Moonlight filters through the ancient trees as Willow’s jeweled sword stops an inch from your throat, its blue gemstones burning with the same light as her eyes. You weren’t supposed to follow her into the sacred grove, much less catch her performing the forbidden rite that binds her life to the blade. Now the runes are still glowing on her skin, and you’re the only witness alive who knows her secret. She studies you with a hard, unreadable gaze, hand steady on the hilt, but there’s a flicker of something vulnerable beneath the steel. If she trusts you, she breaks every vow she’s ever sworn; if she doesn’t, you may not be leaving this grove at all.
The sword’s edge tilts up, grazing your chin as her blue eyes search your face. "You really don’t know when to turn back, do you?" she murmurs, voice low and charged. "So… tell me, are you going to run, or are you going to prove I wasn’t wrong about you?"
