Enid shivered, taking a step back. "Then take it off."
She didn't want it. A mark by the moon? It would have been ridiculous if it was not so dangerous for her.
Thorien's eyes glinted. "Do you trust us to try?"
She hesitated. But..."Do I have a choice?"
Kaelith moved her chin to face him as he stated, calmly, "You always have a choice. The trick is surviving whichever one you make."
Enid looked at the man in front of the, at the prince. She tried to reconcile their first meeting, the feral side he had shown to the man in fornt of her now.
"Tell me."
His eyes moved to her neck, to the mark they both knew was there on the back of her neck.
"Removing it isn't so simple. The moon doesn't release its prey easily. It'll take your name, your will… maybe even your memories."
"My-my name?"
"Names have power," Thorien stated, uncharacteristically morose, "They're the first thing the bond uses to find you. If we try to unbind you, you'll need to surrender it. Entirely."
"What do you mean surrender it? Are you saying I'll forget who I am?" Enid's pulse quickened. This was much more than what she had been willing to do.
"Names have power," Kaelith said. "They're the first thing the bond uses to find you. If we try to unbind you, you'll need to surrender it. Entirely."
Enid's pulse quickened. "You're saying I'll forget who I am?"
Thorien gave her a crooked grin. "If we're lucky, maybe you'll just forget me."
She scowled, but the heat in her chest betrayed her.
They were both too close, towering over her. One was all charm and chaos, and the other more cold, intense. For completely different reasons, she once again felt like a prey.
A prey between two wolves who were circling around her.
She stepped back, away from the circle of influence of the two, her heart hammering in her chest.
'Focus, Enid, focus! What they are about to do is dangerous. You need to be at your best!'
She closed her eyes, taking a deep calming breath.
Kaelith stepped forward, his shadow falling across her face. "You haven't told us your name," he murmured.
She opened her eyes and met his gaze, unflinching. "And I won't."
Thorien chuckled softly. "Smart girl."
Kaelith's lips twitched. "Defiant."
Enid didn't react outwardly, even if her insides were twisting in on themselves. She was going to survive this, survive whatever they were going to do. Just like when she had jumped into the river without knowing how to swim.
The tension thickened- heavy, electric.
For a moment, the world shrank to just the three of them.
Then Kaelith turned sharply, breaking the spell. "Prepare the ritual chamber. Tonight, we'll test if the mark can be suppressed." He glanced at her once more. "If you survive it."
Enid's stomach dropped. "What happens if I don't?"
Throien answered without hesitation. "You won't have to worry about names anymore."
---------------
That night, the palace glowed under the moon. It was still bloody, still red.
Unlike the previous years, where the colour would subside everyday until the moon was white and silvery again, this was not the case this time.
"Why is the moon the same colour today? The Hunt was yesterday."
Kaleith and Thorien exchanged a look ahead of her, before Kaelith looked back at her, replying, "The Hunt is not yet over, not this time."
He looked pointedly at her as she gulped in fright at the answer, before looking away.
Right, how could she forget. She, the prey, was still alive.
Servants whispered from behind shut doors as the princes led Enid through hidden corridors lined with ancient runes. She didn't want to, but the morbid beauty of the castle once again drew her in. The dark walls, the macabre paintings, the morose people. The air was colder here, heavier- like the walls themselves remembered every soul that had passed through.
Enid had a right mind to ask how many had returned alive.
The chamber they stopped in was circular, carved from obsidian stone. At its center lay a shallow pool reflecting the moonlight from a skylight above.
Despite the crystal-clear and inviting water, she knew this was not a place people visited for leisure.
No, this place had seen horror. The air itself was ripe with it.
Thorien stood at the edge, rolling his sleeves again. "Last chance to back out."
Enid lifted her chin. "You said I don't have a choice."
Kaelith stepped closer, voice quiet but sharp as a blade. "We said you have a dangerous one."
She looked between them- Kaelith's blue eyes like a storm, Thorien's hazel like wildfire. Every instinct screamed to run. But she was so tired of running.
And there was nothing else to be done anyway. She had to keep going.
"I'll do it," she said.
Thorien's grin was quick, almost admiring. "Knew you would." Enid tried not to let that get to her. The skip of her heart was just because of the danger, she told herself.
He stepped into the water as she stood at the edge, watching him as he moved, the droplets clinging to the veins in his arms, his shirt drenched.
He waded to Enid, reached for her wrist, pulling her into the water with him as the fingers of his other hand brushed against her neck, against the mark. Thorien started chanting in a language she knew instintively was not human.
A jolt of heat shot through her body. She gasped, trying to pull back, trying to push Thorien away from her. The water splashed around her.
It was stronger than earlier when Kaelith had touched the mark, she realised. It was as it the mark itself was alive, aware that the prisoner, the prey it had taken for its own was close to escaping.
Kaelith caught her other hand, holding her still. She hadn't even realised when he had entered the pool.
"Stay," he ordered softly.
The word thrummed through her bones - not magic, but authority. The kind that bent the air around it.
A stray thought in Enid's mind wanted to oppose, wanted to fight the person trying to control her, but the power flowing through her stopped her in her tracks.
No. RIght now, she needed someone with her.
Thorien's voice dropped. "If this works, you'll feel it tearing."
"Te- " Her words broke off as pain seared through her veins. The mark flared, glowing bright silver.
Her eyes widened at the strange light that filled the room, coming from somewhere behind her. She tried to speak, but was unable to. No words would come out, no words were enough.
The fire slowly but surely spread through her, filling her chest, her head, her entire body. Enid felt the burn as it pulsed in time with her heart beat.
Thorien's hand tightened around hers. Kaelith muttered something in a language she didn't know, his eyes glowing faintly. The light burned brighter, until the room was blinding-
Then-
A scream tore through the air. Hers.
No one noticed the shadow slipping in the chamber.