Chapter 5
NARYA
Gravyn wiped the blood from his sword on his cloak and smiled. It was the same hideous smile he gave to mask the cruelty behind his eyes. Behind him, a fallen Bloodstone warrior released a final, wheezing breath at the sky. A sound that would forever haunt me.
“Don’t — touch her,” Blayren rasped, barely breathing under the lùnraith’s weight. “She’s been — claimed!”
Gravyn glanced at him, his smile stretching. “Not in the eyes of our king.”
“Then,” Blayren choked out, “you will damn us all!”
The lùnraith pressed its paw deeper into his chest, dragging out a gut-wrenching groan from my father. I had to help him.
I crept my fingers towards the Bloodstone knife at my belt.
Just a little more… a little more…
“No,” Gravyn said, his eyes slicing back to me. “Only this one.”
He lunged then, knocking me down in one painful swoop. His incredible weight ripped the air from my lungs as I struggled to breathe underneath him. My mind blurred—that same position, the smell from that night—and I was back there, drowning inside my own skin.
I screamed and thrashed, every limb striking wild, fighting to throw him off. He was too strong. He crushed me to the floor and pressed a hand against my throat until my windpipe began to heave. My father roared every threat he could, every promise of vengeance.
“Keep fighting,” he hissed, “and I’ll string your sisters from the gates.”
“I’ll – kill you – before you do!”
He laughed while my father choked out blood. “You already tried once,” Gravyn said, his eyes glistening with sadistic glee. “How often I’ve thought of that night. Which reminds me…”
The metal slap across my cheek struck like lightning, filling my vision with stars. I swayed, dazed from the blow, as he hauled me upright and wrenched the knife from my grasp. He turned it in the light before sheathing it in his belt. He was smiling again, the sight making me shudder.
“Come now, petal. Let’s not keep your audience waiting. The lúnraith can keep your father company.”
Then he dragged me out across the cobblestones, through blood and chaos, towards the village. My father’s gurgled attempts at curses and threats faded with the distance. An auburn glow lit the sky’s edge. It was too early to be dawn.
My panic soared. I fought Gravyn every step of the way. He kept pulling me down the road, only pausing once to strike me again. My vision spun sideways and bile coated my tongue. It was useless. I couldn’t fight him the night he ruined me.
I couldn’t fight him now.
I prayed one of my sisters had had the sense to press Rueren to them and shield her ears as Blayren had done before. I prayed they remained safely below the floorboards.
By the time we passed the village gates, my arms hung numb by my side.
The market square flickered with torchlight. Stargala flags drooped from the rafters and awnings. In the centre stood the Justice Tree.
Some foolish part of me still believed the Bloodstone King’s claim meant protection, that his mark would keep me safe. But the crowd were cheering–-not for mercy—for punishment.
Gravyn spun me around and slammed me back into the trunk. He snapped his fingers, and two guards approached him carrying thick black rope. Dizzy and weak, I sagged as they bound my wrists, twisting my arms behind me and securing them tight to the tree. I was too exhausted to fight.
“Why are you doing this?” My voice cracked with desperation. “The Bloodstone King spared you—”
Gravyn’s face twisted into a sneer. “That bastard only did what our king wanted him to do.” He grabbed my face with his filthy fingers, pressing them deep into my bruised cheeks. “He took my son. Now I’m going to take his whore.”
His lips pulled back in a sneer.
“I should’ve let you drown the day my sister dragged you from the water.”
I stared, his face swimming through the haze.
“Oh yes,” he laughed. “It was Larissis who found you. You were like a sick little runt she begged me to keep.”
He yanked the rope at my waist tighter until my ribs screamed.
“I should’ve killed you then, but I loved my sister too much.” He leaned close, hatred burning in his eyes. “I just loved my son more. You’re going to pay for that.”
Then he stepped back and nodded to one of his men.
“Do it. Let us be rid of this Fateless, and pray the gods show mercy once she’s gone.”
Villagers cheered while a guard approached holding out a torch.
That was when I realised they weren’t going to whip me.
They meant to kill me. Burn me alive.
I tried to scream but no sound came out.
Not even breath could pass through my lips.
All I could do was watch as the guard lowered the torch and flames burned the base of the tree.
My skin would be next. I wasn’t ready to die, but my village had already decided.
Only when fire neared my feet did I find my voice, and I screamed.
I thrashed until the ropes bit into my skin. The villagers watched. How could they? How could they just watch? I walked their paths as a child, played in their fields, sang with some of their children. Even Petyr stood among them, next to his father.
How could they all look at me—and still do nothing?
“Petyr!” My voice cracked like the sky above us.
He didn’t move. He wasn’t smiling like his father, but he didn't move.
“Don’t let them do this!”
My scream broke again, raw and pleading. Heat licked near my toes. For a moment something flickered—fear or remorse, I couldn’t tell—but then he turned his head, as if I made him too ashamed to look. Coward!
That was when the tears in my eyes twisted into rage.
They would watch me burn and call it justice.
Not that they’d ever helped me before. They hadn’t stopped the whispers, or the bruises, or the day I bled on their stones while they stepped around me.
I stared as flames crawled closer, curling up the tattered hem of my dress.
The material hissed as it blackened. My skin would be next. There was no use in hoping someone would help me. Hope had only ever been a liar.
The truth fractured something inside me, and in its place, rage poured in until it filled every hollow part of me. If I was to burn beneath this tree, then I’d leave them something to fear.
Because what terrified them most? The gods. Especially the Moonstones. They believed the moon would one day fall from the sky and drown the realm in salt. What nonsense. But fear didn’t need to be real. Only loud enough to make them tremble.
And I was done being quiet.
“You think I’m the one you should fear?” I laughed at them. “The gods are watching you all, and they don’t forget!”
Their faces blurred behind smoke but I knew them. I knew them all.
“You fed me to the fire, so now?” My voice rose with the smoke.
“You’ll hear my screams when you close your eyes, in every dream, in every harvest. The gods won’t save you from this.
And when you beg them for mercy…” I lifted my chin, the flames catching in my eyes.
“I’ll be there, laughing, as you choke on the ashes you made of me! ”
Their expressions shifted, from malice into fear.
Until the sky cracked open and the gods answered them.