Cirian’s hand clamped down on my wrist like a vice, cold and unrelenting. Panic surged through me as I tried to yank away, but his grip was iron. He dragged me, my feet stumbling over the uneven ground as I fought to pull back. The fear was choking, a weight pressing on my chest, suffocating me with each step closer to that stone altar. I recognized it instantly—the obsidian baptismal font shimmering under the dim, unnatural light. A blood wedding.
“No... no, please!” I begged, my voice cracking, but my words bounced off him, ignored, useless.
My heart slammed against my ribs as Cirian’s cold laughter echoed in my ears. His face—twisted, monstrous, nothing like the man I once knew—was u
