The night I was born, every window in the kingdom of Astraea burned with candlelight for its newborn princess. Then black mist smashed through the palace doors. Morvena, the witch my family had banished years ago, strode across the shattered stained glass with thorns curling around her fingers. "You denied me mercy when I begged for it," she said. "So I will make you lose what you love most." She leaned over my cradle and gave me a cold smile. "When this child turns eighteen, death will begin to follow her. By your own hands, you will lose what you love most, and regret will haunt you for the rest of your lives." From that night on, I became the most precious person in Rose Palace. Father set moonstones in my crown. Mother sewed every gown I wore. Even after my little brother, Rowan, was born, the best of everything still came to me first. They always told him, "Let your sister have it. She won't be with us much longer." So I learned not to argue, not to make plans, and never to speak about the future. I simply waited for my eighteenth birthday the way other girls waited for a wedding. On that night, I blew out my candles beneath the tolling bells and hugged my parents and brother goodbye. The next morning, they entered my chamber dressed in mourning black. I sat up in bed and smiled. "Good morning." Their grief turned to shock. Then the shock hardened into something colder than hatred. That was when I understood. They had loved the princess who was supposed to die. They had never learned how to love the girl who lived. But they misunderstood the witch’s curse. Eighteen was never the end. The curse would follow me for an entire year… and by the time they realized the truth, it was already too late.
