Hell was where she burned, where she cried, begged and pleaded.
Azriel was her only way.
Nimou, Princess of the Kingdom of Seas is trapped in a storm of nightmares and pain that threatens to come alight with each step forward.
Azriel, her saviour...
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"It's always one step forward and three steps back" - Olivia Rodrigo
CHAPTER ONE SNOW COVERED GRAVE
One more . . . one more step. She scraped her cold feet along the chilled snow that melted between her toes, her skin reacting with flaming splotches of red, the bareness angry with every whimpering step. She lost feeling a long way back, but every step mattered. If she doesn't keep moving, she will die. And everything she suffered through would be for nothing.
Nothing– Her near-bare body whistled against the chilling air, shuddering with every bold push, the small slits of thin fabric the only source of warmth against the bone-chilling air. Every whistle took a breathless bite. Every piece of her glittered with goosebumps, the angry red spreading from her fingers and toes darted to her legs and arms. Her body begged her to stop and bury herself in the snow. And willed the cold to take her. She had no time left, this was it. Death will meet her.
One more step, she begged. Her foot launching forward and crunching under the freshly fallen snow, she knew it wasn't one more. But if she couldn't push then this was it. She would die here, alone. No one would find her, her body decimated by the countless creatures that lived in this forest, leaving her ghost in its wake.
She knew better than to bargain with a mad male. She knew he wouldn't let her go, not alive. She knew his end of the bargain wouldn't be as forthcoming as she had hoped, but she was left with no other choice. Her only way out was to bargain, and it left her with no solace, no hope.
But time.
The snow danced around her small frame, her vision blurring the farther she pushed. Her roaring hand rose to protect her vision from the dancing flakes, each melting as they latched onto her skin. Melting and disappearing, she wished that could be her.
Another roar of wind rattled through the trees, the cold piercing her with hundreds of spikes laced in freezing cold. She let out a gasp, her breath dancing into the air and suffocated by the cold. Her legs tumbled into the mounds of snow, her body losing all function. This was it. She couldn't go any farther.
One more.
"Do you like it?" The boy asked softly, his turquoise eyes dancing along the water's edge. He couldn't face rejection, not from her. Not from this otherworldly female that held so much of his heart.
Her pale hands ran along the chain delicately, her fingertips curving along the cerulean droplets. The blue matching her veins perfectly burrowed beneath her milky skin. She gave him the sweetest of smiles and placed the chain into his open palm. His warm face gazed at her beauty. This remarkable Fae, his future wife. By the Cauldron, he was lucky.
It's all he ever did when she was in the same room as him, just stare at this breathtaking female. "I love it." She whispered, turning her back from him and lifting her long hair from the nape of her neck. The whisps tickled her cheeks as the smell of salt filled her nose. Home, home was calling her. Home was caressing her cheek and filling her lungs with warmth, a reassurance. "I don't need an offering. But it is very sweet of you."
