All Chapters of All Is Fair In Love And Blood: Chapter 51 - Chapter 57

{Ragna’s POV}I couldn’t stop looking.The warriors continued pouring past us in waves, but my attention remained fixed on the horizon beyond them, where the land dissolved into the orange haze of the sinking sun.Nothing.There was nothing there.No army. No monsters. No towering beasts charging across the plains.Only distance.Beside me, Milena seized my wrist.“Ragna.”I didn’t answer.“We have to go.”Still nothing.Another scream drifted across the fields, carried by the wind before dissolving into silence again.Milena tugged harder. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we need to go back to the Palace. We have to.”I kept staring.This time she stepped in front of me, wrapping both hands around my arm as she tried to pull me away. “Ragna!” Her voice cracked. “You heard them. They’re coming. I don’t want to die.”Neither did I.At least… I didn’t think I did.I wasn’t even sure what I was waiting to see anymore. Part of me expected something to emerge from the horizon at any m

{Ragna’s POV}I walked.The broken lengths of chain dragged across the stone behind me with a harsh metallic scrape, their weight tugging faintly at my wrists. Somewhere beyond that sound came shouting— distressed, frightened voices and men cursing as they stumbled after me. But I never turned to see them. The pressure on the chains told me enough. Some of the warriors were still holding on.Let them.The courtyard disappeared behind me as I crossed into another corridor, my pace never changing.“Fucking stop her!”“Hold the chains!”“Bring her down!”Footsteps thundered from ahead.And then a palace warrior rushed into my path and reached for my shoulder, his claws spread wide as though he thought a single grip would halt me.Without breaking stride, I caught his face.My fingers closed around it almost absently and the next instant his skull struck the wall beside us with a crack that echoed through the corridor.His body slid to the floor.I kept walking.Another came from my left

{Ragna's POV}I was on my knees.And for a while, I wasn’t entirely certain whether I was breathing or merely remembering how.Every breath scraped through my chest like shattered glass while blood gathered at the corner of my mouth before dripping lazily onto the stone beneath me and joining the countless crimson pools that had already claimed the courtyard. Sweat stung the countless tears carved across my skin, mixing with blood until I could no longer tell where one ended and the other began.My clothes had become little more than strips of ruined fabric clinging stubbornly to my body. Claw marks crossed my arms, shoulders and stomach in uneven patterns, some still bleeding freely while others had already begun drying into dark, brittle streaks.Bruises had claimed whatever skin the cuts had spared, and so, every muscle in my body throbbed with the dull protest that followed being pushed far beyond its limits.Still… I was alive.Slowly, my eyes drifted across what remained of the

{Ragna’s POV}She turned.For a heartbeat, neither of us moved.The breeze drifted quietly across the little lake behind her, carrying strands of her impossibly long hair across her face. She brushed them away without ever taking her eyes off me. It was as though she feared that blinking would make me disappear.The disbelief in her expression slowly gave way to recognition.Then it shattered.“…Ragna?”She whispered my name as though it hurt to believe it.The small basket she had been carrying slipped from her fingers and struck the ground, fruit rolling unnoticed through the grass as she rushed toward me.Before I could think to react, she had wrapped both arms around me.And for a moment, I simply stood there. The warmth felt unfamiliar, not because I’d forgotten it.But because it had been too long.Then, slowly, I lifted my own arms and returned the embrace. That was all it took.She broke.A sob escaped her as she buried her face against my shoulder, her entire body trembling w