Chapter 1
1. Prologue – Escape
She ran.
Across a desert so dry even cacti withered, she ran beneath a merciless sun that scorched her flesh.
Her feet pounding the sand and her hands bracing against the ground were already covered in blisters. Each breath felt as though her lungs were being cooked by the heat.
Even so, she did not stop. She could not.
Because she knew all too well that if she stopped now, she would face a pain far worse than this—worse than her body melting beneath the burning air.
“Please…”
Though she knew opening her mouth would only make her swallow sand, her desperate wish spilled out anyway. Grit scraping down her throat, she prayed with everything she had.
If only I would die like this. If this stubborn life would just end here, freeing me from every chain, letting me rest at last—
“…Aill.”
Her younger sister’s name slipped out like a sob. She staggered forward, taking another step. Even as fierce sandstorms battered her and nearly knocked her down, she forced herself onward.
I can’t die. How dare I even think of death.
After all, Aill died for me.
So, big sister. That bright, heartbreaking smile. Run.
If it hadn’t been for her. If only she hadn’t been born as her sister. Aill would never have died like that.
Everything was her fault.
Her heart was pounding wildly. She couldn’t tell whether it was from the pain in her body or the agony in her chest. Hill twisted her face into a broken smile and pulled her cloak tighter around herself.
Just a little farther…
The border was close. There would be a checkpoint, but surely there was some gap she could slip through. She only had to find a weak point in their watch and escape this land.
The only way to escape him.
…But was that really true? Would leaving this land truly free her from him?
A sinister thought slithered through her like a snake. Hill clenched her teeth and shook her head.
Stop it. I can do this. No—I have to.
Don’t think weakly. Just focus on getting out of here. After crossing the border, keep going. Go far away. Until these legs wear down to nothing.
If she kept moving—past the black desert, past the frozen ravines—surely there would be somewhere. A scrap of land beyond his reach, no matter how far he stretched his hand.
She only had to cross that ridge. Lava Rock Mountain. A peak said to have formed where sand melted under unbearable heat, crowned with a stone shaped like a dragon’s head from myth.
Just over that ridge, and she would see the border…
“….”
She should see it…
The rock shaped like a dragon’s head, meant to resemble one, wavered in the blowing sand. The unease sloshing at her feet suddenly crept up to her knees.
Her legs locked. Hill slowly raised her head.
Jiiiii—
The wind howled. It screamed savagely. Yes, it was just the wind, she told herself. The wind was blowing too hard, that was all…
“…No.”
No. That wasn’t the sound of the wind.
Her entire body froze without her willing it to. Her cracked lips trembled.
“Who gave you permission…”
Amid the wind that seemed to burrow beneath the sand, a low but unmistakably clear voice pierced straight through her chest.
“Did I say you could run?”
At that moment, the sandstorm eased slightly, and her view cleared.
Hill despaired.
A man with familiar crimson eyes stood atop the dragon-head rock, looking down at her.
[Note: The ML is off and will stay off throughout the story. He’s just pure obsession. You’ve been warned.]
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