HIS PRINCESS | K.TH

In The Ring

AERI

People call him the Shadowdancer.

Never been beaten. Fights at the ring, every week. Thousands come to watch him.

The Ring.

I knew where that was. The street fights were famous in the Underground— for allowing every weapon, every dirty play imaginable. Hundreds bet money on the biggest fights.

Every dirty play imaginable.

I was planning to kill him tonight.

I can already hear the bloodthirsty roars— and it only grows as I get closer towards the Ring. My fingertips glide over the knife hidden in my waistband, another hidden on my thigh.

In my pocket, there is a handful of sand.

There is already fighting going on inside the caged Ring. I can see two figures tangled over one another, one clearly in dominance over the other. His back is turned to mine, and I watch as he rains down blows against the challenger's face.

So that must be him.

My heart starts to beat faster, from the rush of adrenaline. An uncontrollable smile starts to tug against my lips.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on him.

I'd been looking for a place for vengeance after Aemin's death six years ago. Aemin's death, which had lead to the complete destruction of my entire family.

And the person I was looking for was standing just a few hundred meters in front of me.

Then he turns, standing over the fallen challenger. His dark eyes sweep over the wild crowd, his face stained with blood.

My smile dissipates.

...V?

V.

I laugh. It spills out of me, bursting out of my throat like a choked sound. Even if half of his face is covered in red and his features have lost all the youth, I can tell it's him.

How could I forget the face of the only man who I had held onto? The only man who I'd trusted to be different from the others, as I experienced countless of them in the Underground?

I'd dreamt about him. So many nights. I'd dreamt of his hooded eyes, the dangerous, seductive aura. The smell of smoke as he spoke to me in the husky tone of his voice.

As I'd grown.

So many nights I had fantasized over him, those fantasies only growing more lustful as I'd grown into an adult.

I had prayed every night. To meet him one day.

My laugh turns harder. It wracks my entire body.

It really is V.

My laughter stops. And I look up, my eyes painted with twice the bloodlust and thrice of the shadow.

I was going to tear him apart.

"Next challenger!" The announcer screams into the microphone, and my hand raises into the air higher above all the others. The blood in my body is chilled to ice.

"Lady in the black! Come on up!"

I don't even know how to describe how I feel. It's something deeper than betrayal— deeper than hatred. It burns my senses dull.

Kill him.

Kill the man you adored so much.

The roars of the crowd grow to another level of volume as I step onto the blood-spattered platform. I don't look up until the announcer has shut the cage door behind me, and has turned the lock shut.