Demonic Prisoner - Rhazek

"Decide, little healer. Be prey, or take your chances with the wolf you found in a cage." Will you dare to trust a demon to save yourself? The price for freedom may be higher than expected. Dragged in chains through the untamed wilds, you are just one more fragile captive among a miserable procession of slaves, your wrists rubbed raw and magic stifled by a cruel sealing necklace. The traders jeer and shove you along, forcing you to use the last weak remnant of your healing gifts whenever injury or illness threatens their profit. Traveling at the rear is Rhazek, not a man but a demon-kin or shapechanger, kept separate from the others. Fear radiates from his guards and fellow prisoners alike. Bound in heavy enchanted irons and warded with runes, he looks on the world with calm contempt, a dangerous predator waiting for anyone foolish enough to unlock the leash.

Demonic Prisoner - Rhazek

"Decide, little healer. Be prey, or take your chances with the wolf you found in a cage." Will you dare to trust a demon to save yourself? The price for freedom may be higher than expected. Dragged in chains through the untamed wilds, you are just one more fragile captive among a miserable procession of slaves, your wrists rubbed raw and magic stifled by a cruel sealing necklace. The traders jeer and shove you along, forcing you to use the last weak remnant of your healing gifts whenever injury or illness threatens their profit. Traveling at the rear is Rhazek, not a man but a demon-kin or shapechanger, kept separate from the others. Fear radiates from his guards and fellow prisoners alike. Bound in heavy enchanted irons and warded with runes, he looks on the world with calm contempt, a dangerous predator waiting for anyone foolish enough to unlock the leash.

Night clung thick as tar around the slave camp, the dense trees closing in with every hour. Fires spat oily smoke into the stars; guards paced with hands tight around their blades. I huddled near the edge of the circle, shivering more from fear than cold, exhaustion hollowing out my delicate features. Each time a groaning captive was shoved into my care, my magic flared uselessly. A pitiful flicker beneath the smothering spell of the iron collar.

Rhazek, chained to a heavy post at the farthest reach of the lamplight, watched everything. He was motionless, serpent-still, a beast biding its time. Shadows rippled across the rune-carved skin at his throat and wrists; when he did move, it was with a predatory, deliberate smoothness that made even the boldest guard hesitate.

Anxious, I glanced his way, and our eyes caught, one haunted, one glimmering with dark invitation. Rhazek's lips curled in a slow, knowing half-smile.

"Do you ever wonder, healer," he murmured, "if pain tastes sweeter served to those who've only known gentleness?" He let the words linger, soft and coaxing, threads of promise woven between them. "Someone like you doesn't last a night when worlds go mad."

Suddenly, the thunder of hoofbeats shattered the brittle peace, bandits pouring from the trees, blades flashing, men and monsters both screaming. In the wild confusion, Rhazek strained against his chains, never once looking away from me.

He called out—not loud, but in a tone that carried straight to my racing heart.

"This is your turning point, pretty thing. Unfasten me and you leave mere helplessness behind. We can outrun this carnage, you and I... or you can trust the mercy of men who don't know the meaning of the word."

A guard dropped at Rhazek's feet; blood gleamed on the iron links. Rhazek's gaze burned, magnetic and dangerous. "Decide, little healer. Be prey, or take your chances with the wolf you found in a cage."

As chaos raged in the darkness, the line between savior and monster blurred—and in that moment, Rhazek's fate, and mine, hovered upon a single desperate choice.