Sold To The Cruel Prince

The forest did not brighten.

It fractured.

The light did not spill in gently like dawn, nor flare like fire. It cut through the darkness with merciless precision, as if something sacred had been forced into a place that had no right to contain it. A lattice of gold-white brilliance stretched across the trees in perfect lines, slicing through shadow, weaving between trunks, wrapping around stone and air alike.

And for the first time... The creature stopped.

It did not recoil like an animal.

It glitched.

Its massive form flickered, unstable, as though it did not belong beneath that light. The shadows composing its body writhed and peeled away in strips, dissolving wherever the lattice touched them. The darkness pouring from its mouth recoiled sharply, snapping back into it like a wounded limb being dragged into place.

Aveline’s breath caught.

"What... is that...?" she whispered, her voice trembling.

But then Helena screamed from behind her. Aveline turned just in time to see her. Helena was not being cut apart by the lattice.

She was disintegrating.

Aveline’s heart dropped so violently that it felt as though it had fallen through her ribs.

Just like that... Helena was gone.

Gone...

Her hands shook.

She looked at the towering beast, still trying to mend itself, still struggling against the light that tore at it with every pulse. And then her gaze darted toward the baby.

The baby.

Something inside her shifted.

A fire bloomed in her chest, sudden and fierce. Resolve surged through her fear. Helena had fought with everything she had to protect her child. Aveline could not let the baby meet the same end.

Without thinking, she ran.

She sprinted toward the bush where the newborn was hidden, trying to reach it before the light did. The lattice passed through her as she ran, but it did not wound her. It only burned around her, fierce and bright, and yet she kept going, faster and faster, until she threw herself over the bush and shielded the baby with her body.

It was enormous, bigger than the size of a calf, and she knew she could not cover it fully, but she did it anyway.

"No!" she shouted. "Not this baby too."

Her hand shot up instinctively, as though she could stop the light itself with her palm.

The creature at the center of the lattice was already failing. It had been wounded too deeply, and even with whatever dark force was knitting it back together, it was beginning to teeter on the edge of death.

This time, the light reached her hand.

Aveline did not close her eyes.

Her heart pounded so violently that she could barely breathe. She had no idea what she was supposed to do, only that she needed to do something.

Then...

Through the brilliance, just as it touched her hand, she heard it.

Her name.

Not aloud, but unmistakable... in Theron’s voice.

"Aveline..."

Her breath caught.

"Theron?" she whispered.

And in that exact same moment, the light vanished.

At the far end of the forest, Theron opened his eyes.

"I found her."

Kael, still kneeling where the spell had nearly driven him to his knees, stared up at him in alarm. The force of the earlier lattice still rang through his body, like his bones had been struck from the inside.

"My liege—" he began, but Theron was already moving.

Before Kael could reach him, before another warning could form, Theron disappeared in a flash of light.

"No!" Kael shouted, the word torn from him in panic.

The prince was already weakened from the first spell. And unlike Kael, who moved through shadows that were always there, Theron had to create his light from nothing. That kind of magic demanded far more, burned far more, took more from the body with every use. He had already pushed himself too far.

Why had he done this?

Why had he insisted on using a spell so draining, so dangerous, when he was already near his limit?

Kael’s hands curled into fists. It hit him all at once, sharp and brutal.

This was his fault.

If he had not tried to turn Aveline away from his liege... If he had not pushed so hard. If he had not made this worse... Theron would not be suffering like this.

Kael swallowed hard against the bitterness rising in his throat. For all his failure, for all his distrust, he had still meant to protect his liege. And now he had done the opposite. He had driven Theron to harm himself for the sake of a woman.

The shame of it burned.

Limping, Kael forced himself toward the nearest shadow, one hand pressed briefly to his side as he gathered what strength he had left.

He had to follow.

Even now.

Even if all he could do was keep up.

-----

Aveline clutched the baby against her chest. Then, all at once, a bright light flared beside her.

"Aveline!"

Theron’s voice burst through the glow, and a heartbeat later, he stepped out of it, unsteady and pale, as though the spell itself had carved its price into him.

"Theron!" Aveline cried, relief and fear colliding in her at once. She almost forgot the baby entirely and lunged toward him, but the moment her eyes landed on his face, her expression broke.

He looked terrible.

His breathing was ragged. There was blood at the corner of his mouth, and more along his skin. His clothes were strained with dirt and blood alike, and something in her chest twisted painfully at the sight.

"What happened to you?" she asked, her voice shaking. "You are bleeding..."

Theron swayed toward her and, for one brief second, let himself lean on her.

"I found you..." He whispered.

Aveline caught him at once, steadying him against her shoulder as though she could hold him together by force alone.

And then Kael emerged from the shadow behind them.

Before anyone could breathe properly, before relief had time to settle, the beast of darkness recovered from the damage the light had dealt it. The torn shadow of its body drew itself back together with dreadful speed, and a low, furious growl rolled.

It charged.

Kael reacted first, drawing his sword and rushing toward it. Theron, still half-supported by Aveline, forced himself forward as well, staggering but determined.

The creature struck with terrifying strength.

A single blow from one of its limbs sent both Theron and Kael skidding across the ground. Dust and dead leaves burst up around them. The beast did not stop. It lifted another limb high above Theron, poised to crush him beneath its weight.

Everything in Aveline went still seeing that. She stood frozen thinking of the result.

Then something snapped inside her.

It had already terrorized her. It had already threatened Helena, the baby, the forest itself. But now it had raised its hand against Theron.

Her Theron.

And that, somehow, was the one thing she could not bear.

Her eyes locked onto the descending limb. Only that. Only Theron. Only the monster and the shadow of its violence.

"Enough!" she shouted.

Something dark surged inside her in answer, hot and boiling, as though her blood itself had caught fire. The shadows around the beast sharpened in her sight, no longer indistinct and fearsome, but clear—something she could see, something she could grasp.

Without fully understanding what she was doing, Aveline lifted her hand.

Her fingers curled.

The beast’s raised limb jerked midair.

Then detached.

The severed mass fell away, and at once the creature’s shadowy filaments writhed frantically, trying to bind it back together. But Aveline’s hand tightened in the air, almost instinctively, as though she were squeezing invisible force between her fingers.

The limb disintegrated... into nothing. Shadow broke it apart into nothing.

The creature gave a distorted, terrible sound, as if it had felt pain for the first time in its life.

Theron lay stunned on the ground. Kael, half-risen, stared in disbelief.

And Aveline...

Aveline’s breathing came fast and shallow, her hand still held out, still trembling with the force of what she had just done.

She stared at the the beast.

Then at her own hand. And then, with a look in her eyes that was no longer fear, but something far more dangerous... she looked at the beast again.

She was just getting started.