UNKNOWN POV
She doesn't move.
Her breathing is steady, lashes still, but beneath the surface her mind shifts, tiny flickers, like embers trapped under ash. They glow for a moment, then fade. Hope pretending to be fire.
She would not be able to break free, not without my command.
I sit beside her, my shadow spilling over her face. Her skin is warm, but her stillness hums with defiance. She will soon learn that defiance rots swiftly in the dark.
"You're finally where you were supposed to be," I tell her, voice low and certain, each word planted deep like a seed that will only grow into me. "With me."
Even now, half-consumed by the haze I have bound her in, she reaches for him. I hear it, the fragile curve of his name slipping from her lips, barely there, but there all the same.
Let her reach. Let her believe. The sweeter the thread, the more satisfying its snap.
I rise without hurry. The wards tremble faintly as I move, their song braided through stone, glass, and air. This place breathes with my will, and my will alone.
From the window, I look down upon the cliffs that fall into a shroud of unbroken mist. Beyond, the forest stretches in all directions, but its paths are treacherous, every path here folds back on itself. This place refuses strangers.
She is mine. That truth is older than her understanding of it.
Far on the horizon, I can feel him searching for her.
Good.
Let him search until his bones ache. Let him bleed upon the earth for her. I will still have her in the end.
I turn back to her. She remains as she was, the haze drawing her deeper, coaxing the fight from her in slow, measured breaths.
"No one will ever find you here," I murmur, the words a verdict, each one sealing her fate.
❦︎ To Be Continued ❦︎