Faster than expected.
She pushed a small table into his path, creating a moment of interruption that was just enough to break his rhythm.
“Run,” she said sharply, not looking back.
Uli did not hesitate.
She turned and ran through the back passage, her heart racing, her mind filled with one clear thought—
This was real.
This was happening.
Prince Promise’s voice guided her.
“Left… then straight… keep moving.”
She followed his instructions blindly, because right now, he was the only steady thing in a world that had suddenly become unstable again.
Behind her, voices rose.
Footsteps.
Shouting.
Madam Joy’s voice.
Then silence.
Uli did not turn back.
She could not.
Because survival now meant moving forward without knowing what she was leaving behind.
She reached the back exit and pushed it open, stepping into a narrow alley where the city noise swallowed her immediately.
“Keep going,” Prince Promise said urgently.
“Do not stop.”
Uli ran.
Past strangers.
Past shops.
Past everything.
Her breath grew heavier, but fear pushed her further than strength alone ever could.
Then suddenly—
A hand grabbed her wrist.
She froze.
Her heart stopped.
She turned sharply—
But it was not one of the men.
It was Mama Sera.
Her eyes were sharp, focused.
“Come,” she said quickly, pulling Uli into a different direction without explanation.
“How did you—” Uli began.
“No time,” Mama Sera cut in.
They moved quickly through hidden paths, narrow streets, and unexpected turns, until finally they stopped inside another building far from the previous one.
Uli leaned against the wall, breathing heavily, her body shaking slightly as everything caught up with her at once.
“They found me,” she whispered.
Mama Sera looked at her.
“They were always going to,” she replied calmly.
Prince Promise’s voice came through again.
“Uli… are you safe?”
She nodded instinctively, then remembered he could not see her.
“Yes,” she said softly.
But her voice carried something new now.
Not just fear.
Understanding.
Meanwhile, back at Madam Joy’s house, the two men stood in the empty room, their expressions no longer confident, because something had gone wrong.
“She is gone,” one said quietly.
The other clenched his jaw.
“We were too late.”
And for the first time, real fear entered their eyes—not of failure, but of returning to the queen with the truth.
Back in the palace, Queen Mirabel stood calmly in her chamber, unaware that the lie she had accepted was already beginning to crack beneath her control.
Because the girl she believed removed…
Had just escaped again.
And this time—
She was no longer the same girl who first entered the palace.
She was learning.
She was changing.
And she was becoming something far more difficult to erase.
Uli sat quietly in the new room, her hands still trembling slightly, her thoughts racing, her heart slowly settling into a new kind of awareness.
“They will keep coming,” she said softly.
Mama Sera nodded.
“Yes,” she replied.
“And next time, they will not knock.”
That truth settled heavily in the room.
But instead of fear breaking her—
Something else began to rise inside Uli.
Not panic.
Not weakness.
But a quiet, growing strength that had been waiting for this moment to fully awaken.
She looked up slowly.
“They want to erase me,” she said.
Mama Sera met her gaze.
“Yes.”
Uli’s voice became steady.
“Then I will become someone they cannot ignore.”
Far away, Prince Promise stood alone in his chamber, gripping his phone tightly, because he realized something that could no longer be denied—
This was no longer about love alone.
It had become a battle.