The Maid of Midnight: A Royal Bloodline Buried in Ash, A Race Against the Shadow, and the Gruesome Price of a Crown Left Unclaimed
Chapter 1: The Invisible Shadow
Elara moved through the ballroom of the Gilded Palace like a ghost. To the elite, she was nothing more than a serving maid—a pair of hands to refill crystal flutes and clear away debris. They treated her like furniture, speaking of treasonous plots and backroom deals as if she were deaf. She kept her head down, her dark hair shielding her face, hiding the singular, shimmering birthmark on her neck—the mark of the Solari dynasty, the last remnant of a royal line wiped out in a purge fifteen years ago.
She wanted nothing more than the safety of her anonymity. She had spent a lifetime scrubbing floors, dreaming of a life outside the castle walls, far from the blood-soaked history of her ancestors. But tonight, the air in the ballroom felt heavy, static, and wrong. As she moved to refill a guest’s wine, a man in a black velvet cloak—a man she had never seen before—slipped a heavy parchment into her hand.
"The King has died," he whispered, his voice cutting through the laughter like a blade. "If you do not reach the inner sanctum and seize the throne by midnight, the remaining bloodline will be purged. Someone will die, Elara. And that someone is you."
