Chapter 24

Aurelia POV

I needed air. The medicine had settled the raw burning in my chest, but my skin still prickled with uneasy tension. Leaving my chamber, I took the quiet stone corridor that bypassed the main hall, heading toward the rear gardens where the morning sunlight was just beginning to touch the pine needles.

The shadows in the passage lengthened suddenly. Before I could turn, a hand like a vice clamped around my throat, shoving me backward until my spine slammed into the rough stone wall.

The breath exploded from my lungs in a sharp gasp.

“Looking for your noble protector, little princess?” a silky, venomous voice whispered directly into my ear.

My heart plummeted into ice. Kellan.

He had slipped past the perimeter—no doubt wearing the dark gray tunic of a Redmoon courier, a bloody seal stolen from a dead scout hidden beneath his cloak. His dark-blue eyes glinted with sadistic glee, his thumb digging ruthlessly into the side of my neck,