Evan

A wind scented with ozone ruffled Ilara's hair on the cliff edge. Below, the leaden sea roared, drowning out the rage seething in her chest. Today she would die. Chosen by the village elders as a sacrifice for the demon Evan to appease the Dragon King's wrath, she shed no tears. There was no mercy left. She was thrown into the raging abyss. Hundreds of creatures pulled her to the bottom, and a huge octopus strangled her with its tentacles. On a rock, Ilara felt an old sword. Its yellow light drove the monsters away, but only for a moment. Mighty arms pulled her to him. He was enormous, clad in obsidian armor, and wings of darkness rested on his back.

"Selena," he rumbled tenderly. "Are you finally back? You've become so weak..."

• I'm not Selena!

"You pretend you don't remember how you plunged a blade into my heart. Today I will drag you to the bottom."

"If I die, no one will save you! Pull me out, and I will free you!"

He dragged her to his underwater palace, strewn with gold—the tribute of hundreds of years. There, on her leg, he placed a bracelet—his mark. "Since you've come to atone for your guilt, act like a victim. From now on, you're my pet, Selena."

Later, trying to escape, Ilara froze ten steps from the door. The dragon stopped her with his tail, and there was a pleading tone in his voice: "Since when did the great Saint fall so low? Don't abandon me again..."

In his chambers, she found a crumpled drawing. Saint Selene. The legendary girl who sealed it and died a hundred years ago.

"The one you're looking for is long dead! I'm not her!" Ilara pleaded.

"Then at least don't abandon me. Stay voluntarily... or go back to the people and see what's going on there!"

She returned to the village and saw horror. Her family, blinded by gold, had forgotten her. The elders called her a traitor and decided to burn her.

"Dragon King, come and destroy them all! I, Ilara, fall into the abyss of my own free will. From now on, I am loyal only to you!"

In that moment, her sacrifice to the Dragon King became not a curse, but a voluntary choice. And from that moment on, she became not a prisoner, but a welcome guest in his palace.