Chapter 2

Crescent’s Pov

The courtyard had gone silent, no one dared to breathe, not when the guard looked like they were all looking for an excuse to end a life. Aaron’s fingers touched mine, trying to draw strength from me. 

But I had none.

There was no escape, only dead would be the way out. I should have listened to my mother’s words. Friends bring nothing but terrible luck. And this was proof of it.

How many times do I have to be bitten before I learn? Would I have to lose my life too?

The silence was suddenly broken by the sound of boots striking hard against the stone floor. Each move matching the thumping in my chest.

He was here, the tyrant whose name caused knees to shake like leaves on a windy day.

Heads were bowed stuck to the ground unable to look up at the force that had walked in. I dared the impossible, raising my head slightly, sneaking a peek at the man that wasn’t a myth anymore. He walked like he owned air, like he knew that we all survived on his command.

His broad shoulders were clocked in dark fur, wrapped around his body, signifying the vision that he was. His hair slicked back, revealing a jawline that could cut through a stone. His golden eyes had a hue of red in them as he scanned through the limitless sea of faces.

I wasn’t in his eye sight, but something about the way he stared; merciless, sharp – the kind that strips you of your skin. A gaze that goes deep into your soul.

They didn’t raise their heads, their next were bare in submission, instinct a call for survival when in the presence of something superior.

But my body fought against the powers that he exuded, stiff, fighting against the urge to shrink into the shadows,

He didn’t speak, he flicked his wrist and guards rushed around, picking the people that looked of interest to him. The weight of his stare made the air thick. The crowd was sweating their trepidation through the pores.

A ghost smirk formed on his lips; he was enjoying this. Seeking pleasure from the fear that filled the air. In a strange way, his darkness enticed me.

“Don’t,” I could already hear my mother’s voice growling at the back of her mind. If she was here, she would have found a way to yank me out of the room, taken me somewhere that we both will never be found.

But she wasn’t here. The painful tug in my heart reminding me that I had led to her death. Believed in a boy whose promises had burned my home.

The lycan prince stopped beside Aaron, his eyes scanning his form until–

My breath hitched. My lungs fighting hard to breathe.

His eyes landed on me, not the flickering glance that he spared the others. His golden orbs locked with mine. His stare felt like hot burning silver, cutting through the mask I wore, peeling away the walls I had structured around me as Cory.

Under his scrutiny, I was nothing but crescent. The trembling scared girl who had nothing to live for.

A cruel smile formed on his lips; he flicked his wrist. Aaron was taken away through the door the others had been dragged through. I tore my gaze from him for a second, fear lodging in my heart as I watched Aaron’s retreating figure.

“You,” his voice sounded smooth, like a well lubricated sword, cutting through bones.

I trembled, my body shifting under his watchful gaze. I forced myself to keep my head bowed, his stare breaking my will to maintain eye contact.

“What do they call you?” 

The command snapped me up, “Cory,” I replied without missing a beat.

He didn’t respond, just stared. Did he hear the quivering in my tone? Did he know that I was lying?

His eyes gave nothing away, they gazed deep into my soul, breaking me further under his command. “Cory,” the name sounded foreign on his lips, like he was tasting it on his tongue trying to understand what it meant.

His presence was magnetic, edged with danger, the last person I should have drawn attention to myself. But here I stood, eyes wide waiting to know my fate determined by the coin that had been tossed.

He flicked his fingers. Hands grabbed me, dragging me down the path the rest had gone. 

“Where you taking me?” I asked the second the door was shut behind us something didn’t feel right, I could see the selected few lined up by the side, waiting for their next command. But I wasn’t kept with them, rather I was pushed further into the darkening tunnel.

Away from Aaron. Away from freedom.

“Please….”

“Shut up or we will have your tongue,” a guard growled in a dark tone, his nail digging hard into my skin.

That clamped me up immediately, my lips trapped between my teeth, holding myself back from speaking out. Underneath the fear that cloaked my body, there was something sizzling in my veins. And excitement that I thought had died a long time ago.

I was thrown into a dark room, “kneel,” the guard growled, kicking the back of my legs as I dropped to the hard floor. I gritted my teeth, holding back the wince. They wanted to hear me cry out in pain and when they didn’t, they growled slamming the door behind them in anger.

My fingers trembled as I touched the pendent, the soothing feeling calming the raging nerves in my mind. This was the only thing that felt close to my mother. This and the black journal that had inscriptions of words in a foreign language.

“The north is life; the south is pain. The west lead home, the east is lost,” I mumble the words my mother had always said.

The darkness did nothing to calm the chaos in my mind. After mother was killed, I hated being in the dark, and now, I was stuck here just like I had never left. The dagger hidden in my shirt felt useless. 

There was no escape now.