Every night at midnight, Prince Rowan loses me.
Not only my name or the promises we made. He loses every reason he ever had to trust me.
The first time it happened, I waited for him to laugh and pull me closer. Instead, he opened his eyes with a dagger in his hand and looked at me like a stranger he had been trained to fear.
So I started counting. Day 1. Day 27. Day 89. Day 143.
One hundred and forty-three times, I watched the man I love disappear. One hundred and forty-three times, he found his way back.
Before each reset, Rowan leaves a warning for the man he will become. The same sentence, written in his own hand, waits beside his bed every morning. "Trust her before you trust the crown."
He never remembers writing it. He never remembers loving me. Still, the note makes him ask one question, then another, until choosing me feels like his own decision again.
On the 144th night, the palace clock struck twelve and Rowan's fingers went slack around mine.
When his eyes opened, he reached for the note. A second message had appeared beneath the first in fresh black ink. "If she tells you about the bell, she is lying."
Before I could speak, Crown Regent Sabine's guards sealed the corridor. Her voice carried through the chamber door. "Your Highness, step away from the woman who cursed you."
Rowan looked from the warning to me. The fear in his face was new. So was the choice he placed in my hands. "Give me one reason to trust you before they open that door."