Chapter 36 Ran away
Aurora's POV
The gravel crunched under my boots, each step a hard, deliberate strike against the dirt. Behind me, the King’s voice—that low, commanding rumble that used to make my heart skip—flung a single "stop" into the air.
I didn't flinch.
"He isn't talking to us," I muttered. The lie tasted like copper in my mouth.
Every inch of my skin still felt the phantom sting of the claiming ceremony. I could still see it if I closed my eyes: the way his gaze shifted the second she appeared. His wife. The woman he’d mourned, the ghost I could never beat. In an instant, I’d gone from his fated mate to a convenient placeholder. I was just a tool used to steady a fractured crown, discarded now that the original jewel had been found.
The debt was paid. I had saved his life, and he had broken my heart. We were even.
"Luna," Elio’s voice was hesitant, cutting through the heavy silence of the path. "Where are we going? The moment we pass those gates, the palace protection ends. The outside world... it isn’t kind to people like us."
I stopped and turned slowly to look at her. "Weren't you the one romanticizing the human world back in the kitchens? Why the sudden change of heart, Elio? Is the reality of freedom already too heavy?"
Kelvin stepped forward, his eyes scanning the treeline with a soldier’s instinct. "We just want to be sure this is what you want, not just your grief talking. We were assigned to you. We’re your shadows now. If we leave, we leave together, and we won't be punished—but the transition..." He paused, biting his lip. "We could leave a note for the Beta. Let him know where to find us if things get bad."
A sharp, bitter laugh escaped me. "A note? So the King can find me when he’s bored of his resurrected queen? No. I’m taking nothing from that palace. Not a dress, not a coin, and definitely not his permission."
I looked back at the towering spires of the palace one last time. It looked like a tomb. "I am his mate," I said, my voice dropping to a whisper that felt like a curse. "If he truly craves me—if the bond is as 'sacred' as the laws claim—he’ll find me even if he has to tear the world apart. Until then, I am dead to him."
We walked for miles. The silence between us wasn't uncomfortable; it was a plan forming. I watched Kelvin’s hands—the way he moved with a constant awareness of threat. He would teach me to kill. I watched Elio’s nimble fingers—she would teach me to heal. And I? I could keep us fed. We weren't a lunar court anymore; we were a survival cell.
The sun was dipping low, bleeding orange and violet across the sky, when an old truck rattled toward us. An elderly couple sat in the front, their faces etched with the kind of lines only decades of farm work can carve.
"Why are you children out here?" the woman called out, her voice thin but kind. "The wolves run these roads at night. Hop in, we'll give you a lift to the settlement."
Kelvin’s hand clamped onto my arm, his grip firm. "Luna, wait. Let me check them. Something is off."
I pulled my arm away, staring him down until he lowered his gaze. This was the first test of my new life. "We need to start acting like humans, Kelvin. Humans trust. Humans accept help. Stand down."
I climbed into the back, the smell of dry hay and old leather filling my senses. The woman handed us a jug of water. I drank deeply, the cool liquid soothing my parched throat, and watched the landscape blur past. For a moment, it was beautiful. The birds overhead seemed to dance in the twilight.
Then, the dance turned chaotic.
One bird split into three. Then six. The horizon began to tilt, the trees stretching into distorted shadows. I rubbed my eyes, but the world only grew fuzzier. I looked at Elio and Kelvin; they were already slumped against the side of the truck, their breathing heavy and unnatural.
"The water..." I wheezed, looking toward the cab. The old woman wasn't looking back with kindness anymore. She wasn't looking back at all.
Darkness took me before I could scream.
I woke to the smell of damp stone and something else—something that made the hair on my arms stand up. It was the scent of our kind, but sour. Rotting.
I bolted upright. My palace finery was gone, replaced by a simple, coarse shift. Elio and Kelvin were several feet away, their wrists bound tightly with thick hemp rope. They were still unconscious.
"Kelvin! Elio!" I scrambled over to them, my head throbbing from whatever drug they'd used. I shook them violently, panic rising in my throat like bile. "Wake up! Please!"
Elio groaned, her eyes fluttering open. She looked at me, then at her own rough clothes, then at the ropes binding her brother. "Luna... your dress... where are we?"
"I don't know," I snapped, fumbling with the knots. My fingers were shaking, but I managed to pick them loose. "This is exactly what Kelvin warned me about, and I didn't listen."
"Don't beat yourself up yet," Kelvin muttered, sitting up and rubbing his chafed wrists. "We need to find a way out."
We rushed to the heavy oak door, the only exit in the windowless room. I hammered my fists against the wood, the sound echoing hollowly. "Hello? Is anyone there? Let us out!"
Then, I heard it.
Footsteps. Slow, rhythmic, and terrifyingly heavy.
My heart didn't just beat; it thrashed against my ribs. A wave of familiarity washed over me, a physical weight that made my knees weak. My body recognized the vibration of that walk before my mind did. My hands instinctively clutched the hem of my dress. This wasn't the trembling of fear—it was the soul-deep recognition of a predator I knew all too well.
The shadow appeared first, long and sharp against the stone floor as the person turned the corner.
The door creaked open, and the flickering torchlight revealed a face that belonged in my nightmares, not this far from the border. He stood there, leaning against the frame with a look of terrifying, quiet triumph. He didn't look like a man who had captured a prize; he looked like a man who had finally trapped a nuisance.
"Look who walked right into my den," he said, his voice a smooth, predatory purr.
My jaw dropped. The air in the room suddenly felt too thin to breathe. "You..."