Astra rose from the bed with a sluggish grace, the linen sheets slipping from her shoulders like water refusing to cling.
Her breath felt shallow, caught between the dream world and waking.
The moonlight still lingered, faint, pale, indifferent. It spilled across the floor in thin lines, catching on the stone walls and her bare feet.
Her fingers brushed against the carved wooden bedpost as she stood fully, grounding herself in the present.
But her mind, her heart, remained tangled in something else.
The dream.
That voice.
It had reached inside her like a ghost returning to its old bones.
She padded across the floor in silence, the chill of the stone kissing her soles. At the window, she parted the sheer curtain with two fingers and looked out.
The sky was still cloaked in night, but hints of dawn painted the horizon in a bruised lilac haze. The stars were vanishing, one by one, not gently but like someone had torn them down.
Her palm met the cold glass.
> "You once knew it better than your own."
That line echoed through her skull, refusing to fade.
A name. His name.
She couldn't remember it. And yet, somehow, she felt it. Like tasting something bitter and sweet and knowing you've swallowed it before.
The silence pressed in, thick and watchful. A breath held by the world.
She stayed like that for a moment longer, her forehead resting lightly against the glass, as if the cold might press the truth back into her bones.
But it didn't.
Only the echo remained—empty, aching.
Something flickered at the edge of her thoughts. A hand reaching. A promise made beneath a sky full of fire. A voice—low, rough, saying a name like it meant everything.
Her chest ached, sudden and sharp.
She drew back.
The stars were gone now.
So she turned away.
She sat down at the edge of the bed, hands curled together in her lap. Her eyes stared ahead, unfocused, her thoughts elsewhere. That name was gone again, just out of reach.
Like a scent carried away by wind.
—
The morning sun filtered weakly through the long curtains of the Black Rose Palace, brushing soft gold over the cold stone floors.
Outside, the trees had shed most of their leaves. Only a few clung to branches like forgotten promises.
Astra was seated at the breakfast table.
The spread before her was modest– warm bread, honeyed tea, slices of seasonal fruit. Just enough.
She picked at it without urgency, stirring her tea slowly, far longer than necessary.
Three girls stood respectfully to the side of the room– Cassia, Lily, and Ella, each with varying degrees of stillness and stolen glances.
Lily, as always, couldn't hold in her words for long.
"Your Highness," she complained, "did you see the frost on the windows this morning? It's not even winter yet, and my toes nearly froze through my boots!"
Astra didn't glance up. She spread a thin layer of jam on her bread with quiet precision.
"Maybe your boots are the problem."
"Cassia said the exact same thing," Lily grumbled immediately.
"Because it's true," Cassia replied without much empathy. "You refuse to wear the thicker ones."
Lily crossed her arms with utmost seriousness.
"They make my legs look short."
Ella warns her: "Lily…"
"What?" Lily defended herself shamelessly. "Her Highness doesn't mind. Do you, your highness?"
Astra finally looked up, meeting Lily's bright eyes. There was no smile on her face. But there was no coldness either.
"If your toes freeze off," Astra said calmly while sipping tea, "don't expect me to lend you mine."
Lily immediately grinned.
"Of course not, Your Highness. Yours are far too royal."
Cassia added dryly,
"So are her knives."
Ella instantly choked back a laugh while Lily tried to look chastised, but failed miserably.
A knock interrupted the moment.
Astra set down her teacup.
"Come in."
The door creaked open slowly.
Lora stepped inside, cheeks pink from the cold morning air. In her hands rested a small vase filled with freshly cut black roses, tiny droplets of dew still clinging to the petals and the hem of her cloak.
"Forgive the interruption, Your Highness," she said with a smile. "I thought the table looked a little bare, so… I brought these from the garden."
Astra's gaze settled on the black roses. She stared at them for a moment, unreadable.
"You think black roses cheer up a room?" she asked flatly.
Lora visibly faltered.
"No, I mean… I just thought you might like them."
A pause stretched in the space between words. Astra reached for a slice of bread but didn't eat it.
"I never said I liked them," she replied quietly. "I just didn't bother correcting anyone."
The girls exchanged puzzled glances.
Astra's voice wasn't sharp. Wasn't cruel. Just honest in a strangely detached way.
She glanced up again, her tone softer but without much emotion.
"Leave them."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Lora carefully stepped forward and placed the vase at the center of the table. Against the pale morning light, the black roses looked almost unnaturally dark and elegant.
Lily standing beside Ella, whispered: "She never throws them away."
Cassia immediately shot her a warning glance.
But Astra had already heard.
"That's because they know their place," Astra said calmly while lifting her tea once more.
"Quiet. Silent."
Her fingers rested lightly against the porcelain cup. An unknown emotion flickered in her eyes.
"And only blooming when everything else dies."
The words drifted softly through the room, settling over the girls like fresh snowfall.
Lily flushed, biting her lip, her eyes flicking to the floor.
But Astra had already turned back to her tea, her expression unreadable.
Astra said quietly: "Leave me."
The girls curtsied in unison. No one protested. Cassia lingered at the door for a brief second longer than the others, her lips pressed into a thin, thoughtful line before she, too, slipped away.
When the door clicked shut, Astra resumed stirring her tea, the spoon clinking gently against porcelain.
The roses sat still in their vase.
And the room returned to its silence.
__
In the afternoon,
The soft ticking of the antique clock was the only sound in Astra's chamber.
Astra lay stretched across the velvet couch, one arm draped lazily over her eyes to block the sunlight streaming through the tall windows.
Lunch had left her comfortably drowsy, and the lingering warmth in the room only deepened the haze pulling at her thoughts.
So when the quiet creak of the door reached her ears, she didn't move. she spoke dryly into the silence without even lowering her arms from over her eyes.
"Strange."
Her voice carried lazy amusement beneath its calm surface.
"I thought you'd forgotten this place."
A brief pause followed before the reply came.
"I thought you liked it better that way."
Edrick.
His voice was smooth, far smoother than it had any right to be. Casual. Unbothered. As though arriving uninvited inside a royal princess's private chambers was perfectly normal behavior.
Astra's expression remained hidden beneath her arm.
"Why come?"
Footsteps echoed softly against the floor as he stepped farther inside.
"Didn't realize I needed an invitation."
There it was again.
That irritatingly effortless tone.
The kind that sounded harmless until one paid attention long enough to notice how deliberate every word actually was.
Astra said nothing for a moment.
The sunlight framed her silver hair like liquid frost against the dark velvet beneath her.
And somewhere nearby, curled lazily atop the backrest of the couch, Shade lifted its head just enough to stare at the unexpected visitor with visible disapproval.