Diana’s head swam as she lurched upwards in bed, her eyes struggling to take in the unfamiliar room around her. The memories of the previous evening, of those few final minutes, played over and over again like a video on repeat. She’d made her peace and said her goodbyes and fully expected that once her eyes had closed they would not open again.

But they were open. She was wake, alive, and hadn’t a clue where she was. It took time for the room to stop spinning around her and slowly but surely things came into focus. It was ostentatious, to say the least.

High walls with subtle yet intricately patterned floral wallpaper, tall arched windows that stretched from floor to ceiling, massive white doors carved with elegant natural reliefs - even a massive and surprisingly plush poster bed, on which she was currently seated.

“Where in the hell am I?” she whispered, and the sound made her tremble as he hands reached up to lightly touch her throat. Nevermind that this wasn’t her room - that wasn’t her voice. It was too serene, too refined, and too pretty all at once.

Diana’s hands slid up to her face, marveling over the smooth skin while her heart thundered and her mind panicked. Think, Diana, her voice hissed in her head, what do you remember? She ran through her memories as she threw aside her sheets and stumbled out of bed and to her feet.

She remembered the pills she had swallowed hastily and the sickly sweet taste of the lemonade she’d washed them all down with. She remembered waves of nausea and calm washing over her slowly as her vision blurred and dimmed. She remembered the last words that had flitted through her mind before it all went dark.

I wish I had been a stronger person.

Flinching, Diana staggered and her eyes wildly searched the room. Something else. There has to be something else you remember. Did I do something else? Did someone show up?

The answer to both things were no. She’d holed herself up for two days and had blocked all incoming calls on her cell phone. She hadn’t wanted to be interrupted, had truly wanted peace, and the only real peaceful thing she could think to do was to read her favorite book.

Her eyes caught a glint of moonlight reflected upon the surface of a mirror on the far side of the room. She gasped and rushed towards it, but she slowed as her reflection came into sharper focus the closer she came.

Dark raven hair flowed in loose waves down to her lower back, contrasting sharply with the pale, snow white complexion of her skin that almost seemed to glow in the pale moonlight that filtered in through the tall windows. Bright golden eyes peered back at her, fringed with thick, dark lashes, and the subtle rosy hue of her lips glistened, almost dewy from the warmth of her breath, as they parted and her jaw dropped.

She was gorgeous. She had never been gorgeous before, would never have even dreamed of being able to use her name and that word in the same sentence. But as she slowly moved on from the shock of realizing that this perfect complexion and curvaceous figured belonged to her, she came upon another startling realization as her thoughts shifted suddenly and inexplicably back to the book: she recognized this person.

She had never seen them before in real life, of course, because that was pretty much impossible. But, she had read a description so many times that there was no way she couldn’t recognize them.

“Princess Adelaide?” whispered Diana. Her stomach twisted anew.

Princess Adelaide Carmina Absenwilde. The second child to Grand Duke of the Duchy of Absenwilde in the Rathewin Empire. The elegant and captivating ‘Queen of High Society’ in the Imperial Capital. And, the madly jealous villainess of her favorite novel, Virtue of the Sun.

Virtue of the Sun told the story of Lady Cordelia Faria, the daughter to a Viscount in Cyprienne, Defeated in a years long war, Cyprienne joined the Rathewin Empire and was established as a new province and Lady Cordelia eventually found herself sent to the Imperial Capital when her family began to face pressure after aligning herself with the Empire.

However, after attracting the attention of the Second Imperial Prince, Julius Basel Rathewin, she provoked the ire of Princess Adelaide who was known to be deeply in love with the prince. Cordelia was bullied incessantly. As each attack on her was ultimately thwarted by one of her three love interests, Adelaide’s failure to drag her down and force her out of the capital only drove her to escalate the severity of her harassment. This culminated in attempted murder via poisoning at the Empire’s annual Lunalia Moth Festival.

Adelaide was fingered as the culprit, and because the attempt occurred alongside another poisoning which killed then Emperor Landor Rathewin, she was labeled an accomplice of the Emperor’s accused murderer: The First Prince, Dario Everett Rathewin - a man known throughout the empire to be a bloodthirsty tyrant. Adelaide and Dario swiftly convinced and sentenced to death by hanging, Prince Julius ascended to the throne, and he and Cordelia were formally engaged.

