Queen Alexa came to Bergfall to take a throne, and found no one left to bow. She landed at the city gates with her gold crown catching the last light. Her yellow wings folded against her purple cape. This was her birthright, the seat her mother had promised her. But the streets were silent. Doors hung open. Bowls of food sat rotting on windowsills, as if everyone had fled between one breath and the next. She walked toward the palace at the city's heart. Green light leaked from its cracked windows, and dark vines strangled its towers. A small horse-like creature stood frozen in the square, its bright green mane trembling. Delicate wings pressed flat against its back. It stared at Alexa, then at the shadows behind her, and would not move. "Where is everyone?" Alexa asked. The creature only shook. Then Alexa felt cold spread down her spine. She turned. A lean shape uncoiled from an alley. Its skin was dark as pooled ink. Smoke curled off its shoulders and thin arms. Green eyes burned in a grinning, narrow face. It moved without sound, gliding closer, long claws opening. Alexa understood then. This was the thing that had emptied Bergfall. It had fed on her people, one by one, and now it wanted her. She did not run. A queen does not let enemies pass. She snapped her wings wide and swept upward, dragging the winged pony behind her by its mane. The wraith lunged and raked the air where she had stood. Its claws sparked on stone. Alexa needed a trap. Her eyes found the palace gate, its iron bars twisted and green-lit. She dove toward it. The wraith followed, fast and hungry, smoke streaming. Alexa flew straight at the narrow gap between the bent bars. At the last moment she folded her wings and slipped through. The wraith, wider and reckless, struck the iron full-force. The bars caught it. Old metal groaned and closed around its smoking limbs. It shrieked and thrashed. Alexa landed inside the gate, spun, and seized a fallen spire of stone. She drove it down through the wraith's chest, pinning it to the threshold. The smoke thinned. The green eyes dimmed. The creature sagged against the bars and went still. Silence returned to Bergfall, but this time it felt clean. The winged pony crept to her side and pressed its nose to her hand. Alexa stroked its mane once. Then she looked past the ruined gate, into the palace. Green light still pulsed inside. The vines still moved, slow, as if breathing. She had killed the hunter at the door. But something had summoned it here, and it waited within her cursed palace, guarding the throne she came to claim. Alexa lifted her crown, straightened it, and stepped through the gate.