Lumina slipped through the shimring veil back into the Celestial Realm, legs trembling so violently she feared they might give out beneath her.
Each step sent fresh fire racing up her thighs and through her core a deep, throbbing punishnt from Ashen’s unrelenting hunger in the outer realm.
He had taken her more than seven tis, perhaps eight or nine, and she had lost count sowhere between the mirror and the bed. Rough, possessive, insatiable.
Her body bore every mark, bruises on her hips from his grip, bite marks blooming across her neck and breasts, the raw, swollen ache between her legs that burned with every movent.
Yet beneath the pain lingered a dark, secret thrill she had never felt so utterly claid.
She clutched her cloak tighter, forcing her spine straight despite the weakness in her knees.
The palace corridors were rcifully empty at this early hour, moonlight still silvering the quartz floors. She needed to reach her chambers, wash away the evidence of him, and compose herself before anyone noticed her disheveled state.
She was excited that no one was outside and was about to approach her door when a voice stopped her cold.
"It has been two days since I saw you. Where are you coming from?"
Lumina froze, eyes closing in silent gratitude that she had rembered to tie the blindfold back in place before crossing the veil.
She turned slowly, willing her voice steady despite the tremor in her legs and the lingering burn between them.
"Father." She called, worrying about what he would say now.
King Ryker stood at the corridor’s end, robes of pale starlight billowing slightly, face carved from granite. Behind him, two guards flanked a crumpled figure on the marble floor.
"This is not your first ti leaving the realm, is it?" he said quietly. She could see through his eyes that he was more than serious and this little act of her if she isn’t careful she might regret it.
"Since when have you had your little plans?" He asked again as Lumina swallowed.
"I do not understand what..."
"Lumina... don’t play with , I always knew every one of you sly little tactics to make punish Rhynera so just speak the truth." Lumina stared at her father, and she could tell that this man, with anger in his eyes, could not be played with. After all, he has been the king of the celestial realm for years.
"Father.." but a raw, animal sound of pain cut her off. It felt so familiar that she turned her head just enough to see through the blindfold’s edge.
And just like her doubt it got confird, it was Stella. Stella was no longer in human guise as she lay sprawled on the floor, wings unfurled and broken.
One wing bent at an impossible angle, the feathers streaked with blood. Bruises darkened her face and arms.
She had shifted involuntarily from the beating then her true form had been exposed delicately, and her iridescent wings now torn and bloodied, her body trembling with agony.
Lumina’s hands clenched into fists at her sides. Her father knew Stella’s identity of course he wouldn’t want to let her go, he must have kept her alive so she could see how brutal he wanted to end her so to teach her a lesson.
Rage surged through her, hot and blinding, but she forced herself still, rembering the role she played.
"You know that is her real form?" Ryker asked, voice dangerously calm.
Lumina’s throat closed. "Father... I do not understand what you are..."
Another scream tore from Stella as one guard seized the damaged wing and twisted. The sound of bone grinding made Lumina’s stomach lurch.
Of course, she knew what her father was trying to do, to know if she could see her father must have known too much.
"Stella... let my hand maiden go." The na escaped her, raw and broken.
Ryker nodded once and the guard bent the wing backward further. Stella’s cry echoed down the corridor.
Lumina’s blindfold slipped whether from trembling fingers or sheer fury, she did not know. There her Silver eyes blazed uncovered, tears already gathering.
"What are you doing to my handmaiden?" she demanded, voice cracking.
Ryker studied her for a long mont, then smirked. "Let her go." He ordered and the guards released Stella imdiately. She collapsed forward, gasping, wings quivering.
"You brought this curse into my realm despite knowing the truth."
"Father.." Lumina tried to call but he cut her off.
"Bring her to my reading chambers," Ryker ordered, gesturing to Lumina as he turned on his heel and strode away.
Lumina raised one hand sharply before the guards could touch her.
"Do not touch . I will walk by myself."
They hesitated, then stepped back. Lumina straightened her spine despite the fire in her legs and followed her father.
Behind her, she heard two soft thuds hitting the floor followed by Stella’s low, dangerous laugh.
"You bitches..."
Lumina allowed herself the smallest smirk. Of course. She had trained Stella well. Her handmaiden might look fragile in human form, but in truth, she was lethal when provoked.
The reading chambers were vast and silent, walls lined floor-to-ceiling with ancient tos bound in starlit leather.
There a long table stood in the center, and two priests in hooded white robes waited beside it, faces shadowed.
The mont Lumina crossed the threshold, the heavy doors slamd shut and locked with a resonant click.
Before she could speak, searing bands of celestial light snapped around her wrists and ankles golden chains of pure starfire that burned where they touched.
She gasped as they yanked her forward, forcing her to her knees in the center of the room.
The chains tightened, pulling her arms behind her back, stretching her shoulders painfully until she cried out.
"Father... I know you hate so much, but I am your daughter, your flesh and blood.." She let out in utter disbelief and disappointnt.
Ryker stepped forward, face carved from ice.
"Daughter?" He asked again as he broke into a dangerous laugh.
"Today," he said quietly, "you will die." Lumina’s heart stuttered hearing this, despite all these while she hears this word she has never trembled in fear as she did now.
"Father..." she called out in shock.
One priest moved behind her, forcing a vial to her lips. She twisted away, but the chains held her immobile.
Bitter liquid poured down her throat, familiar, acrid. The sa slow poison he had once laced into her food as a child, the one that still lingered in her blood, waiting to be awakened.
She choked, coughing, but they held her jaw until she swallowed.
The second priest stepped forward, hands glowing with pale light. He pressed his palms to her temples. Pain exploded behind her eyes white-hot, blinding.
The dormant poison surged to life, burning through her veins like liquid fire. Every nerve scread. Her back arched against the chains, a raw cry tearing from her throat.
Ryker watched impassively.
"You carry her curse," he said. "The sa power that betrayed this realm once. I allowed you to live because I thought... perhaps... You could be different." His voice cracked, just slightly. "But you are not. You are her and today that ends."
The priest at her temples pressed harder. Visions assaulted her mother’s face, smiling, then screaming as the blade took her head, as her own childhood, locked away blind.
Ashen’s arms around Breilla. Each mory twisted with pain, amplified by the poison until she could not tell what was real and what was tornt.
She scread again, body convulsing. Tears stread down her face, mixing with the sweat that poured from her skin. The chains bit deeper, searing her wrists and ankles, the sll of scorched flesh filling the air.
"Father... please..." Her voice broke, small and childlike. "I never... I never wanted to hurt you..."
Ryker’s jaw clenched. For one heartbeat sothing flickered in his eyes grief, regret, love but it vanished beneath the mask of the king.
"You are too dangerous to live," he said softly. "The realm cannot survive another enchantress."
The second priest began chanting an ancient rite of unmaking. Light gathered at his fingertips, brightening until it hurt to look at. Lumina felt it pulling at her essence, unraveling the threads of her soul. Her vision blurred, darkness creeping at the edges.
She thought of Ashen’s arms around her in the cottage, his rough possession, his whispered
"I love you." She thought of Stella, broken and bleeding for her. She thought of the child she might already carry.
No.
Sothing inside her snapped, as her eyes flew open, silver blazing brighter than the priests’ light.
The chains shattered.
The priests staggered back, stunned. Ryker’s face paled.
Lumina rose slowly, trembling, blood dripping from her wrists, poison still burning through her veins.
"Father.." Lumina called out broken and filled with rage, "I trusted and gave you several chances already."
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