Rurik was jolted awake by the horrific screams of a woman. Frantically he looked around only to see the Princess withering on the sofa with her eyes glazed silver. He at once crawled back. The scene was horrific. She looked possessed. “What the freaking hell is this?” He mumbled. His head was splitting with a headache and the Princess, who was screaming her lungs out, was engulfed in blue flames. The pulsing energy out of her body didn’t make the creepy situation any better. “Princess! Are you okay?” He tried calling her several times but with she didn’t respond at all. He turned and frantically looked around. “Esmer! Where are you? Something is wrong with the Princess!” On his feet, he ran wild in all directions, but neither Esmer nor Ambrose were anywhere to be found. He looked around the room the King was occupying. Dumbfounded, he ran a hand through his hair and tried to make sense of anything. He remembered trying to kill the King… No, he wasn't the king. He was a demon. A

The shrill holler of wind was deafening and Ambrose at once took his chance pushing Esmer inside the narrow secret passage. He was carrying Laylin who had passed out suddenly. She was burning with a high fever. He grimaced looking at her but kept his eyes firmly in front of him . Getting out of here is the priority now. Esmer who was at the entrance had her eyes clouded. She was trying to bring back the knight. Scoffing at her, he kept moving forward. He didn’t care for both of them. They could as well both be caught and dealt with. They weren’t trustworthy and both seem to be having ulterior motives. He vaguely remembered diving deep to the knight’s lifeline to quench it when he was unconscious. It was utterly possible that the knight had tried to sneakily attack him. The thing with his demon shadow was that it was mostly instinctive unless he deliberately tried to control it. So if he was unconscious or was out of it, he won’t even recall what had happened around him but his de

Esmr being the competent witch she was, was quick to make a bubble-thin barrier to help them cross to the lake's surface. They say the water in the summer had a much lower quantity than in the winter. As the very depth of the water lake is warm, the ice on it melts frequently but builds up just as fast when the weather changes. They were unlucky as this was a very cold week. Laylin was drowsy as water spat out of the hole and began filling the pipe, Ambrose jumped up and grabbed Laylin by the waist. She, who was drowsily swaying, didn’t protest. Her mind was much clear now but her limbs were still feeling too numb to function. Ambrose eyed the flimsy barrier and turned to Esmer. “Will it even hold if a fish slammed its thin tail against it?” he quickly demanded, narrowing his eyes at the witch, who blinked at him in shock. But her hesitation was just momentary. She grabbed Rurik’s sword from the sheath and launched it at the barrier. ‘CLANG!’ “Ah!” With a loud shattering voic

‘What a sloppy monster.’ he grumbled in thought, looking at the two out of the water in one piece. Then, as both of them slumped beside them, Ambrose felt a glare. With a brow raised, he turned to see Rurik who averted his glare at once to Esmer who was coughing up water. So he expected him to save them? Did this knight think highly of him now that he was tagging along with him? He turned to Laylin and helped her up, “We need to get you some place warm. Let’s go.” Laylin heard a grumbling voice, then flinched when she felt something vibrate under her hands on the frozen lake surface. The monster was moving underneath. Her head snapped up to tell them when they were all stiffened with realization and blindly ran to get off the ice at once. 'CLASH!' Ambrose grabbed her by the waist and Rurik grabbed the witch. The ice began cracking as a strong clash against the ice shook the surface. Rurik stumbled but soon got his bearing. 'CLASH!' Hurriedly, they ran across the wide river but

“I haven’t even had breakfast yet… Aren’t you going to get me something to eat first?” Laylin haughtily added, giving Ambrose a firm glare as he stared at her in a dumbfounded manner. His hand on her ass was back but much firmer, not letting her move. Laylin’s stomach churned in terror. Had she provoked him after all? The longer the silence persisted from him, the more she feared she did provoke him. While Ambrose's eyes darkened there thinking about the crappy food they would have here to eat. He wondered what she had been eating here until now. His wife was from the finest of lineages one could have except the twisted Rakhbar Royalty. His wife had always been adorned in the finest of silks and decorated with the most renowned of jewels. When he had seen her in those rags, he had felt himself almost blinded with anger, one of the reasons he had launched at the palace without a firm plan. His hold on her tightened and his eyes blazed further. Laylin suddenly felt like her husband