𝒜 ℋℯ𝒶𝓇𝓉 ℴ𝒻 𝒮𝒸𝒶𝓁ℯ𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒮𝓉ℯℯ𝓁

Chapter Fouteen - Ava

Chapter Fourteen - Ava

 The garden's fading light had long since disappeared by the time I quietly slipped away, retreating to the small servant's quarters that had become my home within the palace walls. My heart was still racing, though my outward appearance remained calm, as it always had to be. My hands, steady and sure moments ago as I tended to the roses, now trembled slightly as I closed the door to my room behind me.

The silence that greeted me was suffocating. It was the kind of silence that gave space for dangerous thoughts to surface, for fears to grow and take root. I leaned against the door, staring at the small, sparsely decorated room that had been my sanctuary since I took on this human disguise. A single bed with a faded patchwork quilt, a wooden chest that creaked when I opened it, a cracked mirror hanging on the wall—simple, unassuming. Just like me.

Just like Ava.

But Ava wasn't real. At least, not the human Ava, just a disguise.

I exhaled slowly, rubbing a hand across my face as the weight of the evening settled over me. The room, once a refuge, now felt like a cage. Each breath I took echoed in my mind, reminding me of my precarious situation.

Asher knows. He knows my power to change forms.

The realization hit me like a hammer to the chest. He knew that the Moonlight Dragon could take human form. The very thing I had worked so hard to conceal was now common knowledge to him and Dante.

How long until he pieced it all together? How long until his suspicions led him directly to me?

Panic clawed at the edges of my mind, but I pushed it down, forcing myself to breathe slowly. I had been careful, so meticulous in my disguise. Ava had lived among them for months now, her presence blending seamlessly into the background. A quiet maid, dutiful and invisible. No one had given her a second glance, let alone questioned her loyalty or her place within the palace.

But now... Now everything was different.

Ash was smart. I had seen it in the way he moved, the way he spoke with his brother in the courtyard. He was no ordinary prince, no brash warrior blinded by ambition. His mind worked in ways that worried me, always searching for answers, always questioning what lay beneath the surface. And if he was beginning to question the people around him...

I paced the length of my room, my thoughts swirling in a hundred directions at once. I needed a plan. I couldn't afford to wait for him to uncover the truth on his own. But what could I do? I couldn't just disappear without raising suspicion. Ava couldn't just vanish without explanation. Not now, not when Ash was already on high alert.

Perhaps... perhaps I could lay low, bide my time. If I kept my head down, played my part perfectly, there was a chance he might overlook me. Maybe I could steer his suspicions elsewhere, towards another servant or even someone in the court. That had always been the strength of my disguise—making Ava seem so ordinary, so unimportant, that no one would ever consider her to be anything but what she appeared.

But the thought of doing nothing, of waiting for Ash to find me, left a bitter taste in my mouth. I was the Moonlight Dragon, after all. I had fought in wars, survived battles that had reduced entire kingdoms to ashes. I wasn't meant to hide, to cower in the shadows of a palace. My instincts urged me to act, to strike first before Ash or Dante had the chance to corner me.

Yet, if I revealed myself too soon, everything I had worked for—everything I had hidden—would be for nothing.

Before I could make sense of my racing thoughts, a sharp knock sounded at the door, startling me from my spiraling mind. My heart leaped into my throat for a moment, but I forced myself to remain composed. Slowly, I crossed the room and opened the door just enough to see who was there.