Aliena awoke to the sound of crunching leaves.
At first, she thought it was a dream, one of those half-formed nightmares where sound came before thought. Her head throbbed dully, and her body felt heavy, as though she had been sunk into cold water and dragged back out again.
Her eyes fluttered open.
Above her was not a ceiling of stone or carved palace beams, but a canopy of twisted branches. Moonlight filtered weakly through tangled leaves, casting warped shadows that seemed to crawl rather than remain still.
She sucked in a sharp breath.
The air smelled wrong. Damp, metallic, and faintly bitter, like something decaying beneath the soil.
She tried to sit up.
Pain flared through her wrists.
That was when she realized her hands were bound.
Rough rope dug into her skin, tethering her to a thick tree trunk behind her. Her ankles were secured as well, forcing her into an awkward seated position on the forest floor. Her dress was rumpled and smeared with dirt, her hair tangled and loose around her shoulders.
Panic surged.
"No," she whispered hoarsely, testing the restraints again. They didn't budge.
The forest around her was silent, but not peacefully so. It was the kind of silence that pressed against the ears, heavy and expectant, as if the land itself was holding its breath.
Footsteps approached.
Aliena's heart slammed violently against her ribs.
Three figures emerged from the shadows between the trees.
At first glance, they looked humanoid, tall, cloaked in dark, tattered garments that blended unnaturally well with the night. Their faces were partially obscured, but when one stepped closer into the moonlight, Aliena felt her stomach drop.
His eyes were wrong.
They glowed faintly, not red like a vampire's, but an oily, sickly amber that seemed to shift as he moved. His smile revealed teeth that were just a little too sharp, too numerous.
"You're awake," he said, his voice smooth and mocking, yet layered with something else, something that echoed, as though more than one throat spoke at once.
Aliena swallowed hard. "Who… who are you?"
The figure tilted his head, studying her as though she were a curiosity rather than a person. "Does it matter?"
"Yes," she snapped weakly. "It does."
A low chuckle rippled through the group.
"The palace girl has spirit," another said. "Even bound."
Aliena's fear deepened, but she forced herself to stay alert. "You'll be punished for this," she said. "My father will—"
"Your father won't find you," the first interrupted calmly. "This forest is old. Older than the palace. Older than your kind."
Her chest tightened. "My… kind?"
The figure crouched before her, close enough that she could smell the rot beneath his breath. "You really don't know," he murmured. "How delightful."
Aliena shook her head. "Know what?"
His smile widened.
"You stand at the edge of a war you don't even believe exists."
Before she could respond, a sound cut through the forest, low and resonant, like a distant growl vibrating through the earth itself.
The figures stiffened.
"What was that?" one hissed.
Aliena felt it then, a shift in the air, sharp and electric. The forest seemed to recoil, branches creaking softly as if disturbed by an unseen presence.
Footsteps followed, slow, deliberate, unhurried.
Out of the darkness stepped Sebastian.
He was clad in black, his cloak flowing like living shadow behind him. His eyes burned a deep, furious crimson, illuminating the darkness around him. Power rolled off him in waves, ancient, lethal, undeniable.
The forest recognized him.
The demons recoiled instinctively.
"So," Sebastian said coldly, his gaze sweeping over them before settling briefly on Aliena. "You've chosen to trespass."
Relief slammed into her so hard it nearly hurt.
" Prince Sebastian," she breathed.
He didn't look at her again. His attention remained fixed on the figures before him, his expression carved from ice.
"You took a girl from my palace," he continued. "Did you truly believe I wouldn't notice?"
The first demon laughed nervously. "Prince Sebastian. We meant no offense. She is merely… collateral."
Sebastian took a single step forward.
The ground beneath his boots cracked.
"She is under my protection."
Aliena's breath caught.
Protection?
"Since when do you concern yourself with palace vermin?" another demon sneered.
Sebastian moved faster than sight.
In an instant, he had the demon by the throat, lifting him clear off the ground. Dark energy coiled violently around his arm as the creature choked, clawing uselessly at Sebastian's grip.
"Since you forgot your place," Sebastian said softly.
With a sharp twist, he snapped the demon's neck and let the body fall lifelessly to the forest floor.
The remaining two demons staggered back in horror.
"You are demons," Sebastian said, his voice carrying deadly certainty now. "And you are far from the hell that spawned you."
Aliena stared at him in disbelief.
Demons?
"That's not possible," she whispered to herself. "They don't exist…"
Sebastian glanced at her sharply. "They do."
His eyes softened, just slightly as he added, "And you were foolish to wander alone."
The demons hissed and lunged.
What followed was nothing short of brutal poetry.
Sebastian moved like a force of nature, striking, tearing, dismantling them with terrifying precision. The forest shook with the impact of his power, shadows writhing as if alive.
Within moments, it was over.
Silence returned, thick and heavy.
Sebastian turned back to Aliena.
He knelt before her and sliced through the ropes binding her wrists and ankles with a swift motion of his clawed fingers. She gasped as circulation rushed painfully back into her limbs.
"Can you stand?" he asked, his tone clipped but not unkind.
"I… I think so," she said shakily.
He helped her up without hesitation, steadying her when she swayed. For a brief moment, she was acutely aware of how close he was, how warm, how solid.
Her hands trembled.
"Demons?" she asked again, disbelief coloring her voice. "You expect me to believe that?"
Sebastian met her gaze evenly. "You were abducted by creatures who walk between realms, Aliena. What else would you call them?"
Her mouth opened, then closed. She had no answer. The Prince coming to rescue her was enough to make her mute.
"You're safe now," he said firmly. "But this was not random."
Her heart skipped. "What do you mean?"
"They were testing boundaries," he replied. "And they will not stop."
He turned toward the forest path. "We're leaving. Now."
As they disappeared into the trees, Aliena cast one last glance behind her, at the darkened forest, the fallen bodies already dissolving into ash.
And deep in her chest, an unsettling realization took root, the world was far larger, and far more dangerous, than she had ever imagined. She didn't know demons existed, what else was out there?
And somehow, Sebastian stood at the very center of it.