(Kael's POV)
The knife flew straight at my heart.
I caught it without looking, my shadow magic wrapping around the blade like black smoke. The assassin who had thrown it was already running through the fair crowd, but he wouldn't get far.
"Really?" I muttered, crushing the dagger into dust. "They're not even trying anymore."
This was the third murder attempt since I had arrived in Astoria this morning. My father's enemies really didn't want me to finish this mission. Too bad for them that I had never failed at anything in my entire life.
I pulled my hood lower and kept walking through the royal festival. Everyone around me was laughing and celebrating, totally unaware that the most dangerous prince in the known world was standing right next to them.
My task was simple: find Princess Lyra, study her weaknesses, and report back to my father about how easy it would be to conquer her kingdom. According to every spy report we had gotten, she was a spoiled, weak girl who cried when servants were rude to her.
But something felt wrong about this whole setup.
For one thing, the kingdom of Astoria didn't look weak at all. The people seemed happy and well-fed. The guards were alert and well-trained. The castle's magical shields were stronger than anything I had seen before.
For another thing, my shadow creatures were acting strange. Usually, they whispered information to me about everyone around me. But today, they kept trying to pull me toward the center of the festival, like they sensed something powerful close.
"What is it?" I whispered to the small ghost that lived in my pocket.
The shadow formed words in the air: "Dragon magic. Very strong. Very different."
That was impossible. Dragon magic was the greatest power in the world. Only one person in a thousand years was born with it. And according to our spies, Princess Lyra had simple light magic, not dragon fire.
I pushed through the crowd, following my shadows toward whatever was making them so excited. That's when I saw her.
Princess Lyra was standing near a flower shop, talking to an old woman selling roses. She looked exactly like the portraits I had studied, but something was totally different about her.
In the drawings, she had looked sweet and innocent. The girl I was watching now looked like she could burn down the entire country if someone made her angry enough.
Her golden hair caught the sunlight like fire, and when she smiled at the flower seller, there was something sharp and calculating in her face. But the most shocking thing was her eyes. They seemed to glow with an inner light that made my shadow magic react in ways I had never felt before.
I moved closer, trying to look at some jewelry at a nearby booth. Princess Lyra was buying white roses for the old woman's granddaughter, and the talk seemed perfectly normal. But I could sense strong magic radiating from her like heat from a forge.
"She's beautiful, isn't she?" someone said behind me.
I spun around and found myself face to face with a young man about my age. He had friendly brown eyes and was wearing simple clothes that marked him as a minor lord.
"I'm sorry?" I said, trying to keep my voice relaxed.
"Princess Lyra." The young man nodded toward her. "Every man in the kingdom is in love with her. But she's never shown interest in anyone. Some people say she's waiting for a prince from another country to come sweep her off her feet."
I almost laughed out loud. If only he knew that the prince he was talking about was standing right next to him, planning to invade his country.
"What's she like?" I asked, truly curious.
"Kind. Generous. Always helping people who need it." The young man's face grew troubled. "But lately, some of the workers have been saying strange things about her. They say she's changed somehow. Become more... intense."
Before I could ask what he meant, a commotion broke out near the castle walls. People were yelling and running in all directions.
"Demons!" someone yelled. "Shadow demons are attacking!"
My blood turned to ice. Shadow demons were creatures from my realm, beings made of pure nightmare that I could call and control. But I hadn't called any monsters to this world. They shouldn't be here.
I pushed through the panicking crowd, trying to get to the cause of the attack. What I saw made my heart stop.
Three massive shadow demons were tearing through the fair, their claws ripping apart booth after booth. These weren't regular demons. They were war demons, the kind that could only be summoned by someone with incredibly strong dark magic.
But I was the only person in this kingdom who should be able to control shadow monsters. So who had called them?
The demons were headed straight for Princess Lyra.
Without thinking, I started running toward her. I didn't know why I felt the need to protect someone I was supposed to be spying on, but something deep in my chest was screaming at me to get to her before the demons did.
I was twenty feet away when the largest demon leaped at the princess, its claws directed at her heart.
Princess Lyra looked up at the monster with no fear in her eyes. Instead, she smiled.
Then she raised her hand and golden fire burst from her fingers.
The flames weren't just hot. They were so bright they burned holes in reality itself. The demon didn't just die – it was totally erased from existence, like it had never been there at all.
But that wasn't the shocking part.
The shocking part was that when her dragon fire hit my shadow magic, time stopped.
Everything around us froze. The frightened people became motionless statues. The other monsters hung in the air like dark paintings. Even the wind stopped blowing.
It was just me and Princess Lyra, standing in a world that had forgotten how to move.
She turned to look at me, and her eyes were now sparkling with pure golden light.
"Hello, Kael," she said softly. "I've been waiting for you."
My heart nearly burst out of my chest. She knew my name. She knew who I really was.
"How—" I started to ask.
"How do I know you're the Shadow Prince?" She stepped closer to me, and I could feel the amazing power radiating from her skin. "The same way I know that you didn't call those demons. The same way I know that someone is trying to start a war between our countries."
This was impossible. According to every account, Princess Lyra was supposed to be a harmless girl with weak magic. The guy standing in front of me was anything but harmless.
"What are you?" I whispered.
Her smile was beautiful and frightening at the same time. "I'm someone who remembers things that haven't happened yet. Someone who knows that you and I are supposed to be enemies, but we're going to fall in love instead."
Time started moving again, and the sounds of the event crashed back over us like a wave. But I barely noticed because my mind was spinning from what she had just said.
She knew about the future. She knew we were supposed to fall in love.
But how could that be possible unless...
"You're not the same person everyone thinks you are," I said, finally understanding.
"No," Princess Lyra agreed, her eyes still sparkling with dragon fire. "I'm not. And neither are you, Prince Kael. Because according to the future I remember, you're going to destroy this kingdom in three months."
She stepped even closer, close enough that I could feel her breath on my face.
"So the question is," she whispered, "are you here to spy on me like you planned? Or are you here to help me stop the war that's going to kill both of us?"
Before I could answer, she did something that changed everything.
She kissed me.
And the moment our lips touched, I saw flashes of another life. A life where I captured her kingdom. A life where she died in my arms, asking me to remember that we had loved each other.
A life where I arrived too late to save her.
When she pulled away, I was gasping for air and my shadow magic was whirling around us like a storm.
"What did you just show me?" I asked.
Princess Lyra's smile was sad now, and old in a way that made no sense for someone so young.
"The truth," she said. "About who we really are. About what we're meant to prevent. And about the person who's been manipulating both our countries to start a war."
She turned to walk away, but stopped after a few steps.
"Meet me in the rose yard at midnight, Kael. Come alone. And be ready to learn that everything you thought you knew about this world is a lie."
As I watched her fade into the crowd, one thought kept repeating in my mind: I had come here to spy on a weak princess.
Instead, I had just met the most dangerous person I had ever faced.
And I was pretty sure I was already falling in love with her.