All Chapters of Shadow Of Noctis: In The Cruel Prince’s Grasp: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

59 Chapters

41. Chapter

EiraThe sharp clang of steel meeting steel rang across the morning field.I staggered backward from the force of the impact, but my boots held firm against the grass. My new shadowsteel sword caught Zade’s overhead strike. The weapon was unbelievably light, almost singing through the air, yet the prince’s strength still reverberated through my arm all the way to my shoulder.“You’re thinking too much, thief!” Zade called as he flowed away from me in one smooth motion before testing my defense with another sweeping strike. Wild amusement burned in his eyes. “On a battlefield, the split second you spend looking at your feet is the split second that gets you killed!”I ducked beneath the blade and swung my own sword toward his ribs using a dirty street trick no palace weapons master would ever teach.“And you talk too much, Your Highness!” I shot back with a defiant grin as my blade barely grazed his leather armor before he knocked it aside

42. Chapter

ZadeThe plains below Iron Pass disappeared beneath a crimson haze.It wasn’t the setting sun staining the sky.It was blood.Blood and the smoke of the Ironbloods’ black magic.Beneath me, Noctis was nothing but coiled muscle and fury. I felt his rage, his bloodlust, burning through my mind like molten fire. Behind me, Eira’s grip around my waist was unshakable. I could feel her rapid breathing against my back, and although I knew she was terrified, she never wavered.“Now!” I roared.The instant Noctis slammed into the ground, we launched ourselves from the saddle almost simultaneously.What followed…Even I hadn’t foreseen it.And I had spent my entire life preparing for war.The moment our boots struck the muddy battlefield, time itself seemed to slow.We were no longer two warriors and a dragon.We became a single, unstoppable storm.Eira wielded her sha

43. Chapter

ZadeI couldn’t hear the battle anymore.I couldn’t feel the smoke burning my throat or the blood drying across my face.The only thing I felt was the cold, wet earth beneath my fingernails as I clawed frantically through the mud.“Eira! Eira, answer me!”My voice was hoarse.Animalistic.My hands bled.My nails split against the rocky ground, but I didn’t stop.I tore at the mud with desperate fury, as if I could rip the girl back out of the nothingness that had swallowed her only moments ago.Beside me, Noctis carved deep trenches into the earth with his massive claws.My dragon’s furious growl shook the battlefield so violently that nearby soldiers abandoned the area, fleeing from the destruction they feared he was about to unleash.She’s not there, Zade. Digging won’t bring her back.Noctis’ voice thundered through my mind like a storm.Yet beneath it lur

44. Chapter

EiraPain was no longer just a feeling.It had become something alive.Something that had crawled beneath my skin and was slowly feeding on me from the inside.I was trapped inside a dark, damp cavern somewhere deep beneath the mountains.Heavy chains carved with glowing runes bound my wrists to a cold stone altar.Every breath was a battle.My lungs burned with smoke and the metallic taste of my own blood.“Scream for me again, little girl.”The voice was colder than winter itself.I lifted my head.Malakor stood before me.He looked nothing like the warriors who followed him.His armor seemed forged from petrified blood, and there was no rage in his eyes.Only a sick, unsettling curiosity.A dagger pulsing with dark energy rested in his hand.Slowly…Deliberately…He dragged its tip across my collarbone.“Can you

45. Chapter

EiraA steady, powerful pulse pulled me back from the darkness.It wasn’t my heartbeat.It was something deeper.Something far older.Slowly, painfully, the world around me began to take shape.The air was freezing cold, rushing past me with enough force to slice across my skin.Yet I wasn’t cold.Something heavy, warm, and solid surrounded me, shielding me completely from the raging wind.I tried to open my eyes, but my eyelids felt as though they were made of lead.Every inch of my body burned.My shoulder, where Malakor’s blade had torn through my flesh, throbbed with a dull ache, and every breath scraped painfully through my lungs.A quiet groan escaped my lips.The arms holding me tightened instantly.“Eira!”Zade’s voice came from right beside my ear, though he had to shout over the wind.“Open your eyes, little bird! Please! Look at m

