The sadness that flashed across her face reminded me of our reality. We had no guarantee of time together, no promise of a future beyond this quest. The hunters pursued us. The evil witch waited ahead. And even if we succeeded, our paths were destined to diverge. She to Eldagh with her beasts, me back to my duty in Durand.
But I couldn’t bear to acknowledge that now, not with her warm and willing beneath me, our bodies still joined. Instead, I carefully withdrew from her, both of us wincing slightly at the sensation of separation after such closeness.
“We should get ready,” she said, practicality reasserting itself as she sat up, her hair falling in a curtain around her naked form. “Gaspard won’t stop hunting us.”
The name brought reality crashing back. I nodded, already reaching for my discarded clothes. “How far to the witch’s lair from here?”
“Not far, according to the raven.” She began dressing efficiently, though I noted with satisfaction that her movements were languid with post-coital relaxation. “Maybe half a day’s ride, if the forest cooperates.”
I pulled on my trousers, wincing as the fabric scraped against the claiming mark on my shoulder. The sensation wasn’t painful, just... present. A reminder of what I’d become part of, what I’d allowed her to make of me. What I’d chosen, with eyes wide open.
“Alain?” Her voice pulled me from my thoughts. She stood fully dressed now, her pack already slung over her shoulder, watching me with concern. “Do you regret it? What happened between us?”
I moved to her, taking her face between my hands with a gentleness that surprised even me. “Not for a single heartbeat,” I said, and kissed her again, pouring every ounce of my conviction into the contact. When I pulled back, her eyes were bright with unshed tears. “Whatever happens, whatever comes after, I will never regret this. Never regret you.”
She nodded, blinking rapidly. “Then let’s go kill a witch and free my beasts.”
I grinned, feeling the weight of the crown and all it represented fall away from me for perhaps the first time in my life. “As my lady commands.”
Isabeau lifted the amber gem from the ground as she opened an entry to the outside for us. She then gently placed the amber gem in the center of the tree’s hollow. She blushed when she stood and saw me watching. “I want to leave a piece of us here, where our magic was created.”
My heart warmed, and I hugged her to me. Isabeau was everything I had to lose, but I couldn’t cage her. No, I learned my lesson. I would be her mate and defend her as I could.
Together, we gathered our remaining supplies, checked on the horses in the corner. Her unicorn and my mare were awake and staying close to one another, ready to leave with us. We prepared to face whatever waited beyond our temporary sanctuary. The claiming mark pulsed steadily on my shoulder, a reminder that whatever battle lay ahead, we wouldn’t face it entirely alone.
But my heart knew I would be alone after this, after saving her beasts and her soul. Still, her freedom and happiness was worth the price of my future solitude.
sixty-two
Isabeau
The bog stretched before us like an open wound in the earth, festering under a sky that couldn’t decide between dawn and dusk. Even from the edge of the trees where Alain and I had reined in our mounts, I could taste the corruption. Metallic and sour, like blood mixed with spoiled milk.
Enid had chosen this place deliberately, letting the curse that had twisted the Forbidden Forest seep out to infect her dwelling.The plants here didn’t just die. They surrendered, bending into unnatural shapes as if bowing to the darkness that ruled them.
“This is it,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. The claiming mark on my shoulder pulsed with warmth, as if my beasts were trying to reach me across the barrier between worlds. “She’s here.”
Alain slid from his mare’s back, his hand automatically going to the sword at his hip. His face was set in grim determination, jaw clenched tight enough to crack walnuts. I’d seen that look before, when he’d followed me into the forest despite the dangers, when he’d protected me from the hunters. A prince becoming something more than what his court had molded him to be.
“I don’t like this,” he murmured, helping me down from the unicorn’s back. His hands lingered at my waist a moment longer than necessary, his eyes searching mine. “The air feels... wrong.”
He wasn’t wrong. The air hung heavy with magic, but not the kind that flowed through my veins. This was twisted, corrupted—power that had been bent against its nature for too long. My own magic recoiled from it, curling protectively around my heart.
The unicorn snorted, pawing at the ground with one silver hoof. Its horn glowed faintly, cutting through the unnatural gloom. Above us, the raven circled once, then settled on a dead tree at the bog’s edge, its eyes reflecting light that wasn’t there.
“Stay close to me,” Alain said, his free hand finding mine. The mark on his shoulder—my mark—pulsed in sync with mine. I didn’t bite him, but once he bit me, a reflection of light glimmered in the shape of the one he left on me. The connection between us was still new, raw, but it grounded me in ways I hadn’t expected.
We moved forward together, picking our way carefully across ground that squelched and bubbled with each step. Plantswithered as we passed, not from our presence but from the poison seeping up from beneath the soil. Nothing healthy could survive here long.
Ahead, nestled in the center of the bog, sat Enid’s hut. It wasn’t what I’d expected from a witch powerful enough to curse an entire realm. No gingerbread walls or chicken legs, just a simple structure of wood and mud that listed slightly to one side, as if the very earth beneath it was trying to retreat. Smoke poured from a crooked chimney, unnaturally black and thick.
“She’ll know we’re coming,” I said, feeling the witch’s awareness prickling against my skin like nettles. “She’s probably watching us now.”
“Good,” Alain replied, his voice hard. “Let her know her time has come.”
I squeezed his hand, drawing strength from his certainty. “Remember, once we’re inside, I need to be the one to confront her. Her magic and mine are connected somehow. I can feel it.”
He nodded, though reluctance darkened his eyes. “I’ll be right beside you.”
