LILY'S POV
Lily's feet were bleeding.
She could feel the cuts on her soles from the sharp stones in the street but she couldn't stop. Behind her the guards were getting closer. She could hear the sound of their armor clanging. The thunder of their boots on the cobblestones.
The city streets twisted and turned but they all felt the same. Dark. Narrow. Full of shadows where people watched from windows but did nothing to help her. She was a disgraced lady now. Accused of poisoning the Crown Princess. Nobody wanted to be associated with her.
Her torn dress caught on a wooden fence and she ripped it free without slowing down. The white silk was muddy now and stained with blood. Her hair had come loose and fell around her face in wild tangles. She looked like a madwoman.
Maybe she was becoming one.
The city gates loomed ahead. Those massive iron gates that people had to pass through to leave the capital. Lily ran toward them without thinking. Without planning. Just moving because stopping meant capture and death.
The guards at the gates saw her coming.
For a second she thought they would grab her. Close her in. But they just stared. Maybe they saw the madness in her eyes. Maybe they saw a girl with nothing left to lose. The guards on the city walls shouted down at the guards on the ground but nobody moved to stop her.
One of the guards actually stepped aside.
She burst through the open gates and kept running. The guards chasing her slowed down. They stopped at the threshold. Lily could hear them shouting but they weren't following anymore.
She looked back once and saw them standing at the gate entrance like they were afraid to go further.
That's when she saw the forest.
It rose up like a wall of darkness on the other side of the city walls. The Forbidden Forest. Everyone knew about it. You didn't go into the Forbidden Forest. That's where people disappeared. That's where magic still lived in the old trees. That's where ancient things waited to hurt you.
Lily ran toward it anyway.
The trees seemed to lean away as she entered like they didn't want to touch her. The leaves were thick overhead and blocked out the moonlight. It was so dark that she had to slow down just to see where her feet were going. Branches grabbed at her dress and scratched her arms. Roots tried to trip her.
She ran for what felt like hours.
Her legs screamed. Her lungs burned. She had no idea where she was anymore. Everything looked the same. Dark trees and darker shadows and the constant feeling of being watched.
Eventually her body just gave up.
Lily collapsed against a massive tree and slid down until she was sitting on the cold forest floor. She couldn't run anymore. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't think past the pain.
She was going to die here. In the dark. Alone.
And maybe that was better than the alternative. At least the forest wouldn't betray her. At least the trees wouldn't smile at her while destroying her.
Lily's eyes were closing. Her body was shutting down. This was what the end felt like. Cold and empty and full of nothing.
Then she saw the light.
It wasn't moonlight. It was something else. Something that glowed red and unnatural in the darkness. Lily's eyes opened. She forced her exhausted body to move. Forced her legs to carry her toward that strange glow.
The trees opened up into a clearing.
And Lily stopped breathing.
A massive stone circle sat in the center of the clearing. Ancient stones arranged in a perfect ring. Every stone was covered in symbols. Not normal symbols but something old. Something that made her skin crawl just looking at them. The symbols were glowing faintly red like they were alive.
A summoning circle.
Lily had heard stories about these. Old magic from the ancient wars. Dark magic that had been forbidden for centuries. To use one was to risk everything. To summon something was to invite death and worse.
She stepped forward anyway.
The grass around the circle was dead. Completely dead. Like nothing living was meant to grow here. The symbols on the stones were carved so deep they looked like scars. This circle had been used before. Multiple times. Whatever had been summoned here had left marks.
Lily walked to the edge of the circle and looked down at the symbols. She couldn't read most of them but some looked almost familiar. Like something her grandmother might have mentioned. Something forbidden and dark.
She didn't think. She just acted.
Lily picked up a sharp rock from the ground and pressed it against her palm. The stone was cold and rough. She took a breath and pressed harder. The pain came fast and sharp and real.
Blood welled up in her palm. Warm and dark and alive.
She stepped into the circle.
The symbols seemed to pulse when her feet touched the ground inside the ring. The red glow got brighter. Lily held her bleeding hand out and let the blood fall onto the closest symbol.
The moment the blood touched the stone, the entire circle exploded with light.
It wasn't gentle light. It was violent and hungry and full of something that felt like ancient anger waking up. The symbols blazed red so bright Lily had to squeeze her eyes shut. The ground beneath her feet started vibrating.
And she screamed.
She screamed because she was terrified. She screamed because she had nothing left to lose. She screamed because the pain in her heart was bigger than the pain in her hand and this was the only way she knew how to let it out.
"Help me," she sobbed into the darkness. "Anyone. Something. I don't care what you are. Help me destroy them. Help me burn them all."
The light got brighter.
The symbols glowed so intensely she could see them through her closed eyelids. The ground was shaking harder now. She could feel something building underneath her. Something ancient and powerful and absolutely terrifying.
"I'll give anything," Lily screamed. "Take whatever you want. Just help me. Please help me. I want them to suffer. I want them all to suffer."
The light reached a peak and for a second the entire forest was lit up like daylight.
Then something emerged from the symbols.
Smoke that wasn't smoke. Shadows that moved wrong. Darkness that had weight and hunger and intention. It swirled around Lily's body and she could feel it tasting her desperation. Tasting her rage.
A figure took shape in the center of the smoke.
A man. Tall and beautiful and absolutely terrifying. His eyes were burning amber like fire. His hair was black like the deepest night. He looked at Lily like she was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen.
And he smiled like he'd just woken up to the best day of his life.
Lily should have been afraid.
Instead she felt something like hope.