Roka, ghost aficionado, was holding onto my shoulders. Already.

“How have you not changed since we were 14?” I ask wryly.

“I’m standing guard, alright?” he jested. As ever, he still managed to sound cool despite sweating.

We walked more slowly toward what had become a rapidly changed scene. One of the glean-flowers had absolutely been torn from its roots and knocked back against a tree. I’d noticed after we’d come nearer that there were a few buildings that were meant to be automatically lit, as well—but they’d been…trashed, as far as I could tell.

“Do you really think it’s them?” I suddenly found myself asking. “Who had the park closed off like this?”

Keep your anxiety to yourself.

“There’s no one else.” Roka hummed. “It can only be Daisy. It’s really like them, you know. All their exploits have gotten wilder of late. And it’s all over the news.”

The flowers that towered 3 meters high made a haphazard circle around a large plaza, and under their soft light the world became clearer. The bricks had been cleaved in half just a few minutes before. We could hear shouts, catch bright flashes, and feel the quiet vibrations of explosions some place further off.

“Shouldn’t have come here with everyone else, after all…” I muttered.

“We need you, Rea.” Glancing back, I caught the hint of a smile gracing Roka’s lips under the glow of the blooms.

You have a duty.

“They’re still after the last shard I’ve been hiding, you know. With their fake-ass potential courtships.” I told the boy lightly holding on behind me. But I couldn’t bring myself to fully turn and meet his eyes. “My being nearby isn’t what matters. What’s important is that you’re all safe.”

“Ha! There you go again.” Roka sighed, seemingly relaxing despite the situation having become phenomenally…more precarious. It was like him. His hands slowly slipped off my shoulders. “I really…can’t stand it. The way that you all think about what happened back then.”

“But…” I forced myself from trying to hold my other arm, a defense mechanism that still tried to take up my life.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Am I supposed to be happy you’re trying to deal with those idiots on your own? Especially that bastard, Amaranth.” he suddenly said behind me, very loudly. “What is all this shit you’re suddenly trying to do? Some kind of penan—”

“He was my true betrothed in that last month before…everything. It’s annoying, but it’s not like any of these idiots would, or maybe even could hurt me, especially with the power that I have!” I found myself saying before he could continue. “I am the Moon Realms’ Prince now. You know that—”

“That’s not the poin—”

That was when another bright flash zoomed past, at the corner of my gaze. But this time, I heard Roka yelp, and heard the solid thud of his butt hitting the plaza bricks. When I spun around, alarmed, I found him sprawled, with a foot missing…something on it.

“Hey! That’s my shoe!” he yelled, and leapt back up, running immediately after what looked like a small fur cloud of a sparkling menace. Already far, far away now, and heading toward one of the only other sources of light in the area. “What the hell? Get back here!”

…his sandal had just been stolen. He’d just left me to retrieve a sandal, without any worry as to whether the thing had been some kind of ghost dog or not.

Alone, surrounded by the dark…

I reached out to his figure in the distance.

The winds rushed a little harder than they had been.

*

In the end, I began to walk alone toward the commotion still going on, not so far away from u—from me.

“Don’t—you—dare—try—it—!”

Until it came back to me again.

Daisy had kicked a seemingly hapless random guy right through a glean-flower. They were…

The same as ever.

The supposed random asshole, too. I recognized him more clearly as I approached: The Drainer, Lunra. Once among Flora’s blood-mage peers upon the Realm of Blossoms, and one of the top students within the Royal Academy.

He sat up and spit out his own blood, his silvery lavender hair falling all over a somewhat haggard, light brown face.

He seemed gravely wounded.

Still, his gaze toward Daisy was flinty.

“You lot will not get away with making this decision.” he said, very softly. I could barely make it out amidst the winds, and whether Daisy even heard it…might’ve been null.

Then, for some reason, his ruby red gaze immediately locked onto mine.

He said something. I didn’t catch the sound of it at all, but I wondered—whether there was a flash of disappointment in his eyes, or something…stranger.

Like hope.

Then he flashed with lavender light much, much further away from us all, glimmering somewhere in the starlit skies. As my gaze went up, and my face was hit with specks of blood, I knew the word he’d uttered.

“The Doomed Prince…”

*

I could hear Daisy step toward me despite not turning to look at them.

“Rose Moon Prince of the Rose Moon Court,” they said, roughly. “I am a candidate for your hand, Daisy of the Secret Gardens Province. As the laws of the Realm of Blossoms permit, we may have a trial by fire—”

“Pretty sure it’s not called that, Daisy.” I said, mildly.

“—we’ll have a trial period of potential courtship until you can finalize your decision, as had been the case in the months before your…disappearance. Your guardian wishes it.”

“I know this shit already.” I said, and finally turned to them. A slight flare of anger seemed to reach my voice. “Anything new to add? Or are you going to try to make good on your excuse to kill our friend now—”

“Yes and no,” said Daisy, bluntly. I only noticed it then—that Esme and Flora had followed after them, Flora barely hurt and with her ghosts whispering all about the ruined stonework, and Esme with blood running down her right arm, her left clutching it.

“There are new developments, Rea.” murmured Flora, softly. Her gaze seemed a little…off. “But it should be your decis—”

“I know you won’t leave this city. That’s why we came here to protect you, foo—Your Highness.” Daisy cut off her words completely. “But you are needed back on our moon. That Goddess-ungraced knight who failed you…has stolen away the Rose Moon Princess, and locked her within some unknown depths of Doomrise Gorge. Your sister, Aer.”

I stared at them for a long time, with my expression stilled.

But inside, I had the thought.

Oh. Thank the Goddess.

She’s run away. She’ll be safer for a while, now.