Chapter 3: The Thorn Prince's Summons
The mist convulsed.
Tiara felt it before she saw it—a deep, grinding tremor beneath her feet, as though the Neutral itself recoiled from something ancient and unwelcome. White vapor curled and thinned, revealing a darkness that bled upward like ink in water. Then the thorns came.
They pierced through the nothingness in jagged arcs, black and glistening, each vine studded with barbs that dripped with fresh, dark blood. They wove together with impossible speed, forming a briar arch that split the seamless white. The air turned sharp and green, thick with the scent of crushed nettles and something metallic—old copper, old wounds.
Seraphiel went still beside her. His wings folded tighter, silver feathers catching the pale light. He said nothing, but his jaw tightened.
A hand gripped one of the thorny vines and pulled.
The figure that stepped through the arch was lean and feral, every line of him carved from hunger and desperation. Copper-red hair fell in tangled waves past his shoulders, wild and unkempt, threaded with tiny leaves and the occasional petal of a wilted flower. A crown of woven thorns sat upon his brow, and fresh blood trickled from where the barbs bit into his skin, tracing pale paths down his temples and jaw. His face was sharp, angular, dusted with freckles that stood out against his unnaturally fair complexion. And his eyes—moss-green, fever-bright—found her immediately.
"You ran to a liar."
The words slithered through the mist, soft and venomous. He extended his hand toward her, palm open, and she saw the scars—thorns had carved their history deep into his skin, a lattice of old wounds that never fully healed. His fingers trembled. Not from cold.
"Let me show you what he never told you about your grandmother's pact."
Seraphiel shifted, a whisper of steel in his voice. "Caelum. This is not your place."
The Thorn Prince's grin was sharp and joyless. "Nothing is my place, angel. You made sure of that." His gaze never left Tiara. "You chose him because he offered peace. But peace is a lie he tells while he hides the truth." He took a step closer, briars curling at his heels. "I came through the thorns for you. Through realms that should have torn me apart. Because I remember what you were promised. And it was not him."