Chapter 6: Shadows and sparks
552 Words
(Lyria’s POV)
The howl still echoed long after the mist fell silent. My breath came out ragged, my heartbeat refusing to calm.
When I turned back, the stranger was gone — vanished like smoke. But the echo of his words wouldn’t leave me.
You shouldn’t have signed it.
Branches cracked behind me. I spun, dagger ready — only to see him.
Kael.
He stepped through the mist like he owned it, eyes glinting with suspicion and something else — concern, maybe.
“What are you doing out here?” he demanded, his tone low but steady.
“I could ask you the same,” I snapped, lowering the dagger only slightly.
He took a step closer, the moonlight catching the scar along his jaw. “You think you can walk into the mist alone and not be followed? Half the guards are looking for you.”
“I don’t need guards,” I said. “I’m not a prisoner.”
He stopped, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from him despite the cold air.
“No,” he murmured, “but you are in danger. And you don’t even see it.”
Something in his voice made me hesitate. The forest seemed to hold its breath around us.
I looked up at him — really looked. The Alpha everyone feared, the man who ruled silence like a weapon… and yet, right now, his gaze wasn’t cold. It was sharp, yes, but alive. Searching.
“I saw someone,” I whispered. “A man — out here. He knew my name.”
Kael’s expression hardened. “Describe him.”
“Tall, dark hair, golden eyes—” I stopped. The lie died in my throat. “No. They weren’t gold tonight. They were black.”
Kael’s jaw tightened. “Black?”
“Yes.”
He glanced at the trees, scanning the shadows. “That’s not possible.”
“Why?” I asked, stepping closer before I could stop myself.
He met my gaze then — and for the first time, I saw something flicker in those silver eyes. Not anger. Not suspicion. Fear.
“Because only the cursed bleed into black,” he said quietly. “And the last one who did… died a century ago.”
The night wind stirred between us, carrying the faint scent of rain and danger. I didn’t realize how close we’d drifted until my hand brushed his arm — a spark of warmth in the freezing air. He didn’t move away.
“Whatever you saw,” he murmured, voice rough, “stay away from it. Promise me.”
I swallowed hard. “I don’t make promises I can’t keep.”
For a heartbeat, he almost smiled — almost. Then he stepped back, the wall between us slamming back into place.
“We leave for Ironfang at dawn,” he said. “You’ll be safer there.”
“Or easier to watch?”
He turned, his cloak sweeping the mist as he walked away. “Maybe both.”
I stood there long after he disappeared, my pulse still racing, my skin still tingling where his arm had brushed mine.
For the first time, the danger didn’t feel like something outside the gates.
It felt like it had already found me.
And its name was Kael.
- Writer