However, the book ended with a huge twist. One evening just before their scheduled executions, Cordelia sneaks down to the dungeons in the hopes of getting some sort of closure from Adelaide. There, she finds the newly crowned Emperor Julius gloating to both Dario and Adelaide about how he had spent nears twisting the cogs of society and exploiting everyone, including both Dario and Adelaide, in order to ultimately claim the throne. He had slowly poisoned Dario’s reputation over the years, had manipulated Adelaide into believing Cordelia was a temptress and potential cause of the future downfall of the Empire, and orchestrated his father’s and Cordelia’s poisonings. He had arranged the murders of countless people in order walk a path soaked in blood right up to the throne and with Dario gone there would be no one there to stop him. In the end, Cordelia is able to get that closure with Adelaide with one last, heartfelt conversation that left Diana in tears the first time she read it.

Virtue of the Sun wasn’t the best novel in the world. The writing was mediocre and sometimes a little too flowery. Cordelia also wasn’t really the most interesting main character. But, there was just something about it that captivated her - particularly when it came to Princess Adelaide. Her attitude, mannerisms, and overflowing confidence had always captivated her. The first book only scratched the surface of who she was as a character, and the subsequent sequel as well as the spin-off written from Dario’s perspective only further entrenched her love for Adelaide as a complex and misunderstood character with a truly mournful past. While it had been incredible to see Cordelia evolve into an incredible hero in the second book, she found that her thoughts always returned to Adelaide and her truly sad death.

And here she was, standing in the body of the book’s primary villain destined to hang from the gallows. She felt a shudder run through the length of her. It felt silly, to have such a cold pit of terror twisting there within the pit of her stomach at the thought of death. She had just tried to take her life, after all. But the thought of her swinging from a noose, surrounding by a jeering crowd who held nothing but hatred and contempt for her, pelted with rotten food and rubbish--it made her blood run cold.

That was not how she wanted her life to end. It wasn’t how she wanted Adelaide’s life to end either. But, who knew if that was something she even had the power to change.

Diana turned sharply on her heel and her eyes narrowed at the door across the room before she swiftly ran over to twist the knob and pull it open. She was met with the startled stares of two knights stationed on either side of the door, their tabards emblazoned with the Absenwildian crest.

The shock faded quickly from their faces and, turning, they both bowed sharply to her.

“Is something the matter, Your Highness.” the guard to her left asked.

Your Highness. It was weird to be addressed like that. It’d take some getting used to.

“Oh, yeah, I need you to do something for me.“ she started. The informal manner of her speech clearly took the men by surprise, so she cleared her voice and started over. “Send for my maid, Ava. I require her assistance. In addition, I must speak with Witten. Quickly.”

She was stunned she remembered their names so easily, but didn't have the time to applaud herself for it just yet.

“Right away, Your Highness.” The guard replied. While his partner turned to march off down the hall and fulfill her request, he stepped over to center himself in front of the doorway while Diana quickly shut the door. She exhaled slowly and leaned against it. Her heart was pounding in her chest. For some reason, she had expected that to immediately go south - as if they would know, deep down, that it wasn’t really her in that body. She wasn’t sure what the consequences would be if someone discovered that and she didn’t really want to find out. Biting her lip, she marched forward and slowly began pace between the bed and the hearth, the light of the fire causing her shadow to dance and shimmy across the walls.

“People can’t find out. I have to keep this under wraps,” Diana murmured softly to herself. “Which means, I have to seem at least somewhat normal. They have to believe I’m still Adelaide. I mean, I am, essentially.”

Her hands crossed against her chest and her fingers drummed against her forearms. “It’s not like I want to be Diana anymore anyway. I wouldn’t…I wouldn’t have tried to kill myself if I had. So, I’m not Diana anymore, right? I’m Adelaide now. I’m Adelaide.”

She halted as she repeated this. She wasn’t sure how any of this would end - if she would be driven to follow the timeline of this book or if she could twist it to avoid such a sorrowful ending. Nor was she sure what would happen after she died here. Apparently reincarnation had to be a thing in some capacity, otherwise she wouldn’t be here. But, did that really mean that her life was over in her own world? If she died, would she return to her old body? Her old life? Her old hell? That was the last thing she wanted to happen. She had to live.

She, Adelaide, had to change this story at all costs.