She turned and strode toward him, but then abruptly stopped.

He was gone.

“Highness!”

The loud whisper hissed down the corridor, harsh and sharp, but Naya ignored it. Quickening her steps, she nodded in greeting at the staff she passed.

The footsteps behind her quickened to match. “Princess Naya!”

Naya kept her pace. She’d never run from anyone or anything before, least of all her aide, and she wasn’t going to start now. She just had to stay far enough ahead of Gilly so she couldn’t slow her down and make her later than she already was.

Weaving through corridors to the lower wing of the palace, Naya finally slowed when she reached the quiet, empty corridor tucked out of the view of the rest of the palace. Along one wall was a row of small rooms; each held a table with two chairs. These pairing rooms were designed for potential Alpha and Omega couples to meet.

Naya smoothed her tunic and took a deep breath, forcing down her jittery nerves. Closing her eyes for a moment, she willed away her anxiety before opening the door to the room.

“Your Highness.” Gilly finally arrived, her chest heaving and the graying bun atop her head wobbling. She stared at Naya, her face pinched in disbelief. “Why are you avoiding me? Your parents need you in the Great Hall. I informed you of this yesterday.”

Naya tilted her head toward the closed door. “This was arranged before that, Gilly.”

Gilly looked at the door then glanced around the corridor, realization spouting in her eyes before returning Naya. “But this can be rearranged at any time, Your Highness. The meeting in the Great Hall is the seasonal audience, and it’s already started. It’s extremely import⁠—”

“So is this,” Naya insisted. “And it was arranged before that. I’m not going to stand here arguing, Gilly. You can either give me a few moments to do this or you can tell my parents where I am and that you don’t know when I’m coming.”

Gilly exhaled, pressing her fingers into her palms, her face a mix of worry and fear. The emperor and empress were not a couple anyone wanted to disappoint. Naya would never normally put Gilly in this position, but she wouldn’t allow her appointment to be canceled. It was too important.

Before Gilly could answer, marching footsteps rounded the corner.

Gilly retreated behind Naya as three people approached, their steps in sync.

"I tried to tell you this was serious," Gilly whispered. "Please go with them, Your Highness. Your parents insist."

Uncle Torin, her father's commander, led the small group. He was a lean pillar of stone; gray and stern and immovable. An effective commander for her father, but boring and restricting to Naya—especially when she was growing up. Her father’s Talent-crafters flanked him on each side. While some leaders in the history of the Known Lands had groups of Talent-crafters to wield magic for them, her father needed only two. The powerful twin Alpha sisters wore identical clothing in the Lox Empire colors; one always in red, the other always in black. They were even more devoid of personality than Uncle Torin, but no one could question their skills.

They stopped in front of Naya.

"Your parents request your presence in the Great Hall." Uncle Torin’s concrete expression indicated he didn’t approve of having to collect her. “I’m sure your aide has explained.”

Gilly almost broke her neck nodding.

"I have a short meeting that was already scheduled,” Naya said, calm and professional. “I’ll follow on after."

"We’ve been sent to escort you," one of the twins said.

Her voice was measured, but Naya noticed the twins’ stance, the way they tensed when she refused to go. Had her parents really sent them to drag her to the Great Hall? Uncle Torin was one of the most impressive warriors in the Lox army. His exceptional skill had taken Naya years to best, but she’d finally beaten him. And it was the same with the twins. Her father had insisted she improve her control of magic by sparring with them magically, but she’d bested them too. Granted, if her parents wanted to drag her anywhere, Commander Torin together with the twins would be the most effective option, but she could still resist them if she wanted. It would be an extreme action, but so was sending trained warriors to collect their daughter.

She refused to allow it to stop her.

The twins were there under instruction, but Torin was their commander and the person she needed to convince.

She stepped forward and lowered her voice so only Uncle Torin could hear her. "I have no problem with you escorting me, Uncle. But it will be in a few moments. They can wait a few moments.” She pointed at the door to her left. “I’ll just be in there for a little while. You can stand right here, I have nowhere else to escape to."

Uncle Torin glanced at the door, and a flash of something resembling warmth broke through his stoic exterior. His chest heaved and the tension went out of his body. “This isn’t a good use of your time,” he said, lowering his voice to his scolding tone. “You know that. Your parents need you to be focused on the right things.”

“This is the right thing, Uncle.” She tried to keep the exasperation out of her voice. “And I am an adult, I can decide what things I need to focus on. You shouldn’t be sent to collect me like I’m an unruly rebel about to destroy the empire. You and the twins have more important things to deal with. They shouldn’t be using you for this.”

Torin’s mouth crooked in the flicker of a smile, but it was quickly smothered. “They are worried, Naya. Parents never stop being worried.”

Naya’s eyes slid to the door. “They can worry for a few moments more.”

Torin sighed. He moved to stand outside the door and the twins flanked him. "If I have to come in there to drag you out, it will not go well," he warned.

Naya smiled sweetly. "You won't need to."

Gilly watched them, jittering with indecision for a long moment, before she finally sighed and stood next to the commander.

Naya walked to the door and took a breath to refocus. Pulling on her innate senses, she called on magic and carefully, she unraveled the magical blocks surrounding her body. They faded slowly, like body armor reducing into fine dust and drifting away. As soon as she no longer felt any trace of them, she placed a hand on the door handle and allowed a fragile hope to bloom. If this worked.…

Opening the door, she stepped inside.

An Alpha sat on the opposite side of a table in the middle of the small room, elbows leaning on the table, his head jerking up at the sound of the closing door.

Lonn.

With a sharp gaze, low-cut hair, and a down-turned mouth that rarely smiled, Lonn was one of the most talked about warriors in Naya’s father’s army. Having developed a fierce, brutal combat style, Lonn had won almost all his sparring sessions and impressed even the most fastidious of Lox generals. He had been given more responsibilities, and it was rumored he would soon become the youngest general on record if he kept impressing his superiors.

But that wasn’t how Naya first knew him.

As the firstborn child of Emperor Drocco, the most celebrated warrior and leader in the Known Lands, Naya had grown up training harder than any other warrior in his army. He’d bought her first sword at age five and spent years teaching her how to put it to good use. By the time she was nine, she was sparring with the likes of Lonn—young teenage Alphas just starting their training for the Lox army. But Lonn had been different from the rest. He never went easy on her once. His blows landed as heavily as when he fought everyone else, and Naya never won a match unless she’d earned it. At first she hated sparring with him, but her improvement had been swift. Soon she looked forward to finding ways to best him, and did so repeatedly. But they’d never had a single conversation.