The spring undergrowth engulfed them in its depths, surrounding them in green and yellow; the leaves caressed her skin with a gentle touch.
She didn’t know how quickly it can become cold and cruel.
For Leira, it was time stolen from her sad reality. Her father would never allow her to spend time with a common hunter. To him, Mira was nothing more than a low-born, unworthy forest dweller – and she knew that in the eyes of others of noble birth, she was nothing more than a wild child, escaping from the protective cocoon of her wealthy life to indulge in the forbidden pleasure of loving a low-born.
How wrong it sounded, how… cruel. It was an unnecessary cruelty. Not even for the two of them, although that was obvious. It was cruel for her. This protective cocoon consisted of empty rooms, numerous ghosts of the past and a once angry, now broken father who couldn’t even think about finding a new love to replace her mother – who left long ago. Love is a sadistic goddess – when Sonia chose another man, it tore his soul in two. How would he feel seeing her so happy with someone she truly loved? Maybe that’s why he would banish Mira, so as not to invite love under his roof. So as not to invite something that would drill into his broken soul, to the bone.
But… Leira didn’t want to be a vessel for his love. Since her mother left, he had not allowed himself to treat her with the affection she desired – the affection of a father for his daughter; she longed for laughter, for joy, and they had become a forbidden pleasure for her. Something she had to steal in order to feel. She was hungry for love, thirsty for touch. The years spent alone made her even more willing to give herself to her hunter’s love… forbidden, yes, but made just for her. Not for her father, not for the quiet house she lived in.
For her.
And she was ready to swallow every drop of happiness that fell from that high-hanging fruit.
She pressed her lips to Mira’s. Her legs wrapped around his waist, pulling him deeper inside. The dense and swelling richness of spring around them made her even more passionate and even more lost in pleasure.
He broke the kiss and looked into her eyes.
His eyes, green. Like leaves. Like young life.
‘Leira…’ Mira had never been too loud during sex. But her name whispered at the right moment always brought her dangerously close to the edge.
She embraced him, letting him sink between her neck and collarbone, wanting to feel his lips on one of her most sensitive spots. He obeyed, and his kiss sent shivers down her spine.
She wanted to come while he kissed her. Far from home, no, she wanted to leave her home forever. And now – to stay here, entwined with Mira, not thinking about the sadness and pain.
The sun shone through the leaves, caressing her like his agile fingers.
I want you so much…
The sun.
The quiet rustle of leaves.
The warmth of the day and his hot body pressed against her skin.
And a gust of cold wind.
Which lifted the hair on her forearms.
His thrust was exceptionally strong – she came with a silent groan. Her eyes opened in ecstasy, but something crept into surroundings, something unwanted.
He must have sensed something because he looked up and gazed into her irises with clear concern.
‘Leira…? Are you alright? Did I hurt you?’
‘No… just…’
She felt winter. Winter amidst spring greenery. It was not the season she wanted to feel right now.
She felt guilty; Mira felt nothing. Were her worries really so deep that they caused mirages?
Mira kissed her, but she couldn’t respond with the same fire. He pulled away.
‘If something is wrong, tell me,’ he sat down next to her, confused but trying to turn it into a joke. “I hope I’m not that bad a lover.’
‘Do you feel it?” was her answer.
‘Feel? Should I feel something more than you?
‘I feel… cold.’
He looked at her with visible concern… and a slight amount of disbelief. He really could believe that she didn’t like it. She wanted him. So badly. But…
… winter crept in slowly, uninvited. Mira looked around confused. Now he felt it too.
The cold air danced around her, embraced her soul, squeezed the fear out of her. Unnatural, even if it was just a gust of wind on her skin.
And at that moment, she saw leaves falling from the trees, dry and dead, like late autumnal vermilion…
And then she saw them.
At first, her mind could not comprehend it. She really could not accept it. She felt a strong surge of love… and a strong fear. Her mind was lost for a moment in a mixture of adoration and the need to escape, away from them, away from their shining wonder.
