Lahat ng Kabanata ng Shadow Of Noctis: In The Cruel Prince’s Grasp: Kabanata 41 - Kabanata 50

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

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

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

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

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