****TRIGGER WARNING. Attempted S/A. Please do not proceed if you are not comfortable****

Small village near the Cauldron Pool.

Vela.

"Stop."

There was something near dangerous burning in his eyes as she stumbled back, clutching her chemise to her chest. It was something far beyond mere lust. It was a different side to him, something beyond the hunter she had come to know and admire.

She'd been overjoyed when he'd pressed a soft kiss to her open palm and led her away from the fires as they'd been dancing, their bodies flush against one another. She knew that Lina would understand – she'd been slighted by the dark-eyed stranger, but she would not spend the night with an empty bed. She'd been beyond giddy when he'd pressed her against the trunk of the tree (one that had no eyes, thank the tree-mother) and laid his mouth against hers.

His kisses had been searing, his calloused hands on her thighs had burned heat straight through her. But something had changed between one moment to the next, and those kisses had become claiming. Violent. Fear had shuddered through her, fierce and strong, stamping out any desire she'd felt in the glow of the fires of May Day. The shadows around her had seemed all at once darker, the branches of the trees that always welcomed, seemed twisted and sinister.

She'd pushed him back slightly, so he was no longer touching every last inch of her. And she could finally look up at him. Hoping he would whisper sweet nothings in her ear as he noticed the tears that welled in her eyes, that he would simply hold her, saying that he understood that she was not as ready as she thought she was. For she'd never done more than exchange kisses and touches.

But his face was contorted into something she didn't recognise.

"Now, now, Vela," he stepped forward, his breath covering her. And with her back pressed flat to the tree and caged in by his arms, she had no where to go. "That's not what you were saying moments ago. 'More', wasn't it?" He licked the shell of her ear, and she closed her eyes tight. She clutched the fabric tighter, so hard she knew she'd have crescent marks from her nails come mornings light.

"Cyrus, please, I–"

"You no longer want me?" He snorted, his face a mere inch from hers. And he wrapped his hand in her hair, pulling her head back and exposing her neck. His tongue was on her cheek, licking up the tears that had fallen; and he made a guttural sound in the back of his throat. "That's unfortunate, Vela. Because I need you. Your sisters won't even miss you."

What?

"Any of you would have done quite fine, but you were so very, willing."

She was trembling like a leaf, like a sapling, unable to put on a brave face.

She just wanted him to stop. To go away.

Please stop.

Please.

At the choked sound her eyes snapped open, her body suddenly free from his suffocating warmth.

It was the stranger that her younger sister had clung to. The stranger with the green eyes, and every inch of her face was filled with anger.

And Vela sunk to the ground, grateful, as another whimper left her.

…

Arianna.

Her magic gave her the strength to pull him off the trembling dryad who had curled into a ball at the base of the tree. Lia's haughty older sister, reduced to a shivering, sobbing, mess.

How dare he.

Then Edmund was there, helping the dryad to stand, to cover herself, to move her away from the hunter.

Then she pushed him into the same tree.

For a moment his eyes were blood red, reflecting the flames behind her; and Arianna stiffened for a scant moment.

Bound by blood and bound by flame.

Then he blinked, snarling, and stormy eyes glared at her contemptuously.

No, he was not some magical foe, bound to the Flame Sorcerer.

He was a man.

But he was also a monster.

Preying upon a sheltered dryad.

"You will never touch her again," Arianna kept her voice low. She did not want to ruin the celebrations for the rest of the village – as much as the man before her deserved that persecution.

He laughed, empty. Hollow. "Tell them how you wanted it, Vela. How you moaned my name. You would have let me do anything to you."

Vela sobbed again and Edmund moved her slightly, putting himself between the hunter's gaze and the dryad. Then her sister's were there, holding her, stroking her face, covering her torn chemise with a cloak they had procured from somewhere.

And Arianna snarled. She slammed the dagger she'd taken from Lia's belt into his throat and ripped it across his neck. Blood prayed across her face and her borrowed gown as he fell to his knees, clutching at his neck.

She brought the dagger back down, plunging it between his ribs and into his heart, stopping it completely.

Arianna blinked.

It was far too easy to envision his death.

But she could no longer do that, so she supressed that urge to end his life then and there and she simply pressed the tip of the blade to his throat. "You will never touch another woman. You will never harm another of the frost-fae, or the wolves."

"Leave, hunter Cyrus. Leave and never come back."

"And who are you to tell me so? No one would believe you. It is your word against mine – everyone knows Vela wishes to join me in bed. And you, you are nothing. Nothing but a stranger to these parts."

Arianna drew a calming breath as her heart thundered. She flickered her gaze to Edmund's for the barest of moments, and he nodded his head – the tiniest of movements.

She stepped back, lowering her daggers.

She did not need grand gestures or grandiose arm movements for her magic.

But she wanted him scared.

She wanted him to feel what he'd caused in so many others.

She raised her arm, moving the water within his body.

He grasped at his neck, eyes going wide.

A choked gasp emerged from him.

Vela stumbled backwards; her eyes as big as saucers.

"My name is Arianna of Charn and Narnia. I am sure you have heard of me."

Vela dropped to her knees.

"You will leave this village hunter Cyrus. And you will leave Narnia."