Pointed ears, like in old tales. Five men and a woman, beautiful, so beautiful, like from a dream… but ready to turn into nightmares at any moment.
They were sitting on animals that only vaguely resembled horses. She couldn’t understand it because they looked like horses. But… they only looked like them. They weren’t.
The woman with the bird mask on her face stared at her and Mira intensely until she finally sneered.
‘Lovers. How sweet.’
However, Leira’s eyes were not on her. A man was sitting next to her. He was wearing a black vest with a wide belt, tight black trousers and high boots. He was looking at her attentively. He was smiling, radiant, but his gaze… his eyes were completely black, a void filled with stars and moons. This man… he looked like someone who loves pain of others. Who is used to command and take, everything, mercilessly.
Leira quickly pulled down her skirt, afraid they would see her naked.
‘Don’t laugh at lovers, my cruel raven,’ the man in black continued to look at Leira intently. ’Seeing them reminds me of the possibilities of… attachment.’
His voice was deep, quiet, a pleasure for ears. Sultry, soft and sensual. But something under it, like death. Like he cut her in slices, caressing her body at the same time.
‘Your Majesty… The Wild Hunt awaits us,’ one of them looked at her with contempt… but also with hunger.
‘I am the Wild Hunt,’ the black-eyed man’s tone left no room for objection.
The man kicked his horse and it began to approach them. Leira backed away, quickly, wanting to get as far away from them as possible.
Mira drew her knife, ready to defend her.
No.
Please.
‘Don’t come any closer,’ Mira said through clenched teeth, but his hand holding the knife trembled – almost invisibly, but they did..
Of course, they saw it too.
The man smiled wider, charmingly. Lovely. The scent of violets reached her. Her favourite flowers.
The man ignored Mira’s pose; her beloved was ready to attack or defend. The horse-like creature between the man’s legs looked Leira straight in the eye. It’s red eyes, like pools of blood. A bone spine in place of mane.
‘I will kill you if you come any closer,’ she could hear in Mira’s voice, deep, gut-wrenching, hope-destroying panic.
‘Oh, how… brave. Is that what you’ll do? Kill me, send me to my gods? Rip my entrails out with that knife?’
‘Yes…’
‘Interesting!’
His horse pranced restlessly. It was waiting for something.
Something was looming behind the black-eyed man. Something dark, something that had its roots in the first night. Shadows that were hungry.
Just like the man in black. He was hungry in this unapologetic way – everything was his and for him to take. Leira’s skin crept from looking at him. Not only because he was not a human – and belonged to legends and scary tales, wiped long ago from memory of humankind. But because he knew how to get what he wants, always.
It could be felt.
It could be sensed.
Slowly, very slowly, the shadows began to swirl around her lover, caressing his skin with gentle strokes; his confused expression reminded her of her father when her mother told him she was leaving. The shadows slid over his limbs, binding his arms and legs in a tight grip.
And just as slowly, they entered his skin, filling him up.
Mira’s eyes opened wide. So wide. A groan escaped his lips. Painful and not painful at the same time.
‘Humans are made for pain… and pleasure,’ beautiful, cruel words. ‘Both are equally carnal to them. And both can be their downfall.’
Mira groaned again, louder this time. Leira noticed sweat on his temples. There was something in him… that made him feel things that terrified Leira.
She felt her limbs weakening. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Her whole being was screaming against it. She could still feel him inside her, the way he loved her. And now…
The man’s smile was predatory and Leira felt it in her bones… a hopeless fear blossoming inside her.
Run.
Now.
But Leira knew they wouldn’t let her escape.
Mira didn’t scream, but his body was suffering, as was Leira. His skin tensed, slowly revealing blackening, bulging veins. Leira could see them growing, and the blackness spreading under his skin.
