My Alien Prince

Subject:A Matter of Life and Death

Hello,

My name is Rennos Elzenin, rightful heir to the throne of the Elzen Empire. If these words have reached you, then Vail has accepted my plea.

I seek your aid in a matter of life and death. My enemies have taken my kingdom and I have exhausted every path available to me.

I humbly ask that you write the symbols below exactly as they appear.

☍⚸⚶♃⟁꩜

When the final mark is made, draw a circle around them and add a drop of your blood. A gate will open between our worlds, allowing me safe passage into yours. Once I have escaped those who pursue me, the gate will close and I will trouble you no further.

Should you grant me this mercy, I swear upon my crown and blood that your kindness shall not go unrewarded.

Rennos

“Wow... this is new.”

“What is?”

My friend leaned over, her hair spilling across my laptop screen.

“A new scam, I think.” I turned the screen toward her. “They’re getting creative. Apparently some prince from an empire needs my help.”

She scanned the email before letting out a chuckle.

“That’s ridiculous.” She grinned. “Although Rennos sounds sexy. You should totally answer it.”

I snorted. “Should I? And risk downloading a virus onto my brand-new laptop? Hard pass.”

I marked the email as spam and shut my laptop. Stretching my arms above my head, I yawned. It was nearly two in the morning, far too late for someone who had to be at work in a few hours.

“Alright, I’m going to bed. You staying over?”

My friend stood, grabbing her purse from the coffee table.

“No. My boyfriend’s coming over tomorrow morning, and my apartment looks like a tornado hit it.” She grimaced. “I’ll probably be cleaning until six.”

I laughed. “Sounds about right.”

She often said that she always lived in perpetual chaos.

“Be careful,” I said, walking her to the door. “Text me when you get home, okay?”

“I will...” She flashed a guilty smile. “If I remember.”

“You’re the worst.”

She laughed as she slipped out the door.

After locking up, I gathered the empty water bottles and snack wrappers we’d accumulated over the last few hours. The rest of the mess could wait until tomorrow. I walked into my room, heading straight to bed. My eyelids struggled to stay open, and the moment my head hit my pillow, I was out.

~

My headache was brutal.

You’d think that at 27 years old, I’d remember that staying up past 11pm was always a terrible idea, but somehow, I managed to forget that detail every time. It didn’t help that my friend was a night owl. But then again, she worked from home while I had to drag myself into the office.

Must be nice,I thought.

I let out what had to be my tenth long sigh of the morning and checked the time.

9:30 a.m.

I’d only been at work for an hour. I leaned back in my chair with a groan.

“Late night?”

My coworker peeked over the top of my cubicle wall. He somehow always knew the exact moment I wanted to be left alone. I answered with a look.

“Ooh.” He winced dramatically. “Was it a breakup?”

“No, now stop talking. You’re making my headache worse.”

He clutched his chest in mock pain.

“You’re so mean to me.”

“And yet you keep coming back.”

“One day you’ll appreciate me.”

“Today is not that day.”

Chuckling, he ducked back into his cubicle.

I turned my attention to the spreadsheet glaring back at me. Rows and rows of numbers swam together until I finally gave up, closed Excel, and opened my inbox instead.

Delete.

Delete.

Delete.

A fake invoice, Delete.

A newsletter I don’t remember signing up for, Delete.

The next subject line made me stop in my tracks.

Subject:Luna, You’re My Only Hope.

My heart lurched and my stomach tightened, yet I clicked it open.

Hello Luna of Evelyn,

My name is Rennos Elzenin, rightful heir to the throne of the Elzen Empire.

I pray this message has reached you. I do not know whether my first pleawas delivered, but I fear my time grows short.

I have been driven from my home. My kingdom has fallen, and those loyal to me are dying to buy me time. I cannot allow their sacrifice to be in vain.

Once more, I humbly plead for you to write the symbols below exactly as they appear.

☍⚸⚶♃⟁꩜

Then circle them and add only a drop of your blood. They will open the gate and allow me to flee into your world.

I understand what I ask may be too much, but I have no moreoptionsleft.

Please, Luna of Evelyn.

You are my only hope.

Rennos

Every trace of exhaustion vanished and my blood ran cold. No one had called me Luna in years.

My legal name is Diana, but my mom always called me Luna. She said I was born beneath a full moon, and the nickname stuck. But after she passed away ten years ago, no one used it anymore. Not to mention that I’d never mentioned my mother to anyone, it was still too hard for me to talk about her.

A chill crept up my spine. This had to be some kind of sick prank.

“If this is your idea of a joke, I swear I’m taking you straight to HR.” I called across the cubicles.

My coworker’s head popped up over the divider like a startled gopher.

“What are you talking about?”

I pointed at my monitor. “Come look.”

He rounded the corner and leaned over my desk, silently reading the email. I studied his face, waiting for the smug grin that would give him away. But it never came. Instead, his eyebrows slowly pulled together.

“Uh... no, this wasn’t me.”

“Seriously?”

“I’m serious.” He looked back at me. “Who’s Luna?”

My brows furrowed. Of course, he wouldn’t know.

“No one.”

“Then who’s Evelyn? And what’s this about blood?”

He looked back at the screen, then at me. I remained silent.

“This has to be some kind of scam.” He frowned. “Report it, block the sender, and definitely don’t click anything. That’s really weird.”

He walked back to his desk before I could respond. I was more confused than ever. I should’ve listened to him and reported it immediately. But instead, I sat frozen, my eyes drifting back to the screen.

Luna of Evelyn.

The names echoed in my head. It had to be just a coincidence.

My mother had been gone for ten years. She’d raised me alone, never mentioning parents, siblings, cousins,anyone. As far as I knew, it’d always been just the two of us. And after she died, no one called me Luna anymore. It became a name that disappeared with her.

My chest tightened.

What if this isn’t fake?

The thought was absurd and yet, I couldn’t shake it.

People were supposedly dying. A kingdom had supposedly fallen. A prince from another world was asking me to open a portal,with my blood.

It was as believable as a romantasy plot.

So why couldn’t I stop thinking about it?

With a sigh, I forwarded the email to my personal account before reporting it as junk, just as my coworker suggested. I’d look at it again, just once more, when I got home. Maybe then there would be more obvious signs that it was just some deranged lunatic sending out a random, weirdly specific/ coincidental scam.

The rest of the workday crawled by. I answered emails, updated spreadsheets, and sat through an hour-long meeting I couldn’t remember a single detail from. Every few minutes, my thoughts wandered back to the same sentence.

Luna of Evelyn.

By the time five o’clock finally rolled around, I was out of my chair before my computer had even finished shutting down.

The drive home passed in a blur. I couldn’t have told what songs played on the radio or whether I hit every green light or every red one. My mind kept circling the same impossible question.

How? How and who could know? And even if someone did, why send me this weird ass email?

I unlocked my apartment, tossed my keys onto the counter, and headed straight for my laptop. I didn’t even bother changing out of my work clothes.

My nerves were too frayed and I felt the need to read the email again.

Maybe I missed something.

There has to be some clue hidden in the wording—a company name, an IP address,anythingthat would somehow explain how they knew about my mother and the nickname she gave me.

I opened my inbox and a notification appeared.

1 New Message from Rennos Elzenin.

Without thinking, I clicked.