16. Flavia
Flavia
H e loosened his grip, and I flung myself away. “Don’t.” The word came out sharper than any fang. “Don’t touch me.”
“Neidr—”
“No.” I stood, putting distance between us, my hand pressed to the fresh marks burnt into my skin. The black lines pulsed with his venom, and each throb sent waves of rage through me that I could barely contain.
“Do you know what you’ve done?” My voice cracked on the words, fury and heartbreak warring in my chest. “Do you even understand?”
His multiple eyes blinked in sequence, and for once he seemed uncertain. “I claimed you. Protected you from the forest’s call.”
“You marked me!” The rage that had been building exploded outward, shaking the very air around us.
“Years. Years I spent being scarred for someone else’s pleasure, someone else’s need to own and control.
And the first time another of my kind appears, the first time anything threatens your control of me—you do the same thing. ”
The words tasted bitter, like betrayal. Because beneath the fury was something worse. I had begun to believe he was different. Had started to trust that the gentleness he’d shown me was real, that his protection came without the price of my freedom.
“It is not the same.” His voice hardened, defensive. “I am not them. You came to me for protection, I have provided it.”
“I came to you for revenge. Not to trade one master’s knife for another’s fangs.” I backed further away as he stood, his form towering in the dim grove. “She called them pretty scars. Pretty. Like decorations. Like I’m your property to mark as you see fit.”
The truth sat like a stone in my chest. Part of me understood why he’d done it. I had felt forest’s pull, its desire for power above all else. But understanding didn’t heal the wound of betrayal, didn’t erase the sick familiarity of waking up with new scars.
“You are mine.” The words burst from him with enough force to shake the trees. “You swore it. Mind, body, soul?—”
“I lied. I intended to die.”
He froze. “You never intended to be mine.” I saw him break then, saw the realization crash over him like a wave—that in trying to keep me, he had driven me away. But I couldn’t stop, couldn’t hold back the poison that had been building in my chest.
“You once called me pathetic. And you were right. When I came to you, I was desperate. But even in my pathetic state, I promised myself I would never let anyone own me again.”
He moved closer, and I could see the possessive madness in all eight eyes.
“Three hundred years I have been a slave to hunger, to this ancient curse. But it wasn’t until I met you that I understood unending desire.
To a need so deep that I sometimes fear it will unravel the very threads of my existence.
No matter your intention, you are mine, neidr. I cannot let you go. ”
There was raw pain in his voice and it called to something deep in my chest. The part of me that had found safety in his arms, that had seen the beauty in his monstrous form, that had begun to imagine a future shared between two creatures of hunger and rage.
But that future lay in ashes now, burnt by his inability to trust that I would stay without chains.
“You were going to kill me when we first met,” I said, forcing steel into my voice. “To devour me. Don’t lie to me about what you are.”
“You came seeking a monster,” he replied, his voice deadly quiet. “And are now surprised you found one?”
The marks on my neck continued to throb. “No, only that I thought he might understand me.”
The corners of his eyes softened. “My neidr…”
But I was already running.
The forest blurred past as I pushed my new body to its limits. I heard him crashing through the forest behind me.
I didn’t care. The wound at my throat throbbed with each heartbeat, his venom ensuring it would scar exactly as he’d intended. Another chain. Another claim. Another reminder that my body would never truly be my own.
The trees began to thin, and I realized I’d run further than ever before. The edge of his territory. The boundary of his web’s influence. One more step and I would be in truly wild forest, completely on my own.
I stopped at the invisible line, breathing hard.
Not from exertion—my transformed body could run for hours—but from the weight of choice.
Behind me lay Ysu’s grove, his obsessive protection, his suffocating need.
Ahead lay the unknown, others like me who might understand the burden of transformation.
The marks pulsed, reminding me of venom in my veins, of promises made under blood moons, of the terrible intimacy we’d shared. He was right about one thing—he was in my blood now. Part of me in ways that went beyond the physical.
But that didn’t mean I had to accept his chains. I’d made a promise to him, but he had always known the truth. Humans lie. And I was still human—at least a small part of me. And I had made a promise to myself first.
I took one step across the boundary. Then another. Each movement away from his web felt like tearing silk, like breaking something that had been woven into my very essence. But I kept walking, even as the forest around me changed, becoming older, stranger, less familiar.
Let him rage. Let him hunt. I would not be anyone’s pretty prize, marked and displayed for ownership. Not anymore. Not even for the monster who’d saved me, who I thought I had maybe…
I shook my head, banishing the thought. No going back now.
The wolf-woman had spoken of standing stones. It was time to learn what I could be without Ysu’s shadow defining my every step.
Behind me, the forest shivered with his devastation. But I didn’t look back.