Avyanne's pov

Morning felt different. The castle walls had always been heavy, but today they pressed against my chest like stone hands. My first thought when my eyes opened wasn’t about the warmth of the sheets or Killian’s absence from the armchair, it was about the dagger.

The dagger that had been left for me. The dagger that whispered of Allison even when her name wasn’t written anywhere on it.

It was gone.

I sat up too quickly, my head spinning as I looked around the room. No trace ...