They called it the Sunspike. The Kingdom's idea of punishment, a dungeon perched on-top the tallest tower in the Kingdom of Percei, it was as hot as hell and there was barely any air to breathe.
No trial, not even a chance to prove myself innocent. Just a tight iron collar biting into my neck, and the scorching sun above me burning my naked body.
The floor sloped downwards and I could see the tower dropping into a yawning forest below. The chains didn't let me sit, but it made it close enough so I could reach the key to my freedom.
'Take it. Unlock yourself. Let your fall be your executioner.'
That was their game. A whore's choice, they called it.
Live and rot, or leap and be free. Either way, they would wash their hands clean.
The sun began to fall and I let out a sigh of half relief. My lips were split from the heat and i could barely remember the last time I had anything to drink. My skin stung where the sun peeled it and my legs were thin and numb from hours of standing.
I was once a princess. But he came on the day I was born. Damien. The King of Pieres, the werewolf kingdom.
He ordered that all human girl born on the night of the red moon be killed. It was because he feared the cursed prophecy. And that night all human girl born was put to death.
All except… me.
My parents, the king and queen of the human kingdom, begged on their knees for him to spare my life. In return they lowered the crown to him and gave him the throne. But he gave that one condition that ruined my life forever.
He commanded that my parents get rid of my face so that my beauty would be hidden.
"An ugly child would be better than none at all." my parents said.
Even as a newborn child, Damien never had mercy on me, why did I ever think he would do that now.
On the same day, I was given milk of the titan, it was named after the ugliest flower in the six kingdoms.
Ever since, I lived with this monstrous face like that of a burnt pig. I had no suitors and I was locked away from the world.
On my eighteenth birthday, I was given to him as a peace offering, a bride. But he treated me with all the filth and hate you would give a slave.
His Luna had died a century before and he had never moved on. I was just a replacement, but he hated me more than I knew he did.
The fact that I was there proved it. I used to have dreams in the dungeon. Little ones. That Damien would come to take me back. That it was all some sick mistake. But dreams died fast in the Sunspike.
Soon, I only dreamed of falling from the tallest tower in Pieres, and sometimes from a cliff.
A sounds cuts me off from my thoughts.
"Psst… Arla."
It was more quiet than a whisper. My head jerked up.
I turned and I saw him. Clinging to the iron bars.
The boy who lied against me, whose name I still didn't remember.
"What are you doing here?" I rasped.
"You," my throat felt like I swallowed a ball of thorns. "You lied against me—"
"I came to help. I swear it. I stole the key. I'm here to get you out." he dangled the keys in his hands
Liar. I still didn't trust him, not after he had accused me of sleeping with him.
He unlocked the prison bars and swung it open.
"Why did you lie?"
"I can't explain now," he said quickly. "There's no time."
He tossed a thin cloth into the dungeon. It was a rag, but it was better than being naked.
"Get closer," I said with a shaky breath.
"I can't. The ledge is too steep. If I slip—"
"Then don't."
He seemed hesitant when he reached with trembling fingers, unhooked the key from the nail inside the chamber, and threw it towards me.
I caught it with numb hands, the collar clicked open as I unlocked.
"We have to go," he urged.
He shifted into a brown wolf. Smaller than Damien's wolf, it was but fast.
"Come on," he says into my mind.
I climbed onto his back.
Trees blurred past us as we ran into the deepest belly of the woods. My body ached and I could feel my pup getting weaker inside me. But I held on as if my soul was being dragged from hell.
Maybe I'll be finally free. Maybe there was a new life waiting.
But then, he stopped.
The clearing was moonlit and quiet. Too quiet.
"Why here?" I asked, sliding off.
He didn't answer. The hairs on my skin rose.
"There's something we have to do."
A snap of branch made me flinch, was I hearing things?
I slowed down my ragged breath to listen carefully.
That's when I heard them, low growls. Dozens of them. Maybe more.
Eerie eyes blinked open in the trees, they were watching me.
Oh God!
They stepped out, one by one into the moonlight, with stiff tails and bared fangs. Their faces were familiar but definitely not friendly.
Damien's pack. The Wolfsbane.
The brown wolf that had brought me here stepped aside like a servant announcing royalty.
A black wolf strotted forward.
It was bigger than the rest. But its eyes were full of ice, they froze my insides and I almost felt them breaking.
Damien's wolf.
They didn't speak yet. Not that they had to.
I already knew what this was.
No one is coming to rescue me.
This is a hunt. And I am their prey