"He won't care," Eliam said. "He wants her back. She belongs to him by law."
The words hit deep. It didn’t matter what she did, as long as Malus was king, she belonged to him. By the bargain she'd made, by the marks on her skin, by what he'd taken from her in his chambers.
"The law," Arion said quietly, "is not always the same as what is right."
A pixie broke through the line and launched itself at her face. She couldn't even flinch. Her body had nothing left to give. Arion's hand shot out, and suddenly the creature was simply... elsewhere. Not dead, just gone, relocated to somewhere that wasn't here.
"The border is just ahead," one of the guards called.
Through the trees, Briar could see the standing stones glowing blue in the darkness. So close. After everything, safety was just yards away. The warmth in her chest pulsed weakly, reaching toward those stones like it knew sanctuary waited beyond.
But the chittering behind them was getting louder, and underneath it, she could hear something worse. Footsteps that made the ground shake, and a voice raised in fury thatshe recognized too well. The same voice that had whispered against her skin, that had commanded her to be present while he—
Malus had arrived.
The trees behind them began to groan and split. Not from physical force but from will alone. Even from here, she could feel his rage like heat from a forge. He was bending his domain, forcing it to reshape around his fury. The Forest King coming to reclaim what he considered his.
Her stomach turned. She pressed her face against Eliam's shoulder, trying to block out the memory of Malus's hands, his mouth, the way he'd made her body respond despite her mind's revulsion. But she could still feel him approaching, like pressure building before a storm.
"Keep moving!" Arion commanded and his soldiers tightened their formation, their arrows of light becoming a constant stream.
They broke through the final line of trees and the standing stones rose before them like ancient sentinels, each one taller than two men and carved with symbols that glowed steady blue in the darkness.
The light they cast was cold and clean, nothing like the sickly green of dungeon moss or the dying gold of corrupted forest magic. Briar could feel the difference in the air even from yards away—it tasted lighter, carried the scent of winter stars rather than decay.
Arion's soldiers tightened their formation around them, a wall of silver armor and drawn bows. Their arrows remained nocked, points of captured starlight aimed back at the tree line where Malus had emerged.
The corrupted pixies circled in the shadows between trees, their chittering a constant background noise that made her skin crawl. But they didn't advance. Something held them back.
Eliam's arms tightened around her as he carried her forward. She could feel his exhaustion in the way his muscles trembled, in how each step seemed to require conscious effort. Shadow-walking that many people should have been impossible. That he'd managed it at all spoke to how much of her blood he'd taken, how desperately her essence had poured strength back into its other half.
The warmth in her chest pulled toward those stones with weak insistence. Safety. The promise of it made her throat tighten, made the tears she'd been holding back threaten to spill over. Just a few more yards. Just across that invisibleline and—
"Stop."
Malus's voice carried across the distance between them, cold and precise as a blade. Not shouted. He didn't need to shout. The command in it made even the Star Court soldiers pause, though Arion gestured sharply for them to keep moving.
"I said stop."
This time the words held weight that had nothing to do with volume. Fae magic, the kind that bent reality around a king's will. The ground between them and the stones began to crack, thin fissures spreading across frost-covered earth. Not an attack. A statement. I could stop you if I chose.
They halted. The soldiers' grips tightened on their weapons, but Arion raised one hand and the formation held. Waiting. Briar could feel Eliam's jaw clench where her head rested against his shoulder, could sense him preparing to shadow-walk again if needed, though she didn't know if he had the strength left for it.
Malus stepped fully from the tree line, and the corrupted pixies parted around him. He looked exactly as he had in his chambers—dark burgundy jacket without a wrinkle, copper hair catching what little light remained. His eyes found her immediately, pinning her in place with an intensity that made her stomach turn.
She remembered those eyes above her. Watching her face while he moved inside her. Studying her reactions like she was an experiment to be solved.
Her body tried to curl in on itself, to make itself smaller, but there was nowhere to hide. Eliam's arms were the only barrier between her and that gaze, and they suddenly felt far too thin.
"Arion of the Star Court." Malus's attention shifted, though Briar could still feel the weight of his awareness on her like physical touch. "We find ourselves in an interesting position."
"Lord Malus." Arion's voice carried none of the warmth she'd heard in it before. This was court formality, prince to king, careful and cold. "You stand at the border of Star Court lands. I assume you have a reason for this... visit."
"Visit." Malus's smile was sharp enough to cut. "Is that what we're calling it?" He gestured toward their group, his hand moving with casual elegance. "You shelter my brother, who until recently was considered a criminal in my court. You harbor his huntsman, who abandoned his post. You provide sanctuary to—" his eyes found Briar again, "—property that belongs to me by law and binding contract."
Property. The word made bile rise in her throat. Because it was true. By every law that governed the fae courts, she was his. The bargain she'd struck, the marks on herthroat that even now rustled like real autumn leaves when the wind picked up—all of it bound her to him as surely as chains.
"The girl came to us seeking sanctuary," Arion said, his tone still carefully neutral. "As did your brother. We do not turn away those who request our protection."
