The door creaked open, light from the hallway spilling into the room.
A shadow slipped inside, silent as smoke.
Her breath caught. "Stay back."
She was sweating profusely at this point, her makeshift weapon held aloft.
Her intruder stilled at the voice. His figure was lean, muscular, but not terribly overpowering. The lone silhouette of the man revealed that he was alone, she thought belatedly, and unarmed.
"You shouldn't be awake, little lamb." The voice was familiar- lethal, but still strangely comforting.
Thorien.
His face was revealed as he stepped forward, the light from the candles around the room shining on his sculpted face. His shirt was half-buttoned, hair disheveled and eyes a little too gold. Behind him, she coud see something laying on the ground, unmoving.
"You've got brave instincts." He murmured, making her head snap back to him as he eyed the candleholder she was still holding out towards him, "But next time, aim higher. Throat, not chest."
He stepped close to her, grabbing hold of her hand as he demonstrated, bringing the candleholder close to his throat.
Enid stood there, her breath caught in her throat at the proximity.
"What are you doing here?" She whispered, the words coming out airy.
"Making sure you stay alive long enough to regret meeting me." He smiled then, slow and dark. "And before you ask-yes, Kaelith knows. He's waiting."
"For what?"
Thorien's smile faded. "To decide whether keeping you here will save us all… or destroy everything."
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She followed Thorien as he took her past the unconscious guards lying on the floor outside her room, stepping over their prone bodies to move away from the room where she would have likely been killed.
He led Enid towards a marble courtyard that overlooked the entire valley. The palace stood at a great vantage point- every village that was included in the Kingdom was visible to them, and they were visible to the villagers.
Below, she could see the tiny little villages scattered in the distance. her home was somewhere among them, somewhere beyond the forest. Thin plumes of smoke rose from very few chimneys, the roofs that she could make out were dusted white in the frost. The sight made her chest ache.
They're straving again...
She tore her gaze away just as Thorien spoke.
"Enjoying the view?" he drawled from where he lounged on a stone bench, sleeves rolled up, hair gleaming in the sunlight. "Hard not to, when you're standing in the lap of luxury."
Enid's tone sharpened, "While the people below freeze."
She was sure the disgust showed in her tone. But right now, after almost being attacked, after seeing the nobles party while the villagers starved and froze- she found she didn't care much.
Kaelith stood beside a column, hands clasped behind his back. His face betrayed nothing, but his silence said more than words. He looked away from Enid as her gaze slid away from Thorien to look at him. Look at the other royal who didn't care enough to do something.
Thorien's smirk faltered. "Careful, little lamb. You might want to be careful about what you say. And to whom."
Her gaze swirled to him, eyes blazing.
"I don't care," she snapped. "You live like kings while—" She caught herself, realizing how her voice echoed. "You have no idea what it's like to go hungry."
Throien's eyes darkened, "You think that we both were born with gold spoons in our mouth? Rich homes and happy lives? Carefree days and not a worry?" His smirk was gone now as he stepped into her space, crowding her, "This palace runs on blood, not money. And we have been paying since before we were old enough to understand."
The answer did nothing to assuage Enid's fire.
Before she could answer, Kaelith spoke, voice low and calm- the kind of calm that silenced everything around it. It was the voice of a Prince, she realised.
"You want to go home," he said. "To your starving village. To your quiet little life. That's what you keep thinking, isn't it?"
Enid'd breath hitched. Yes, this was what she had wanted. "If I could."
"You can't."
The bluntness hit her harder than she expected. She swallowed as she looked at him, at the person who she had met first on the drasted Hunt.
"Why?"
Kaelith's gaze flicked to the somewhere below her face, around her neck, before meeting her eyes again steadily "Because you carry the moon's bond. It ties you to this realm now. To us."
"To… you?"
"Not as romantic as it sounds." Thorien spoke again, his voice grating on her nerves, "The mark means the Moon chose you. You're a variable in the Hunt's magic- a crack in the system. Everyone out there wants to fix that by killing you."
"W-what mark?"
She had a mark?!
Kaelith moved towards her this time, as she flinched almost surreptitiously. He paused in front of her, his hands hovering just near her throat as he looked at her for permission.
"May I?" He asked, softly.
She nodded.
Very carefully, Kaelith lifted the hair at the nape of her neck, bundling them into one hand as he stepped ever closer. He bent his head as he looked at her neck his other hand going behind her to the part of her throat where her hairline just ended.
Enid gulped. She could feel the warmth of his body as she stood there- almost in his arms, touching but not quiet. The cold air that surrounded them contrasted strongly with his heat she could feel emanating from him, making her shiver.
A finger reached out and traced something there, something embossed that she had never had before.
With a gasp, Enid jumped away from him.
"What is that?!" She almost shouted, before clapping her hands over her mouth at the startled looks of her audience. Looking around, and finding that by some miracle they were still alone, she whispered furiously, again, "What is that?!" Her eyes were crazy. Hell, she felt crazy.
She traced the crescent moon mark that she had never even felt appearing.
"That is the mark, little lamb. The mark of the moon. You have been chosen- and for that, you will be hunted."