46. Chapter

ZadeAfternoon sunlight poured through the healing room’s enormous glass windows in thick golden bands. Fine dust drifted through the air, and the fire in the hearth had burned down to glowing embers, filling the room with a lazy, pleasant warmth.For one moment, perhaps for the first time in my life, perfect peace surrounded me.Leaning back in my chair, I watched Eira.She was half-sitting in bed, her back supported by soft pillows. Healthy color had returned to her face, and the dark circles beneath her eyes were beginning to fade. A bowl of fresh fruit rested in her lap as she tossed a grape into the air, trying to catch it in her mouth.It bounced off her nose and rolled straight into the folds of the blanket.She growled, then looked at me defiantly.“Don’t say a word, Prince. My coordination hasn’t fully recovered yet.”I smiled and leaned forward, catching her ankle through the blanket.“I didn’

47. Chapter

EiraThe palace never truly slept.The dull sound of guards’ boots always echoed through the corridors, while the invisible machinery of power and intrigue hummed between the walls.But here, in the dimness of the healing room, beneath the flickering light of the wall torches, the silence felt almost tangible.I lay awake, staring at the dark beams of the ceiling.Every moment of that afternoon replayed in my mind again and again.The King’s icy, calculating gaze.Zade’s desperate, furious roar.The sound of shadowsteel drawn against his own father.Slowly, I turned my head.Zade was asleep in the armchair beside me.Exhaustion had finally defeated his stubborn will. His head had fallen back, his face relaxed, but even in sleep one of his hands still held my wrist, as though he feared the darkness would swallow me again if he let go.Even now, breathing quietly, there was some

Epilogue

ZadeThe cold woke me.Not the familiar chill that seeped from the stone walls every night, but something far deeper.An emptiness spreading from the center of my chest, as though someone had ripped away a vital piece of my heart.Blinking, I opened my eyes to the dim healing chamber.The fire in the hearth had long since died, leaving only gray ash behind.The hand that had been wrapped around Eira’s wrist now rested against an empty, cold sheet.I sat upright.The chair creaked beneath the sudden movement.“Eira?”My voice was rough with sleep.Silence answered.The suffocating kind of silence that never meant anything good.I shot to my feet, my pulse instantly pounding in my throat.My eyes swept across the room.Behind the dressing screen, her clothes were gone.Her shadowsteel sword still lay untouched at the foot of the bed, but her b

Book 2 | Shadow of Noctic: Heir of the Shadows - Prologue -

EiraFreedom was ice cold.And it carried the suffocating taste of guilt.High above the clouds, where the noise of the world could no longer reach us, the wind lashed against my face like thousands of tiny needles piercing my skin. My chattering teeth kept rhythm with the tension twisting inside me.Noctis’ enormous wings beat through the sky with regal, unstoppable power, carrying us farther away from the southern plains, the smoke of war, the King’s gilded cage…And him.Zade.I squeezed my eyes shut, yet I saw him even more clearly in the darkness.The way he had looked at me after our victory.Those blue eyes burning with fierce, possessive pride.The face I had abandoned in the dim healing chamber, leaving behind nothing but a single black dagger on my pillow.You betrayed him, my conscience whispered.You took away his dragon.You took away yourself.A

1. Chapter

ZadeThe rhythmic, deafening thunder of my warhorse’s hooves matched the relentless beat of the dark madness pounding inside my skull.I had been riding for four days.For four days I had barely slept, barely eaten, and not allowed myself a single moment of rest.My body hovered on the edge of complete exhaustion. My muscles felt as heavy as lead, dragging me down with every mile, yet the fury raging inside me refused to let me stop.I had left the empire behind.The King’s soldiers.My father’s threats.Everything that had once been my life.Only the merciless northern wind mattered now, slicing across my face like a thousand tiny frozen daggers. My heavy wool cloak was soaked with morning mist, but I barely noticed the cold.Hell burned inside me.Eira had left.And she had taken Noctis with her.I clenched my teeth and gripped the reins so hard that the leather of

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