LOGINEiraThe world throbbed. Every single heartbeat was a hammer blow to the left side of my face. A metallic, salty taste spread in my mouth, the taste of my own blood. The cold stone of the floor pressed against my face, but the heat of the embers radiating from the fireplace only made the throbbing more unbearable.Slowly, trembling, I opened my eyes. My vision was blurred; the room lay in ruins around me. And then I saw him.Zade knelt there a few steps away from me. He was not the man who had cooled my fever over the past few days. His hair was disheveled, and his eyes... those dark blue irises still vibrated with rage, but there was something else in them, too. Something that made my stomach tie into knots.As soon as he moved toward me, my body reacted involuntarily. I pressed my back against the wall and reflexively covered my face with my hands. My breath hitched, and the terror I had tried to bury for so many years pounded in my throat. The dark alleys, the depths of the cellars
ZadeThe silence in the room was so thick you could almost cut it. Only the sputtering of the candles and Eira's heavy, feverish breathing served as a reminder that she was still alive. I sat beside her, my hands trembling from exhaustion as I wiped her face with a cool cloth. Every single one of her features had burned itself into my mind over the past few days. The defiance that lingered at the corner of her mouth even in her fever dreams, and the vulnerability she only allowed to be seen now, in the grip of the poison. Deep within my consciousness, Noctis stirred restlessly; my dragon felt every ounce of the girl's pain, and this double burden nearly consumed me.Then, the silence was shattered not by a knock, but by an explosive crash.The door was thrown open with such force that the heavy oak panel slammed into the wall. Caspian burst into the room. His face was flushed red, his eyes flashed wildly, and the stench of wine rolled off him from across the room. He didn’t look at th
ZadeThe air in the room was heavy, filled with the bitter scent of herbs and the sweet, suffocating stench of fever. I hadn't moved from her bedside for hours. My ceremonial armor, which I still wore, was soaked with sweat and Eira's blood, but I didn't care. The only thing that mattered was whether her chest was rising or not.Eira's face was as white as the pillow she lay on. Candlelight glinted in the beads of sweat on her forehead. Occasionally, she hissed in her sleep, her hands clutching the blanket convulsively, as if fighting some invisible enemy."No... don't touch me..." she whimpered softly, her voice breaking. "It's dark..."I clenched my jaw. Every single whisper of hers felt like a knife twisting inside me. I knew she wasn't talking about her current pain. She was wandering in her past, in that hell she had survived before fate threw her in my path. I took her hand—carefully, as if she were made of porcelain—and although her skin was burning with fever, her fingers were
ZadeThe corridors of the palace blurred around me as I sprinted toward my suite, holding Eira in my arms. Noctis's fury still drummed at my temples, a dark, throbbing rhythm that demanded blood. But right now, I didn't need Caspian's blood; I needed to keep the girl from growing cold in my arms."Call the chief healer! Now!" I roared at the guards, kicking the door open and laying the girl on the bed.Eira's face was terrifyingly gray. Her breaths came in ragged gasps, and the skin around the wound on her shoulder wasn't just red—dark purple veins had begun to snake across it. When the chief healer, a white-haired old man with trembling hands, arrived and pulled aside the soaked fabric, he stifled a cry."My prince... this is no simple spear wound," the old man whispered as he carefully probed the injury with a silver instrument.Eira's body arched rigidly on the bed. A scream of such agony tore from her that it cut into my heart sharper than any sword. I gripped the edge of the bed
EiraThe forest was dark and suffocating. The branches of the trees clawed together above our heads as if the hands of a skeleton were closing in on us. Although Noctis circled above the canopy, in the thicket, I was left on my own. That was the rule: riders in the sky, protectors on the ground. A hunt—or rather, a massacre.Zade's gaze met mine one last time before Noctis took to the sky with massive beats of his wings. Stay in the shadows, he whispered into my mind, but his voice was already distant.Not even ten minutes had passed before I tasted metal in the air. It wasn't the scent of game, but of oiled steel."You've wandered too far from your master, little girl," Caspian's three female warriors stepped out of the fog.They didn't say another word. They attacked all at once. The forest floor was slick with wet leaves, and the swampy ground made my every step heavy. Drawing my two daggers, I lunged at the first woman. My street instincts and Zade's training now merged into one:
EiraThe morning light broke ruthlessly through the window, illuminating every single speck of dust in the room. I woke up with every muscle in my body tense, the remnants of yesterday's panic still throbbing in my throat. As I turned to the side, I saw that Zade was already awake. He was sitting at his desk, pouring over his maps, but I could feel that every fiber of his attention was directed at me.Images of yesterday's flight, his touch, and the icy terror that followed crashed over me in waves. I took a deep breath. I cannot let this control me. Today is the day of the hunt, and if I look weak, Caspian and Lucius will eat me alive."Say nothing," I spoke up before he could even open his mouth. My voice was hoarse, but firm. "What happened yesterday... forget it. Erase it. I don't want to talk about it. Ever."Zade spun around in his chair. His gaze was dark, and I could see the tension in it—he wanted to know the why, he wanted to see my demons, but at my request, he stopped hims







