The moment they left, Laylin stood glaring at the barrier. She tried to unlodge the spell but it only backfired. Her aura was exhausted before she knew. Though she had been too speechless to tell him how agonizing these days were for her, she was worried. The Princess was annoyed with his rude behaviour but mostly her heart ached. She shouldn’t have poisoned him but she knew even if she changed back time a million times she would choose to leave him. The life she had in the Place was miserable and pathetic. She ate, heard his servant belittle her for ruining their Royal prestige and slept with him. She had no dignity or purpose. Was love all that? Was love enough to endure all this and then die? Did he expect her to be miserable and grateful at the same time? It scratched her heart, her heart tickled whenever she was devoured and lost herself with him. But every next morning, she resented herself. It felt like he saw nothing but her body. Like she was another tool to be used a
Rurik was jolted awake by the horrific screams of a woman. Frantically he looked around only to see the Princess withering on the sofa with her eyes glazed silver. He at once crawled back. The scene was horrific. She looked possessed. “What the freaking hell is this?” He mumbled. His head was splitting with a headache and the Princess, who was screaming her lungs out, was engulfed in blue flames. The pulsing energy out of her body didn’t make the creepy situation any better. “Princess! Are you okay?” He tried calling her several times but with she didn’t respond at all. He turned and frantically looked around. “Esmer! Where are you? Something is wrong with the Princess!” On his feet, he ran wild in all directions, but neither Esmer nor Ambrose were anywhere to be found. He looked around the room the King was occupying. Dumbfounded, he ran a hand through his hair and tried to make sense of anything. He remembered trying to kill the King… No, he wasn't the king. He was a demon. A
There was no consolation for him. Ambrose was livid, like he would tear the man to pieces that instant. He was bathed in the shimmery blue-black blood of the monsters. He looked terrifying. He was quick to lunge at him, lifting him off the ground to squeeze the insignificant life out of him. He grabbed the man by the throat and his claws extended. The cries of Esmer and Laylin resonated in the hut. They knew it was only a matter of time before life slipped out of Rurik. “Sire, no! He was only helping me!” Laylin, who was terrified of his maddening rage, suddenly jolted and shook him. “I would be dead in that bird if he hadn’t woken me!” He was blinded with anger at her bloodied swollen cheek that nothing sounded rational to him anymore. His demon shadow extended and grabbed the man’s limbs, with strength enough to snap them. Now that he was aware Laylin and those present in the hut knew of his origin. He felt no need to restrain himself. It wasn’t like he had a reputation to upho
The shrill holler of wind was deafening and Ambrose at once took his chance pushing Esmer inside the narrow secret passage. He was carrying Laylin who had passed out suddenly. She was burning with a high fever. He grimaced looking at her but kept his eyes firmly in front of him . Getting out of here is the priority now. Esmer who was at the entrance had her eyes clouded. She was trying to bring back the knight. Scoffing at her, he kept moving forward. He didn’t care for both of them. They could as well both be caught and dealt with. They weren’t trustworthy and both seem to be having ulterior motives. He vaguely remembered diving deep to the knight’s lifeline to quench it when he was unconscious. It was utterly possible that the knight had tried to sneakily attack him. The thing with his demon shadow was that it was mostly instinctive unless he deliberately tried to control it. So if he was unconscious or was out of it, he won’t even recall what had happened around him but his de
“He’s not taking us to a burial site or… is he?” Rurik murmured. Esmer pursed her lips, unsure. “He… probably won’t.” “But… it’s been hours.” No water pipes were supposed to be that long as the whole purpose of these was to get the water supply faster. Especially these were too wide to be just waterpipes. This looked mostly like a passage for escape in case there was an ambush, not to mention the entryway was buried under a lot of debris. They had to dig it out. Esmer wondered if this was going to be their grave without any tombstone. After several turns and crossroads, they walked and climbed the pipelines for hours. Esmer felt like she would pass out any minute. “Is there even a way through or are you just kidding us?” Esmer loudly confronted him. They had been voicing their protests for a while now and the mighty King had been ignoring them quite conveniently till now. They were freezing in their thin attire despite Esmer’s aura warming them. They hadn’t eaten for a while a
Esmr being the competent witch she was, was quick to make a bubble-thin barrier to help them cross to the lake's surface. They say the water in the summer had a much lower quantity than in the winter. As the very depth of the water lake is warm, the ice on it melts frequently but builds up just as fast when the weather changes. They were unlucky as this was a very cold week. Laylin was drowsy as water spat out of the hole and began filling the pipe, Ambrose jumped up and grabbed Laylin by the waist. She, who was drowsily swaying, didn’t protest. Her mind was much clear now but her limbs were still feeling too numb to function. Ambrose eyed the flimsy barrier and turned to Esmer. “Will it even hold if a fish slammed its thin tail against it?” he quickly demanded, narrowing his eyes at the witch, who blinked at him in shock. But her hesitation was just momentary. She grabbed Rurik’s sword from the sheath and launched it at the barrier. ‘CLANG!’ “Ah!” With a loud shattering voic
Esmer's face strained as she lifted the bubble above the water's surface. The current in the lake was too much to combat after the pipe was unclogged. Water was flooding the whole East side and the pressure was no joke. Her foot slumped, her nose bled, her body felt like it would burst from the pressure. Laylin clenched her fists, she wanted to relieve Esmer of her burden but the truth was that if she did, all of them would drown and have a watery grave. None of them could even dream of breaking to the surface of the lake without Esmer or by mere force. It was just not possible, especially as they didn't want to risk drowning. “Please, Esmer a little more.” The woman's eyes were glazed now, tears streamed down her flushed face. Ambrose grabbed Laylin and pulled her away from the lady. Rurik hesitantly stood by the side. Rather than hopelessly watching her strain at the inch of her life, Laylin wondered whether drowning was less painful. If Esmer’s aura went out of control underwa
‘What a sloppy monster.’ he grumbled in thought, looking at the two out of the water in one piece. Then, as both of them slumped beside them, Ambrose felt a glare. With a brow raised, he turned to see Rurik who averted his glare at once to Esmer who was coughing up water. So he expected him to save them? Did this knight think highly of him now that he was tagging along with him? He turned to Laylin and helped her up, “We need to get you some place warm. Let’s go.” Laylin heard a grumbling voice, then flinched when she felt something vibrate under her hands on the frozen lake surface. The monster was moving underneath. Her head snapped up to tell them when they were all stiffened with realization and blindly ran to get off the ice at once. 'CLASH!' Ambrose grabbed her by the waist and Rurik grabbed the witch. The ice began cracking as a strong clash against the ice shook the surface. Rurik stumbled but soon got his bearing. 'CLASH!' Hurriedly, they ran across the wide river but