The man in black leaned forward, tilting his head curiously. Mira’s skin began to stretch. His whole body changed shape, like a clay doll. The sound of his bones shifting was deafening to Leira. The sound of a world falling apart. His eyes popped out of their sockets and his skin bubbled like boiling water.
He began to scream excruciatingly and fell to his knees, also – almost – like her father when her mother had left. Leira had to do something. Anything! Her mind was racing, but her actions were faster than her thoughts.
She decided to do something stupid. So stupid. Reckless. But she couldn’t stand to see him in agony. He loved her and offered her something no one else in her life had.
She slowly approached the man on the horse, trying to be brave. Trying not to think about what might happen. Trying to find a spark inside her that would allow her not to run away.
That was never an option.
The man lazily shifted his gaze from the tormented Mira to her, his smile ever-present, as if he knew something that was hidden from everyone else. Leira felt herself losing control of her body, feeling only the force, the force of her will, pulling and guiding her forward like strings attached to her arms and legs.
‘Please. No,’ her eyes rose. Bravely. Without a doubt. They met his black emptiness. ‘I’ll do anything, just stop.’
A smile still played on his face, but only for a small, insignificant second. His lips formed an expression that sent a real shiver down her spine. Real, because she understood.
No matter what she did, they would be dead.
‘So this is what humans do now,’ he remarked, his tone laced with irony. ‘They sacrifice themselves.’ You feel so deeply for him. So intensely. Devotion. A truly admirable act.’
Humans.
And they weren’t humans.
Creatures from old stories, pointed ears, painful beauty, fairy tales, scary stories by the fire.
‘And so promising.’
Mira’s body bent unnaturally, his eyes turning black.
‘No!’ Non-existent tears welled up in Leira’s eyes, threatening to break the dam. She didn’t want to show them that they were able to make her cry, even if they knew she was doing it, deep in her soul, deep in her heart. If she showed it… it would be the end.
It happened so quickly… like a spring storm rushing over fertile fields, flooding them with destructive rain.
She knew it would be the end of her free will. They knew it too. Tempting love invaded her mind, mixed with fear… a sick and terrifying mixture of contradictions.
‘But the sacrifice would not be complete without the delightful hopelessness’ a single shadow danced around her, caressing her face, to which she responded with a movement of her head; the shadow followed her persistently. ‘He can suffer like this for months… but I can spare him. More! I can restore him to a perfectly acceptable shape’ The inhuman glow in his eyes sucked her soul away, taking her to the underworld, among the dead. ‘I can give him back to you. But you must also offer me something. I want to see how much you are willing to give of yourself for the one you love.’
Leira did not want to understand what he had just said. Her soul immediately rejected it. But her heart was beating faster than ever, she knew what he meant. The birds singing, the spring greenery and the light breeze around them suddenly became black and dull, cold, devoid of colour.
The others, the woman and the four men who had come with her tormentor, looked at her with charming smiles, as if they were watching a family scene. She felt sick.
‘Be able to resist what I am about to offer you. Pain, pleasure. Endure… without sobbing, movement or sensual cries. Fill our eyes with your strength. And I will give you your life back.’
The woman behind her laughed. Leira suddenly felt an icy chill, and her limbs became even weaker than before.
Don’t say a word.
Fill our eyes.
His eyes.
She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t. But when she looked at Mira and saw him writhing in agony…
He could suffer like this for months.
And she knew she had to.
‘Yes,’ she said with her lips before her mind could even think. She raised her head. A glistening wetness appeared in her eyes, but she was ready.
Even if she wasn’t.
The man dismounted his horse, gracefully, like a fallen god. His steps were supple, soft, when he was approaching her, like a predator slowly getting to its prey, hypnotized by its gaze. His smile was frighteningly sweet. Like a sugar trap.
‘Yes… fascinating,’ he said with genuine, unfeigned interest. ‘Strong character, so endearing.’
’I’ll play your game. If you let him go,‘ her voice trembled this time.’
’Of course. Why wouldn’t I? Since I can enjoy a much more interesting struggles.’
