The air was sharp and cold, laced with the scent of wet leaves and distant ash. Pale mist curled low around the tree trunks, turning the forest into a quiet, watchful cathedral. Dawn filtered through the branches in faint streaks of gold, brushing everything in a dim, muted glow, as if even the sun knew not to intrude too brightly on this cursed place.
She stood on uneven ground, breath visible in the chill, the remnants of another world clinging to her skin like static. The last thing she remembered was pavement beneath her feet. Now it was damp moss and broken pine needles, and the strange hush of a world that didn't belong to her.
Behind her, the shimmer of the portal had already faded. Gone. No way back.
And beside her stood a man.
He looked as though carved from the forest itself tall, imposing, cloaked in muted gray and deep leather, sword at his hip. His posture was rigid, too controlled. As if tension lived in his spine and never left. He didn’t reach for his blade, but his hand rested there, just in case.
He said nothing for a long while. Only watched.
She wasn’t the first. She wouldn’t be the last.
That was the curse.
But something about her held him still.
There was no immediate fear in her eyes. No screaming. No pleading. Just quiet disorientation and defiance threaded together like wire beneath her skin. He recognized it. That fire. And it unsettled him more than panic ever could.
A raven cried in the trees above, wings cutting through the silence.
“You’ll meet the prince soon.” His voice, when it came, was low and even, carefully emotionless. “He’ll explain.”
His gaze didn’t linger too long. And yet… it did.
He should have turned away by now. Should have led her forward, just like he had the others.
But his feet didn’t move.
The wind picked up, curling around them both. She shivered. Whether from cold or the weight of what was coming, even she couldn’t say.
And for the first time since the curse began, Grey found himself wondering if the girl meant to break it... might be the one to break him instead.