The forest loomed ahead of us, thick with shadows that twisted unnaturally, as if alive.
Faint echoes of laughter and whispers brushed past us, teasing the edges of my hearing. Shadows flickered like specters just out of reach, and it was clear from the start—we would never be alone here.
The deeper we went, trees loomed like ancient sentinels, their blackened bark cracked and scarred. Branches clawed at the sky, blocking out what little light there was. The mud beneath my boots squelched with each step, loud and wet, like the forest itself was listening.
Kiaran walked ahead, his posture rigid, one hand resting on the hilt of his blade. His crimson eyes flicked from shadow to shadow, scanning for threats I couldn’t see but could feel. His every step was deliberate, each movement precise, like he was walking into a battle instead of a forest.
I followed closely, careful with each step on the uneven ground, but the silence was suffocating. Every step felt too loud, every breath too shallow. My thoughts clawed at me, refusing to be ignored.
I replayed the moment over and over in my mind—Estella’s hands glowing, the golden-blue light spreading like wildfire, and Kiaran... Kiaran falling to his knees, his body trembling, his crimson eyes wide and feral.
I’d never seen him like that before. Never seen him so close to losing control. It was like watching a dam crack open, the sheer force of it threatening to drown us all.
I couldn’t take it anymore.
I stopped walking, the words spilling out of me before I could stop them. “What are you?”
Estella froze, her golden eyes widening in surprise. Even Kiaran paused, glancing over his shoulder with a frown, but I ignored him.
My gaze was locked on Estella, my chest tight with a mix of confusion and fear. “What did you do to him?” I demanded, my voice sharp and trembling. “How did you make him—” I broke off, shaking my head as the memory surged again. “You nearly turned him into a monster.”
Estella blinked, her mouth opening and closing as if she didn’t know how to respond. She glanced nervously at Kiaran, who was still watching us with an unreadable expression, before finally meeting my gaze.
“I didn’t mean to,” she said softly. “I didn’t know it would affect him like that.”
“That’s not an answer,” I snapped, my frustration boiling over. The forest pressed in around us, the shadows seeming to lean closer as my voice echoed through the stillness. “What are you? What kind of power does that?”
Estella hesitated, her hands wringing together as she looked away. “It’s not... easy to explain,” she said finally.
“Try,” I said, crossing my arms. “Because I’ve never seen anything like that before. And I need to know if it’s going to happen again.”
Kiaran sighed, turning back to face us fully. “Princess Mablevi,” he said, his tone low and warning, “this isn’t the time.”
But I ignored him again. My focus was on Estella, who still looked like she wanted to shrink into the ground.
The words hung in the air, heavy and strange. I stared at her, trying to reconcile the nervous, fidgety girl in front of me with the raw, overwhelming power I’d seen earlier.
“Oshun,” I repeated slowly, the name unfamiliar but weighty.
Estella nodded. “It’s not just love,” she said, glancing down at her hands. ““It’s not just love. It’s growth. I can amplify strength — but I can’t always control it. I didn’t mean to push Kiaran so far. I just wanted to help.”
I looked at Kiaran, but his expression was unreadable as he watched her.
For a moment, I didn’t respond. The oppressive silence of the forest pressed against me, and my mind churned with thoughts I couldn’t quite pin down. I’d been too harsh on her earlier, hadn’t I?
Estella was the daughter of a goddess, yes, but she carried her own shame, her own burden. She was a product of infidelity, like me.
The brothel girls used to whisper about me, the castaway princess, a mistake my father tried to bury. Their words clung to me like smoke, impossible to wash off. And now I looked at Estella and saw the same smoke curling around her.
Perhaps she was only trying to prove she mattered — the way I was.
The thought had barely formed when the forest answered.
A giggle, sharp and close, sliced through the silence.
Estella froze behind me, her eyes darting around the trees. “It’s... probably nothing, right?”
Her voice trembled at the edges, but there was a hollow hopefulness in it, as though saying the words might make them true. I didn’t answer. The oppressive silence of the forest pressed against us like a vice, and my skin prickled with dread.
Estella’s breath caught. She reached up to brush back her hair—and froze. “Did something... touch me?”
Her fingers hovered near her temple, trembling. “My moon hair clip,” she muttered, her voice cracking. “I swear I felt it move—like something stroked it, and then...” Her hand dropped to her chest, clutching at the hollow above her collarbone. Her eyes widened in panicked disbelief. “My necklace. Where’s my necklace?!”
I blinked, frowning. Estella hadn’t been wearing a necklace. Or a moon clip. But her panic was too real to ignore, her breaths quick and shallow, her hands darting over her body as though willing the stolen items back into existence.
And that’s when I realized—my dagger was gone too.
My blood ran cold. That dagger... was important. Who the hell stole my dagger?
As if on cue, faint whispers rose around us, the sound soft and taunting, like gossip shared behind cupped hands. The air felt heavier, charged with something alive and malicious, as though the forest itself had taken note of our dismay.
Kiaran sighed loudly, already pulling his blade from its sheath. “Pixies,” he muttered, the word dripping with irritation. “Mischievous little pests. They like to play tricks... steal, but they’re not dangerous unless you provoke them.”
I glanced at him sharply. “Define ‘provoke,’” I said, my voice tighter than I intended. My heart was still racing, the weight of my missing dagger pressing against my chest like a leaden stone.
Kiaran didn’t answer right away. Instead, he let out a weary sigh, his shoulders slumping slightly, as though the mere thought of the pixies’ antics drained him. “Last time I passed through here,” he said at last, “a Pixie Queen stole my clothes. Left me naked with one boot.”
Estella’s lips twitched, the motion small but impossible to miss. Then she let out a laugh that sliced through the tension like a knife, light and unexpected. “What did you do to piss her off?”
“She asked me out on a date,” Kiaran said dryly. “I said no.”
Estella’s laughter grew louder, the sound bubbling out of her as though she couldn’t stop herself. “Wow. Leaving a trail of broken hearts, huh?”
“Shut up,” Kiaran snapped, though there was no real anger in his voice. His crimson eyes stayed fixed on the shifting shadows around us, his movements slow and deliberate. “Just keep moving... we don’t have time for games.”
But I couldn’t stop myself. His actions had clearly landed us in this mess. “So let me get this straight,” I began, forcing my voice to stay calm but firm. “YOU PISSED OFF THE QUEEN OF PIXIES?”
Kiaran stopped walking and turned to look at me, his expression a mix of exasperation and something harder to place—perhaps annoyance, or maybe regret.
“Yeah,” he said flatly, his tone low and pointed. “But let’s just get out of here before she gets here.”
Estella hesitated, glancing nervously between Kiaran and the trees around us. “She’s not really dangerous, right?” she asked, her voice trembling despite her attempt at forced levity. “I mean... they’re just pixies.”
Kiaran didn’t answer immediately. His crimson eyes scanned the shadows, his jaw tight. When he finally spoke, his voice was cold and deliberate.311Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ8VS4f8TzH
Kiaran’s crimson eyes swept the shifting shadows, his jaw tightening.
“Pixie Queens are dangerous,” he said at last, each word deliberate, heavy. His grip tightened on the hilt of his blade. “And if the forest is this loud…” His gaze flicked upward, scanning the twisting canopy. “She might already be coming.”
The whispers swelled, louder now, as though the trees themselves were laughing. A chill scraped down my spine. Estella’s hand found mine, trembling. None of us spoke again. We just kept walking, every step too loud, every shadow too close.
And all I could think was that we were no longer intruders in this forest. We were prey.
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