don’t want to be around the royal delegation, stay with us."
The simplicity of it caught me completely off guard.
Xander joined in immediately. "Exactly. You can stay with us all night."
I raised an eyebrow. "That sounds suspiciously like a threat."
"It’s protection."
"From what?"
"Everything. Bad food. Boring speeches. Aggressive carnival games."
I laughed despite myself.
Reed gave him a look. "She’s capable of handling carnival games."
"I’m trying to be useful."
"You’re failing."
I smiled, and for a few seconds, the King’s arrival slipped completely out of my mind.
That realization settled uncomfortably once the moment passed. I trusted them. Both of them. And that trust could become a very serious problem if either of them ever learned exactly what I was hiding.
Reed mentioned their presentation duties a moment later, some formal appearance expected before the opening ceremony.
"When?" I asked.
"Probably before the opening ceremony," Reed said.
My stomach dropped. "Before?"
He nodded. "The King is expected to arrive early."
I tried to hide my reaction. Xander caught it anyway.
"Astrid?"
"I’m fine."
He glanced at Reed. Reed looked back at me. Neither of them believed me, but Reed simply said, "We’ll find you before the presentation."
I nodded, and the reassurance settled somewhere warm in my chest, which only made everything more complicated.
That night, I lay awake long after the apartment had gone quiet, trying to focus on anything else. The decorations. The games. Ivy’s excitement over the fortune tellers. Xander’s ridiculous jokes. Reed’s steady, quiet presence.
Every thought eventually circled back to the same place.
The King.
I wondered what he looked like up close, whether he’d recognize anything about me. My eyes. My mother’s features carried in my own face. My voice, which I’d never once considered might sound like hers.
He doesn’t know me, I told myself, over and over, pulling the blanket tighter around my shoulders.
He doesn’t know me.
But another thought followed right behind it, quieter and far more dangerous.
What if he does?
The next morning, the entire academy buzzed with restless energy. Ivy and I walked toward the main courtyard, already packed with students crowding near the front gates.
"They’re here!" someone shouted.
"The royal convoy just arrived," another voice answered.
I stopped walking entirely. My whole body went cold.
Beyond the gates, a line of black vehicles moved slowly onto the academy grounds, gold crests catching the morning light, unmistakable even from this distance.
Ivy grabbed my arm, practically vibrating with excitement. "Astrid, look!"
I couldn’t move.
I stared at the first vehicle as it rolled to a stop, the crowd’s cheering rising around us in one wave.
The door opened.
My fingers curled tight into the sleeve of Ivy’s jacket, my heart pounding so hard it drowned out every other sound.
He’s here.