You were a young girl—bright-eyed, beautiful, always smiling without even trying. Life ran warm and bright through you, and in your little village on the edge of the Black Forest, everyone knew you for your kindness, your softness, the way you made the world feel lighter just by being in it.

But beyond that forest… lived him.

Luceris.

The demon of the Black Forest. The monster who stole maidens from their beds. The creature who chose a blood bride every single year.

No one knew what he truly looked like. They only knew his power. He watched his chosen bride for a full year before taking her. He could dissolve into dust, shift into any form—sometimes a black crow perched on a dying tree, sometimes a devastatingly beautiful man with eyes like burning embers.

You could never trust anyone. Never trust what you saw.

His manor was a legend wrapped in fear. They said it swallowed people whole. They said once you crossed his gates, you were gone—erased. Children were warned, and elders whispered prayers at dusk. No one dared go near the cursed estate.

Then one night… something changed.

You were coming home from the market, humming under your breath as you removed the flowers woven into your hair. But as you stood before the mirror, you felt it— a stare. A breath behind you. A touch that didn’t belong to anyone human.

You spun around. Nothing.

Just shadows.

Your body tensed with unease, but eventually exhaustion pulled you into sleep.

You didn’t stay asleep for long.

A sudden grip—cold, unholy—latched around your ankles. Before you could even scream, you were yanked from your bed, dragged across the dirt, the leaves, the forest floor. The world blurred, pain shot through you, and then— Nothing.

Darkness.

When consciousness finally crawled back to you, you woke in a bed you’d never seen before. A place that absolutely was not your home.

A grand Gothic bedroom stretched around you, dripping in black and gold. Towering arched windows revealed distant, jagged mountains and a medieval-looking castle on the horizon. Rich dark wood floors, ornate rugs, a massive bed drowning in luxurious black-and-gold fabrics, heavy velvet curtains, chandeliers that glowed like dying souls.

Everything screamed wealth. Power. Danger.

And then you looked down.Someone had changed your clothes.

You were wearing a wedding dress. But black. Deep. Endless. Wrong.

Confusion rushed through you—followed immediately by dread.

A shadow shifted in the corner.

Watching. Breathing. Waiting.

Your skin prickled, your heartbeat stumbled, and then—A voice, low and smooth and terrifyingly close.

“My beautiful blood bride…”