Leira closed her eyes. There was only one path. Only one way. Otherwise this man will take. And this will be the end.
Do what you want. I will not back down.
The wind ruffled her hair, a wind carrying snow. It tangled it and covered it in white. The whole world stood still, waiting to see what would happen.
Leira knew that the world would not save her, she had to save herself.
The man with the black eyes touched her cheek. His fingers were long and pale…
… and suddenly she was full. She was full like never before.
Filled with a burning pain that filled her body; the scream of a melting flesh. Sharp nails digging into her muscles, a mouth devouring her alive. And something even worse. Something pooling between her legs, a cruel pleasure, worse than pain, worse than anything she had ever felt. The man with the black eyes had become the only point that existed now… sucking in both her pain and her pleasure… as if… feeding on them.
Leira’s mind drifted away so quickly. Pain built up in her muscles, in her very being, dancing with pleasure that overwhelmed her senses. No… you can’t scream. You… can’t… scream.
Shadows crowded into her veins like an aphrodisiac. Like the cruelest instrument of torture. Designed to break her and condemn Mira to death.
No…
You cannot scream.
Her back did not bend and her tears did not flow. She had to hold on. She had to. It was her only hope, her only way to escape. One minute. Five. Ten.
Her will fought against the pain, but she was so close to losing. One more second. One more…
I can’t, Mira…
…please forgive me.
She wanted to scream, she really did. Broken by sensations that were not meant for a human being. But both the pain and the pleasure stopped.
Her body collapsed on the forest floor like a rag doll.
‘That was… impressive,‘ the man said again, his voice so tempting and kind. Cruelly sweet.
Her throat burned.
Her muscles ached.
‘Mira…’ she gasped, her vocal cords failing her.
The man watched her for a moment, then slowly approached the crawling Mira. He was cowering, suffering as she had suffered a few seconds earlier. The man’s boot raised his chin, and Leira could see the agony in his teary eyes.
‘Your beloved wants me to keep my word,’ he murmured almost sensually. ‘But how can I let you go from under my control when she has not kept her word?’ he turned to Leira. ‘No scream is louder than the wailing of a tortured mind. And no movement is more eloquent than the twitching of tense muscles under the skin.’
An angry scream full of pain and defeat broke out of her chest.
Cold. So cold. Outside and inside her. It devoured her slower than the shadows of that monster.
He would never spare Mira.
He had prepared this answer especially for her to show her how powerless she was.
The man in black waited, curious, dangerously focused on her. She was filled with a powerful hatred. Hatred, fear and a hopeless will to fight. But she knew she couldn’t. And that was the cruelest thing in this already cruel game.
Tears finally filled her eyes – her defeat and their victory – but slowly, feeling as if her body did not belong to her, she picked up the knife he had dropped in agony, looking at him with empty eyes.
He could suffer like that for months.
Fill our eyes.
Even the thought of it was terrifying. Even if it was the only way. Even if it was salvation.
Mira just looked at her. The tormenting shadow receded, his body was still tense, it still hurt, but… he just looked at her.
‘Leira…’ he whispered.
She couldn’t.
She had to.
The black-eyed one would fill him with shadows again. He wouldn’t be allowed to live. And he had made him stay conscious just so he could look at her like that.
Her anger, strong and defiant, choked her. Fear was replaced by dark determination. They could torture her. But they would not take away her love. Her body refused to obey her, but she crawled to Mira, fighting for every inch of the way to him. She would not let them win.
She would not let that man gloat over his suffering.
Their last moment of pure love filled her mind. She wanted to leave her home, to hunt with him, to live with him.
She wanted to carry his child.
The only person who truly cared for and loved her.
The only person who truly mattered.
But now… she would die too. With his blood on her hands, her last minutes before death would be filled with pain after she had taken his life.
She caressed his face, hating herself for it… She touched his hair… it was wet and sweaty under her trembling hand. She despised herself for daring to touch him, but she had to feel him one last time.
