The absence of the collar changes everything.
I notice it first in the way servants' eyes linger on my throat as Kael and I return from the rose garden. No longer do they look through me as if I were furniture - now they study me with a mixture of curiosity, suspicion, and something that might be fear.
"Your Highness," Mira curtseys as we enter the main corridor, but her eyes are fixed on my bare neck. "Lady Seraphina has requested your presence in the solar. She's... waiting."
Kael's jaw tightens. "Has she now? And how long has Lady Seraphina been making requests in my castle?"
"She's with Queen Elenora, Your Highness. They're discussing... arrangements for the upcoming festivities."
The way Mira says 'arrangements' makes it clear she means something far more significant than party planning. Kael and I exchange a glance - the collar's removal was supposed to be a private moment, but nothing stays private in a castle full of watching eyes.
"Very well," Kael says curtly. "Have my Pet attend to my chambers. I'll join the ladies shortly."
As he strides away, I catch the meaningful look Mira gives the other servants. Word will spread through the castle like wildfire - the prince's pet walks free, unbound, unmarked by ownership.
But freedom, I'm learning, comes with its own chains.
*****
"Look at her," whispers Eleanor, one of the kitchen maids, as I pass through the servants' hall. "Walking like she owns the place."
"Without her collar, too," adds Thomas, a stable boy whose eyes follow my movement with undisguised calculation. "Wonder what she did to earn that."
Their speculation follows me like smoke, but it's not all hostile. Some servants - those who remember my refusal to break, my choice to take Lyra's punishment - nod respectfully as I pass. Others step aside with something approaching deference.
"Miss," calls a voice from behind me. I turn to find an elderly woman I don't recognize - gray-haired, bent with age, wearing the simple brown dress of a castle seamstress. "A word, if you please?"
I glance around the corridor. We're alone, but voices carry in these stone halls. "Yes?"
"Martha's the name. Been sewing in this castle forty years, seen more secrets than most." Her rheumy eyes study my face with unsettling intensity. "You're different now. Can see it in the way you hold yourself."
"I don't understand."
"Course you don't. Memory's a fragile thing, especially when it's been tampered with." She steps closer, voice dropping to barely more than breath. "But blood remembers what minds forget."
Before I can ask what she means, footsteps echo down the corridor. Martha melts away into the shadows like she was never there, but something glints on the stone where she stood - a small silver thread, so fine it might have been imagination. I bend to touch it, and it dissolves beneath my fingers like moonlight.
*****
I make my way toward Kael's chambers, but the route takes me through the upper corridor of his wing. Through the tall windows, I catch sight of movement in the courtyard below - Kael deep in conversation with Queen Elenora and Lady Seraphina. Even from this distance, the tension is palpable.
Seraphina's posture is perfectly composed, but there's something predatory in the way she circles Kael as they speak. The Queen watches it all with calculating eyes, her expression unreadable.
I shouldn't watch. Shouldn't eavesdrop. But something about their body language - the way Kael's shoulders tense, the way Seraphina's smile never reaches her eyes - keeps me frozen at the window.
"You've been quite the topic of conversation," Seraphina's voice drifts up through the open courtyard, honey-sweet and poisonous. "The entire court is talking about your... display yesterday."
"My display?" Kael's voice carries a dangerous edge.
"With your brother, darling. Such passion over a simple cup of water." She moves closer, her silk skirts rustling against stone. "Some might call it... excessive."
"Some might call it justice."
"Justice?" Queen Elenora's voice cuts through their exchange like a blade. "You call publicly humiliating your brother justice?"
"I call protecting what's mine justice."
"Ah yes, your pet." Seraphina's laugh is like breaking glass. "The little thing that's caused such... disruption to family harmony."
From my vantage point, I see Kael go perfectly still. "Choose your next words carefully, Seraphina."
"I merely observe that a prince who destroys his own family over a slave might have... questionable priorities."
"My priorities are perfectly clear."
"Are they?" The Queen steps forward, her voice carrying the authority of centuries. "Because from where I stand, it appears you've forgotten your duty to this realm in favor of an obsession with something that shouldn't matter."
"She matters to me."
"That's the problem." Queen Elenora's words hit like stones thrown in still water. "Lords are whispering, Kael. They're questioning your judgment, your fitness to rule. Some are even suggesting that perhaps Damon-"
"Don't." The word comes out like a growl. "Don't even think about finishing that sentence."
