Ring of Cren [18+]

Chapter 14

Anastasia's POV

The Dark Prince, Rurx – comes to me, and I leave the door to the tower open.

I wait while I get used to the warmth, and I strip most of my heavy dress from my body, until I'm only in the silky undergarments. It was genuinely too hot, I could feel my cheeks and arms going red with the change in weather.

I sit on the once-rotten chess, now sparkling and new, as Rurx comes up the stairs.

He's dressed in a nice suit, as usual, but Rurx himself is different.

Just not in the way I expected him to be different.

He is exactly the same... but faded.

I sit where I am, obviously perspiring through my winter-undergarments but focused on Rurx' strange ailment.

His eyes can't help zoning in on my tits, hard nubs under the silk. I breathe out heavily as I look him over, my eyes seeing through him. He is transparent!

"You're not dead are you?" I ask low, "Hmm?"

Rurx blinks softly and smiles as he looks down and deeply into my eyes. His hair still bouncing along his shoulders as he walks forward and stops in front of me, looking over me more closely as I continue to look up at him.

"Not dead, princess – but I'm incomplete," Rurx explains, "You heard the news?"

"I am to marry the Dark Prince – that being you..." I whisper, "I didn't think I'd ever marry such a low-born peasant," I say it to shock him and it does the trick. Rurx looks positively peeved, his brows arching, "Now explain to me," I add, "Why I can see, through, you?"

"The Eye is merging with reality, you have to find my other half – and wake him up in the Eye," Rurx explains in a low drawl, annoyed by my arrogance.

"The side of you which is a monster?" I ask.

"Yes," Rurx nods, "We will become one being – and I will be able to shift at any time into the monster. On my command. And on your command," Rurx drops down to one knee and scoops up my hand with the Ring of Cren, "This has a new purpose, when the worlds merge, you can call our daemons forth. At any time."

"So, I control your monsters – your daemon-halves?" I ask, suddenly regaining all my confidence, as I jump up off the chest and face him, standing before Rurx, tugging him up to stand with me. I try to place my hand on his chest. I am able to touch him but he feels weird, "Hmm," I take my hand back, "I must... wake up your other half... how exactly?"

"Just find him and speak to him. You must lead all our daemons out of the Eye, they can only pass through with an Ice Seer, marriage to mortality crosses boundaries and allows magic to merge in higher concentrations as well, bringing this world back to its old balance."

"That one of my ancestors, fought to keep separate," I whisper, "Why would my family, release the magic?"

"To come back to life... to keep their Kingdom – to bring back Priscilla. It all requires payment and tribute. To bring back the Vanished too. The price was you, the balance is only sustained through the marriage of female and daemon, but I assure you, we will fight to protect you," Rurx means this serious, "By us I mean as your Crows. We can also hold the daemons at bay. They are not our friends. We use them as they use us. Remember, always, we're on the same team. We want mortality protected. That's one of the reasons we sought a bond with magic. In the Eye, we sacrificed a part of our selves, to become better weapons for our own kind. Damion, I, Krys and Axe... we have spent every moment fighting for your family to reign."