Violet Amethyst's Arc

Chapter 1 of 9

Violet Amethyst had spent three weeks in Dawnfrost hunting a prince nobody could find. She wanted to win his heart. The trouble was simple: she had never seen his face. People called him the shadow prince, warned that he was cursed against fairies, and then pointed her nowhere. Her aquamarine wings drew stares in every frozen square. A fairy chasing a ghost, they whispered. She smoothed her royal purple leggings and refused to quit. She pushed into the warm, timeworn inn where travelers ended their journeys. Lanterns glowed against the frost on the windows. If anyone knew the prince's hiding place, they drank here. Kai Nakamura found her first. He dropped into the seat across from her, leather jacket creaking, his silver ear piercings catching the light. Her best friend since childhood, he had followed her north because he never let her walk into danger alone. "You're doing the thing again," he said. "The obsessed thing. Let it go, Vi." "I can't charm a man I can't find." She leaned forward. "You always hear things I don't. Ask around." Kai frowned, but he loved her too much to say no. He rose and moved through the room, low and easy, trading a few coins and quieter words with a hooded man near the fire. Violet watched his shoulders tense. He came back pale. "I found him for you," Kai said. "And I already hate that I did." He told her. The prince came to this very inn most nights, alone, in a black cloak, sitting in the far corner beneath the broken lantern. He came for one hour after moonrise and spoke to no one. Violet's pulse jumped. "He's here? Tonight?" "Every night." Kai gripped her wrist. "The hooded man says the last fairy who approached him didn't come back. That's why nobody points you anywhere. They're protecting you." Violet looked at the far corner. The broken lantern hung dark over an empty chair. She had wanted this for three weeks. Now her hands shook. The inn door opened. Cold air rolled across the floor and the lanterns bent sideways. A tall figure in a black cloak stepped inside. He didn't look at anyone. He crossed straight to the corner beneath the dead lantern and sat. The whole room went quiet. Even the innkeeper stopped pouring. "That's him," Kai breathed. "Vi, don't." But she was already standing. Three weeks of dead ends had collapsed into ten steps of open floor. She knew where the shadow prince kept himself. That question was answered. The new question was whether he would let her live long enough to charm him. Violet fixed her bright pink smile in place and walked toward the corner.