The Midnight Prince

Rescue Under Moonlight Part 1

The Midnight Prince

Ashen

“Did the princess call for help?” my daughter asked.

I stared into the fire.

The flames had gone quiet, blue at the edges, gold at the heart. Outside the palace windows, the moon rested above LunariaNova like an old witness refusing to look away.

“Yes,” I said.

My son leaned forward. “Did someone hear her?”

I turned the ring on my finger.

“The right wolf did.”

My daughter frowned. “How?”

“Because some bonds are not made by words,” I said softly. “Some are made by a hand held too briefly, a name almost spoken, and a promise the heart makes before the mind understands it.”

My son’s eyes narrowed. “That sounds like magic.”

“It was worse,” I said.

“What’s worse than magic?”

I looked into the fire and remembered the way her voice had torn through the dark.

“Need.”

Ashen heard her in his sleep.

Not with his ears.

His ears heard only the wind through the pines, Nara’s soft breathing beside the dying campfire, and Veyra muttering in her sleep about someone owing her pears.

But his mind heard one word.

Ashen.

His eyes snapped open.

The forest above him was black and silver, branches cutting across the moon like claws. His body went still beneath the blanket. His breath stopped in his chest.

Then it came again.

Not a voice.

Not fully.

A feeling wrapped around his name.

Pain.

Fear.

Blood.

Help me.

Ashen sat up so fast the blanket fell from his shoulders.

Nara stirred. “Ash?”

Veyra was already awake.

That was the first warning.

The fae girl stood at the edge of the clearing, her young face turned toward the south, her eyes glowing faintly with ancient light.

“You heard it,” she said.

Ashen pushed himself to his feet.

His ribs screamed. His wrists ached. Every bruise Callan had left on him pulled tight beneath his skin.

He ignored all of it.

“Where is she?”

Veyra’s mouth tightened. “Close enough to hear. Far enough to die before you walk there.”

His blood went cold.

“Open a portal.”

“Ashen—”

“Open it.”

Veyra looked at him then.

Really looked.

For once, there was no teasing in her face. No apple-stealing grin. No dramatic sigh to hide the thousand years sitting behind her eyes.

Only fear.

That frightened him more than the voice had.

“The pull is unstable,” she said. “She is in rogue forest.”

Nara was fully awake now. “Rogue forest?”

Ashen grabbed his pack. “Open it.”

“You do understand that I cannot drop you directly on top of her,” Veyra snapped. “Not with the forest twisted like this. Not with rogue magic and blood trails and Dorian’s fire stink all over the air.”

“Then drop me close.”

“How close?”

Ashen turned toward the south.

He could feel it.

A thread beneath his skin. Thin. Burning. Tugging so hard it felt as if someone had tied his ribs to the moon and pulled.

Her pain lived at the other end.

“Close enough.”

Nara stood. “I’m coming.”

“No.”

She stared at him.

He did not have time for this.

“Nara, no.”

Her eyes flashed silver-white. Novett moved beneath her skin, quiet and certain. “Remember when I said I was going with you?”

“This is different.”

“It is always different when you want to leave me behind.”

“It is too dangerous.”

“She helped me.”

“I know.”

“She is hurt.”

“I know.”

“Then I’m coming.”

“No.”

Nara’s mouth trembled, but her chin lifted. “Fine. Then leave me here, and I will follow you by myself.”

“Nara.”

“I will.”

Ashen closed his eyes.

The words hit exactly where she knew they would.

He could order her to stay. He could beg. He could tie her to a tree, and she would probably chew through the bark out of spite. His sister had spent seventeen years being made small. Now that Novett had broken her chains, there would be no putting her back into a cage, even one built out of love.

Veyra folded her arms. “For the record, I dislike every choice available.”

Ashen opened his eyes and looked at Nara. “You stay behind me.”

“I will.”

“If I tell you to run—”

“I run.”

“If I tell you to hide—”

“I hide.”

“If I tell you to leave me—”

“No.”

“Nara.”

“We have discussed this. You get two commands. Not three.”

Veyra pointed at her. “I remain deeply fond of this child.”

Ashen did not smile.

The pull in his chest sharpened.

Moon’s pain spiked so suddenly he staggered.

Blood.

Teeth.

Snow.

A huge shape roaring in the dark.

His hand flew to his chest.

“Ash?” Nara grabbed his arm.

He could barely breathe.

“She is hurt.”

The words left him as a growl.

Not loud.

