Raven's POV
The forest pressed in on us from all sides as Riyan and I moved through the wilderness with desperate urgency. Every snap of a twig beneath our feet, every rustle of leaves in the wind made our hearts hammer against our ribs. We had to escape—had to put as much distance as possible between ourselves and that sinister man who hunted us with relentless determination.
The memories of our captivity still clung to us like shadows we couldn't shake, a haunting reminder of how close we'd come to something far worse than death.
We were only nine years old. Children who should have been safe at home, not running for our lives through hostile wilderness. But our determination to survive drove us forward despite exhaustion that made our legs feel like lead.
Our mana containers, small and still developing, had been slowly replenishing during our flight. The energy trickling back into our cores wasn't much—but it might be enough. It had to be enough. We just needed to keep moving, to find our way out of this labyrinthine forest before our pursuer caught up with us again.
We moved as quietly as possible, our footsteps careful on the damp earth, every sense heightened to painful awareness. The chirping of birds seemed amplified to unnatural levels. The rustling of small animals in the underbrush sounded like approaching threats. We jumped at every noise, our nerves stretched to breaking.
Riyan's eyes met mine, and I saw my own fear reflected in those red depths. We were two young souls, alone and vulnerable in a world that had suddenly revealed itself as far more dangerous than we'd imagined. But we had each other. Our bond was our strength, our only real hope.
Suddenly, the forest's ambient sounds were shattered by something unmistakable—footsteps. Heavy. Deliberate. Moving with purpose through the trees.
Our hearts stopped. We froze mid-step, eyes darting toward the source of the noise.
"Hide," Riyan whispered, the word barely audible but carrying desperate urgency. "Quickly."
We didn't need further discussion. Moving as one, we dove toward a nearby thicket of dense bushes, our small bodies pressing into the foliage. The leaves closed around us like a fragile shield, offering concealment that felt pathetically inadequate against the danger approaching.
We held our breath, not daring to make the slightest sound as the footsteps grew closer.
Then he emerged from between the trees.
Our kidnapper looked worse than before—his injuries clearly taking their toll. His eyes were sunken and wild, his face twisted with a mixture of pain, rage, and obsessive determination. Blood had soaked through his bandages, and his movements carried a jerky quality that spoke of barely controlled agony.
But none of that made him less dangerous. If anything, desperation made him more so.
His gaze swept across the area, and impossibly—terrifyingly—those wild eyes locked directly onto our hiding spot. A slow, sinister smile spread across his face like a crack in a mask, revealing something inhuman beneath.
"Looks like I have found you," he crooned, his voice low and menacing, dripping with malice. "Princess of Reyas, the Experimental Subject... and Prince of Asura."
The way he pronounced our titles, with unholy reverence, made my skin crawl. We weren't children to him. We were targets. Resources. Things to be captured and used.
We were trapped, cornered, and completely at his mercy.
Riyan's hand found mine in our hiding place, squeezing tight. Drawing strength from our bond. We were in this together—whatever happened next, we would face it together.
*He found us.* The thought crashed through my mind like thunder, sending fresh waves of terror through my body. *After everything, he still found us.*
But Riyan was already moving.
He sprang to his feet with explosive speed, determination blazing in his eyes. His hands came up, and fire erupted from his palms—a desperate fireblast channeling every scrap of recovered mana into one concentrated attack.
The burst of flame struck our pursuer squarely in the chest. The man hadn't expected such immediate resistance from exhausted children, couldn't react in time. He stumbled backward with a cry of pain, his body crumpling under the force of the attack.
"Run!" Riyan grabbed my hand, hauling me to my feet.
We fled, our feet pounding against the forest floor, branches whipping our faces as we crashed through the underbrush.
"We have only one way," I gasped out as we ran, my mind racing through our limited options. "We need to tire him out. Our mana is recovering—his injuries are serious. We can use that. Wear him down until—"
But even as I spoke, I heard it—the rustling behind us growing louder. He was coming. Injured and desperate, but coming nonetheless.
Riyan and I exchanged a glance, and in that moment, we both understood what we had to do.
We stopped running. Turned to face our pursuer. And began gathering what little mana we'd recovered.
"Together," Riyan said, his voice steady despite our fear.
"Together," I agreed.
We focused our affinities, channeling our energy into a combination attack—fire and thunder merging, Fury of Flames meeting Raw Power of Lightning. The air around us crackled with electricity as we wove the spell together, the sound of building power growing louder, more menacing.