She remembered his smell, of leather and smoke, his lips on hers when he took her to his house in the forest he had built. The warmth of his bed, his embrace.
His tender and loving touch.
She would die today, with the knife that took his life in her hand.
She couldn’t think about it, tears welling up in her eyes.
‘Leira, please…’ his voice was low, altered, unlike the one she heard every day. He didn’t want to die. And that tore her heart into a million little pieces. She felt a ball of grief and fear choking her, pushing the air out of her lungs.
She grabbed his hair… once rough to the touch, familiar… now tousled and wet, so terribly wet….
She lifted his head, revealing his neck, now tense and hard as stone…
‘Leira…’
Her hand did not tremble, which frightened her even more…
… and she cut his throat.
The knife went in so easily, frighteningly easily. Separating him from the life they could have lived together.
The man in black looked at her with cruel emptiness.
The others laughed, satisfied, as if his death was a valuable prize.
Blood spurted onto her hands, her vision blurred; she dropped the knife in the grass, the laughter of her tormentors reaching her like from a bottomless well.
But the man in black was looking at her, not even smiling… he was looking at her with morbid curiosity.
As if he were judging her and wondering how much more she could take.
Leira’s body trembled. Only a few minutes ago, he had loved her. He would never do that again.
She wanted to scream at the man in black, to tell him to kill her now if death was so exciting for him. But her throat was unable to utter a word and her mind was unable to form a coherent thought.
And she didn’t want to die.
The black eyes pierced her soul.
The masked woman said something to her tormentor.
But she couldn’t hear it. Shadows wrapped around her neck and crept under her clothes, penetrating her skin. She felt both pain and an unwanted pleasure. Not as strong as before, but not related to pain and more… perverse. She lost herself, despised herself, her body pulsed and tried to resist.
But the goddess had mercy. She fainted before anything happened that she would have truly hated.
She sank into the void.
*
Lorian’s smile faded. The human woman lay unconscious at his feet.
Humans are so fragile.
So easy to control.
So willing to be broken.
He could still feel the fire, the cruel flame in his veins, travelling to his most sensitive places, mixing agony with pleasure. An outburst of suffering, incomparable – this time – with his nightly tortures, but even worse… blurring the boundaries.
Nymre came closer. Her aura was wild; she wanted him, he could feel it. His vicious raven. The violence increased her desire tenfold.
However, this human woman amused him. She was… promising.
‘We’ll take her with us.’
Nymre’s smile disappeared from her face, her desire for sex cut like with a sharp knife.
‘Why? You already have many slaves,’ she didn’t add too much, but Lorian knew that was what she was thinking, even if he didn’t read her mind. This time.
‘Your Majesty…’
Alnam. Of course. Always present.
‘It was amusing, my lord, but most of our portals will not accept her. She will die. If we transport her in the traditional way, even with those that allow it, it will take… much longer.’
Lorian’s eyes met Alnam’s gaze.
Yes, Lorian knew what Alnam was thinking now. Cruel. Unnecessarily ruthless. Sadistic for no reason. He killed my son – the thought surfaced, even though Alnam didn’t want it to, an old wound from which pus was still oozing.
Pain. Hatred. So strong that it touched him in an almost intimate way.
Alnam’s strong will to resist, even if he would never do it, not in reality. Perhaps it was Alnam’s suppressed, hopeless hatred that brought him the greatest pleasure and pain, the boundaries blurred again, a cloying and desired taste of rot.
‘She will hate you, Your Majesty,‘ Alnam added.
‘Perhaps her hatred is what I really need,’ Lorian smiled at him with his most beautiful smile. The sun rising over the winter mountains.
Perhaps hatred was what kept him sane as pain came, the world exploded in blue, and blood boiled in his veins.
Beautiful. Powerful.
Intoxicating.
Pure.
And dangerous. Impressive in its strength.