But the clearing froze.

The fire went out.

Ice spread from beneath his boots in a thin, jagged circle.

Veyra’s eyes widened slightly.

Ashen did not notice.

He only felt the pull.

The plea.

Help me.

Veyra lifted both hands.

Silver dust swirled between her palms, bright as crushed stars. It twisted in the air, widening into a doorway that showed darkness on the other side. Not their forest. Another one.

Older.

Wilder.

Wrong.

The portal hissed at the edges.

“I can get you within a mile,” Veyra said. “Maybe less. Maybe more. Fae portals and cursed forests have a rude relationship.”

Ashen stepped toward it.

Nara stepped too.

He turned. “Nara—”

She shifted before he could finish.

Moonlight wrapped around her body.

Bone and fur, breath and silver, girl and wolf becoming one.

Novett stood where Nara had been.

White-furred, silver-marked, smaller than the monster Ashen felt chained inside himself, but strong. Sacred. Her eyes glowed with star-bright fire, and the broken remnants of her old chains shimmered like dust around her paws before vanishing.

Ashen stared.

Nara’s voice entered his mind, clearer than before.

Get on.

He blinked. “Absolutely not.”

We do not have time for your pride.

“You are my little sister.”

I am your little sister who is faster than you right now.

Veyra looked between them. “I hate to admit this, but the wolf-child is correct.”

Ashen’s jaw tightened.

The pull came again.

Moon’s voice, faint and breaking.

Ashen.

He climbed onto Novett’s back.

The moment his hands gripped her fur, she lunged through the portal.

The world snapped.

Cold became colder.

Air became knives.

The smell hit first.

Blood.

Rogue wolves.

Old rot.

Fire magic.

Moon.

Novett landed hard on frozen ground, slid, caught herself, and ran.

Ashen leaned low over her back, one hand tangled in her white fur. Branches whipped past his face. The forest blurred around them in streaks of black and gray. Veyra stumbled through the portal behind them and cursed in a language that made nearby trees shiver.

The pull dragged Ashen forward.

“She is east,” he said.

Novett changed direction without slowing.

Rogues, she warned.

“I know.”

Ahead.

He felt them too.

Not one.

Not two.

A pack of them, moving through the trees from the opposite direction, drawn by blood and weakness.

Drawn to Moon.

Ashen’s fingers tightened.

His magic rose.

No.

Not rose.

Answered.

For years, his power had come in pieces. A frozen pail. A river-step. A breath of cold when anger got too close to his skin. Small things he hid before anyone could name them.

Now the forest around him seemed to lean in and ask what he wanted.

He wanted to reach her.

The ground beneath Novett’s paws hardened into a slick path of ice.

She ran faster.

The trees opened.

Moon lay near the territory line in the snow.

Human again.

Unconscious.

Naked.

Bleeding.

For one breath, Ashen could not move.

Not because of her body.

Because of the wounds.

Claw marks across her shoulder. Blood at her side. Bruises dark against moon-pale skin. Her hair tangled with leaves and snow. One hand stretched forward as if she had been trying to crawl even after her body gave out.

Something inside Ashen went silent.

Then very, very cold.

Novett stopped beside her.

Ashen slid from his sister’s back and dropped to his knees.

“Princess.”

No answer.

His hands hovered for a moment, afraid to touch wrong, afraid to hurt her more.

Then he tore off his sweater and wrapped it around her as gently as he could. The fabric swallowed her shoulders, dark wool against blood and snow. He lifted her into his arms.

She was too light.

That enraged him.

Behind them, howls rose.

Close.

Veyra burst through the trees, breathing hard. “We need to leave.”

“Portal.”

“I am working on it.”

“Work faster.”

“I am a fae guardian, not a door with legs.”

The first rogue broke through the trees.

Then another.

Then three more.

Their eyes glowed hungry yellow in the dark.

Ashen climbed onto Novett’s back with Moon held against his chest. He kept one arm around his sister’s neck and the other around the princess, shielding her with his body as if flesh could stop teeth.

Novett ran.

The rogues chased.

Veyra sprinted behind them, silver light gathering between her hands but flickering badly.

“Veyra!” Ashen shouted.

“I need a stable point!”

“We do not have one!”

“I am aware!”

A rogue lunged from the side.

Ashen lifted one hand.

The air tightened.

The wolf froze mid-leap for half a heartbeat, caught by invisible force.

Close range.

Only close.

Enough.

Ashen snapped his wrist.