"Then give us another option," Seraphina purrs, moving to stand beside the Queen. "Prove your priorities are in order. Show the court that you can put duty before... personal inclinations."
"And how would you suggest I do that?"
"Simple." Seraphina's smile is sharp as a blade. "Get rid of the distraction."
The silence that follows is deafening. I press closer to the window, my heart hammering against my ribs.
"You want me to kill her."
"I want you to remember who you are," the Queen says firmly. "You are a prince. She is property. Act accordingly."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then you risk losing everything." Queen Elenora's voice carries the weight of prophecy. "Your crown, your kingdom, your family's respect. All for a girl who doesn't even remember her own name."
*****
I retreat from the window before they can spot me, my mind reeling. The conversation echoes in my head as I pace Kael's chambers - their casual discussion of my death, their dismissal of my worth, their certainty that I'm nothing more than a distraction to be eliminated.
When Kael finally returns an hour later, his face is a mask of cold control. He finds me sitting on the edge of his bed, still processing what I overheard.
"How was your meeting?" I ask, keeping my voice carefully neutral.
"Illuminating." He moves to the window, staring out at the courtyard where servants scurry about their duties. "It seems my attachment to you has become... problematic."
"So I gathered."
He turns sharply. "You were listening."
"I was in your chambers, as instructed. The windows were open."
"And what did you hear?"
"Enough to know that keeping me alive is becoming politically inconvenient."
He studies my face for a long moment. "Are you afraid?"
"Should I be?"
"That depends. Do you trust me?"
The question hangs between us like a challenge. After everything - the pain, the games, the twisted intimacy - he's asking if I trust him with my life.
"I trust you to do what you think is best for you," I say finally.
Something flickers in his dark eyes - hurt, maybe, or disappointment. "That's not an answer."
"It's the only answer I can give."
He moves closer, close enough that I can smell his scent - sandalwood and something darker. "They want me to prove my priorities. To show that duty comes before... other considerations."
"And will you?"
"I should." His hand comes up to trace the line of my throat where the collar used to rest. "Any rational prince would."
"But?"
"But rationality abandoned me the moment you refused to scream when I branded you." The admission comes out raw, honest. "Every rule I've followed, every duty I've honored - none of it matters when I see fear in your eyes and realize I'd burn this kingdom down before I let anyone hurt you."
The words hang between us, dangerous and true. Outside, the sun begins to set, painting the chamber in shades of gold and shadow.
"The servants are talking," I tell him. "About the collar being gone. About what it means."
"Let them talk."
"They're divided. Some see it as mercy. Others as weakness."
"And what do you see it as?"
"A test." I meet his gaze steadily. "For both of us."
"To see if I can resist the pressure to put it back on?"
"To see if either of us can handle what comes next."
He's quiet for a long moment, his thumb still tracing patterns on my throat. "Martha spoke to you today."
"How did you-"
"Nothing happens in this castle without my knowledge. What did she say?"
"That blood remembers what minds forget."
"Cryptic. But then, Martha's always been fond of riddles."
"Do you know what she meant?"
"I have... theories." He steps back, moving to pour himself wine from a crystal decanter. "But theories and truth are different things."
"Will you share your theories?"
"Not tonight." He takes a sip, studying me over the rim of his goblet. "Tonight, we pretend that collar removal changes nothing. That you're still my pet, still mine to command."
"And tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow, we face whatever consequences today has brought."
As night falls over the castle, I settle onto my furs in the corner of his chambers. But everything feels different now - the weight of freedom around my throat, the whispered conversations echoing in my memory, the knowledge that powerful people are plotting my destruction.
The collar may be gone, but I'm beginning to understand that some prisons are built from expectations rather than gold. And sometimes, the most dangerous chains are the ones we can't see.
In the darkness, I listen to Kael's breathing across the room and wonder if his confession changes anything. If love - because that's what it was, even if he won't name it - is strong enough to stand against duty, politics, and the weight of a crown.
The servants' whispers follow me into sleep, full of speculation and fear and the growing certainty that everything is about to change.
And somewhere in the castle, Queen Elenora and Lady Seraphina plot the restoration of order - with or without Kael's cooperation.