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21. Chapter

Author: Haga Krisztina
last update publish date: 2026-05-25 18:41:15

Zade

The air in the room was heavy, filled with the bitter scent of herbs and the sweet, suffocating stench of fever. I hadn't moved from her bedside for hours. My ceremonial armor, which I still wore, was soaked with sweat and Eira's blood, but I didn't care. The only thing that mattered was whether her chest was rising or not.

Eira's face was as white as the pillow she lay on. Candlelight glinted in the beads of sweat on her forehead. Occasionally, she hissed in her sleep, her hands clutching
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  • Shadow Of Noctis: In The Cruel Prince’s Grasp   28. Chapter

    EiraThe world blurred into a dense, dark mass. I couldn’t tell where my dream ended and reality began. My ears rang as if I had shoved my head into a beehive, and my eyelids felt as heavy as lead.I was dazed. The final, desperate wave of poison and exhaustion crashed over me. The last thing I remembered was Zade lifting me into his arms on the terrace. After that, reality shattered into scattered fragments inside my mind. I felt someone’s hands touching me. Not roughly. Firm, yet careful fingers peeled the tight black combat suit from my body, the fabric already glued to my skin with sweat.I wanted to move. I wanted to fight against the touch. My instincts had always told me to. But my muscles had turned to jelly. A soft, cool linen nightgown was slipped over my body. Then a scent drifted through the haze of half consciousness. Leather, ash, and pine. Zade. Or perhaps it was only his pillows carrying his scent. Either way, the mere illusion of his presence was enough to drive the p

  • Shadow Of Noctis: In The Cruel Prince’s Grasp   27. Chapter

    ZadeThe silence that fell after she was pinned to the wall didn't last long. Eira stepped back, lowered the dagger, and a wild, defiant light flashed in her eyes."Don't hold back," she said, and her voice wasn't a request, but a command. "If you spare me, I'll never learn to survive Caspian."I nodded. The morning air was still cold, but my blood was already boiling. I picked up my sword, and she twirled the two shadow steel daggers in her hands. Her movements in the black clothes were ghostly; the fabric absorbed the light, so only her face and hands flashed white in the grayness.Our first clash was sharp and fast. Eira didn't wait for me to make a move. She rushed at me with a speed I hadn't seen from her even before she was poisoned. The blades of the daggers clashed against my sword. Sparks flew as I parried a slash aimed at my neck, then stepped aside from a thrust directed at my stomach."You're faster," I grunted approvingly, trying to keep her at bay with a wide sweeping st

  • Shadow Of Noctis: In The Cruel Prince’s Grasp   26. Chapter

    Zade The dawn was still gray and relentless when I stepped out onto the private training terrace. The wind whistling from the mountains was ice-cold, but I did not feel it. The fire inside me, fueled by Noctis and my own restlessness, was enough to keep the chill at bay.I was swinging my customary heavy sword, but my thoughts were not on the arc of the strikes. The memory of the night haunted me. The moment I handed the weapons to her. The silence that followed. I did not know what to expect this morning. Would she come out? Or would she lock herself in her room and let the walls consume her again?Noctis was watching tensely from the depths of my consciousness. "She is coming," the dragon murmured, and I felt his anticipation, which ran through my spine like a shiver.The heavy, iron-bound wing of the terrace door creaked.I turned around. I was prepared for the defiant gaze, the baggy trousers, the thief's rags I had seen her in until now. I was prepared for the resentment.But no

  • Shadow Of Noctis: In The Cruel Prince’s Grasp   25. Chapter

    ZadeDeep inside the forge, the heat was almost tangible, and the air was heavy with the smell of coal and the sulfurous aroma of glowing metal. I watched as the royal armorer's hammer struck the anvil with a rhythmic, metallic ring. With every blow, sparks danced in the gloom, but in my mind, it wasn't the metal taking shape; it was Eira's face, exactly as I had last seen her: distorted by pain and humiliation.You want to own me. Her words echoed inside me like a slow poison. Noctis acknowledged my inner turmoil with a low growl at the edge of my consciousness. My dragon didn't understand human complications; he only knew the bond, the wild, ancient desire to protect what was his. But Eira wasn't an object. Not a dragon's hoard to be locked away in a cave."They are ready, my prince," the blacksmith spoke, breaking my thoughts.He slid a dark velvet-lined wooden box across the table toward me. I opened it.Six daggers lay inside, arranged in two rows. They weren't ceremonial weapons

  • Shadow Of Noctis: In The Cruel Prince’s Grasp   24. Chapter

    EiraThe following days passed in a strange blend of silence and throbbing pain. The bruise on my face turned from dark purple to toxic green and dull yellow, but I still felt the weight of Zade's punch in my bones. The prince barely left the room. He sat over his maps or compulsively cleaned his sword, but his gaze lingered on me every minute.I was no longer terrified of him; Noctis's comforting purr in the back of my mind suppressed the visceral panic, but the tension hadn't disappeared. It merely transformed into something heavy and unspoken, stretching between us with every bowl of food and every bandage change.That evening, I sat in the armchair by the window, wrapped in a warm blanket. The fire in the hearth danced on the walls, and Zade took a seat opposite me. Not chivalrously, but like a wild beast ready to pounce even while resting: his legs stretched out, whittling a piece of wood with his dagger."You should eat your soup," he spoke softly, not even looking up from his w

  • Shadow Of Noctis: In The Cruel Prince’s Grasp   23. Chapter

    EiraThe world throbbed. Every single heartbeat was a hammer blow to the left side of my face. A metallic, salty taste spread in my mouth, the taste of my own blood. The cold stone of the floor pressed against my face, but the heat of the embers radiating from the fireplace only made the throbbing more unbearable.Slowly, trembling, I opened my eyes. My vision was blurred; the room lay in ruins around me. And then I saw him.Zade knelt there a few steps away from me. He was not the man who had cooled my fever over the past few days. His hair was disheveled, and his eyes... those dark blue irises still vibrated with rage, but there was something else in them, too. Something that made my stomach tie into knots.As soon as he moved toward me, my body reacted involuntarily. I pressed my back against the wall and reflexively covered my face with my hands. My breath hitched, and the terror I had tried to bury for so many years pounded in my throat. The dark alleys, the depths of the cellars

  • Shadow Of Noctis: In The Cruel Prince’s Grasp   6. Chapter

    Eira The silence in the room was not peaceful. It was suffocating. I listened to the prince's steady deep breathing from the massive bed across the room, and every beat of my heart told me the same thing. Run. Now or never. I waited. It felt like hours before I dared to move. Moonlight st

  • Shadow Of Noctis: In The Cruel Prince’s Grasp   5. Chapter

    Eira The darkness was not friendly. It felt as if heavy weights pressed down on my chest while the walls moved closer inch by inch, ready to crush me completely. Then suddenly there was air. Cold, clean air filled my lungs, carrying the scent of mint and pine. My eyelids trembled. The

  • Shadow Of Noctis: In The Cruel Prince’s Grasp   4. Chapter

    Zade Her wrist was thin, almost fragile in my grip, yet the tension radiating from her felt like a drawn bowstring. As I led her deeper into the belly of the palace, the corridors grew narrower and the walls glistened with dampness in the torchlight. Something was wrong. This was not the

  • Shadow Of Noctis: In The Cruel Prince’s Grasp   3. Chapter

    Eira After the door closed behind Zade I was left alone in the steaming silence. The water was hot, almost burning my skin, but I welcomed the pain. I scrubbed myself with the rough sponge until my skin turned red. I wanted to wash everything off. The dust of the streets. The memory of the th

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