The kidnapper saw it coming. Despite his injuries, he tried to counter, draining his own depleted reserves in a desperate defensive spell.
Our attacks collided with his defense in a blinding flash of light. Thunder boomed through the forest like the world itself was tearing apart. For one eternal moment, the three magics warred against each other, neither side giving ground.
Then our combined power overwhelmed his weakened defense.
The explosion sent him flying backward, his body crashing to the ground with a sickening impact that made me wince despite everything.
Riyan and I stood there, chests heaving, hoping it was finally over.
But then—impossibly—the man moved.
He materialized behind me with speed that shouldn't have been possible in his condition. His hand clamped around my wrist like an iron vice, and I froze, paralyzed by the sudden proximity to the nightmare we'd been fleeing.
"Asura Prince," the man gasped, blood running from his mouth. "Leave from here. My Lord doesn't want to hurt you. This is about the girl. Just the girl."
For a heartbeat, I feared Riyan might actually consider it. Might save himself and leave me to this fate.
But I should have known better.
Riyan's eyes blazed with protective fury. He grabbed a heavy stone from the ground and brought it crashing down on the kidnapper's skull with all his strength.
The grip on my wrist released as the man stumbled, dazed.
"Fuck off!" Riyan snarled, his voice carrying rage I'd never heard from him before. "We're leaving together, and you can't stop us!"
Something awakened in me at those words. Something fierce and possessive and overwhelming. My feelings, which had been growing since our kidnapping, crystallized in that moment into something I was too young to fully name but felt with absolute certainty.
I loved him. Not with a child's innocent affection, but with something deeper, more intense. He'd protected me. Refused to abandon me. Stood between me and monsters without hesitation.
He was mine. And I was his. That truth settled into my bones with unshakeable conviction.
We both grabbed stones then—heavy rocks that required both hands to lift. And driven by terror and desperation and the primal need to ensure this threat could never hurt us again, we brought them down on the fallen man.
Again. And again. And again.
His screams echoed through the forest, then grew fainter, then stopped entirely.
But we didn't stop. Couldn't stop. Fear had taken control, driving us past reason, past mercy, until the threat beneath our stones was unrecognizable.
When we finally stopped, both of us were trembling, covered in blood, our eyes hollow with what we'd done. The reality of it crashed over me like ice water—we'd killed someone. We were nine years old and we'd killed someone.
But he'd left us no choice. We'd survived. That was what mattered.
I turned to Riyan, my voice barely a whisper: "Let's go, Yan."
The nickname slipped out naturally, shortened from his name but carrying intimacy that felt right after everything we'd been through.
Riyan's gaze met mine, and despite the horror of the moment, he managed a small smile. "Yeah, Ven. Let's get out of here."
My heart skipped at the nickname he gave me in return—Ven, from Raven. Simple, but it felt like a promise. A bond forged in blood and terror that nothing could break.
We stumbled through the forest together until we found the edge of civilization. Buildings in the distance. People. Safety.
We found a way to contact our families, and when they arrived—Principal Rai Zeus's face etched with more emotion than I'd ever seen, and Cris Descartes maintaining his cold composure even as relief flickered in his eyes—we collapsed into their arms.
And that was how I came to love my Yan. My Asura Prince. My protector. My other half.
In that forest, covered in blood, having faced death together and survived, our bond had been forged into something unbreakable.
I knew in that moment that I would follow him anywhere. Stand by his side through anything. That my life was irrevocably intertwined with his, for better or worse.
He was mine. And I would never let him go.
*End of Flashback*
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**Author's Note:**
This concludes Raven's Childhood Arc. I know this was intense and dealt with difficult themes, but it was necessary to understand the psychological foundation of Raven's obsession—not shallow attraction, but trauma bonding and the intense attachment that forms when two people survive something horrific together.
**Important Context:** The violence portrayed was a realistic trauma response from children in a genuine life-or-death situation. This experience will have lasting psychological effects on both characters that will be explored as the story continues.
**Reader Poll:**
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D) Time-skip to Hotel Hijack Arc beginning
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**Next Arc Preview:** We return to the present timeline at Reyas Academy. The Hotel Hijack Arc will reveal more about Riyan's previous life and the origins of his sadistic tendencies, while testing the bonds between all our characters.
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