CHAPTER 3: SHADOWS
1402 Words
CHAPTER 3: SHADOWS
I ran through the gardens, my bare feet slipping on wet stone, and the bond in my chest was pulling so tight I could barely breathe,something was wrong with Lucian and I'm sure of that.
I could feel it through the connection, his pain bleeding into mine, and it made my legs move faster even though I didn't know where I was going.
Selene was right behind me, her footsteps quick and light.
"This way," she called out, grabbing my arm and pulling me toward a side entrance I hadn't noticed. "The council chambers are through here."
We burst through a wooden door and into a corridor lit by flickering torches, and I could hear voices now, angry and overlapping.
Selene and I rounded a corner and ran straight into Roman.
"You need to leave," he said immediately, his face tight with worry. "It's not safe."
"What's happening?" I demanded.
"The elders ambushed him," Roman said and his jaw clenched. "They're trying to force him to reject the mate bond, claiming you're making the curse worse."
My stomach dropped. "Is it true?"
Roman hesitated and that hesitation told me everything.
"The bond accelerated something," he admitted. "The darkness is growing faster than before, but Thea thinks it's part of the process, that it has to get worse before it gets better."
"Or it's just getting worse," I said quietly.
"We don't know that yet."
The bond yanked again, harder this time, and I gasped at the sharp pain that lanced through my chest.
"I need to see him," I said.
"Isolde, the elders are in there," Selene said gently. "They'll use your presence against him."
"I don't care."
I pushed past Roman and kept running, following the pull of the bond like a compass pointing north.
The voices got louder as I approached a set of massive doors, and I could hear Lucian now, his voice low and dangerous.
"—my decision and mine alone—"
"Your decision affects the entire kingdom!" an old man's voice shouted back. "We cannot allow you to condemn us all for one human girl!"
"Then perhaps you should find a new King," Lucian said coldly.
I shoved the doors open before I could think better of it.
The room fell silent.
At least a dozen people stood in a circle around Lucian, all of them older, all of them staring at him like he was a threat. When they turned to look at me, their expressions ranged from disgust to barely concealed hatred.
Lucian stood in the center and his eyes had gone almost completely black, the curse marks on his arms glowing faint red.
"Isolde," he said and his voice was rough. "You shouldn't be here."
"I know," I said, walking toward him. "But I came anyway."
One of the elders, a woman with silver hair and cold gray eyes, stepped forward.
"This is a private council session," she said. "You have no right to be here."
"She has every right," Lucian said. "She's my mate."
"A bond that should never have been formed," the woman spat. "Look at you, Lucian, the darkness is consuming you faster than ever, can't you see that she's killing you?"
I felt the words like a physical blow because part of me wondered if she was right.
"Elder Miriam," Lucian said and his voice dropped dangerously low. "Choose your next words carefully."
"Or what?" Miriam challenged. "You'll kill us all? Prove that the curse has already won?"
The temperature in the room dropped and I watched the darkness spread further up Lucian's arms, watching his fingers curl into claws.
He was losing control.
I did the only thing I could think of.
I closed the distance between us and grabbed his hand.
The bond flared bright and hot between us, and Lucian's head snapped toward me, his black eyes meeting mine.
"Breathe," I whispered. "Just breathe."
For a second, I thought it wouldn't work, that the darkness was too strong, but then his fingers tightened around mine and slowly, painfully, the black faded from his eyes back to silver.
The marks on his arms stopped glowing.
The room stayed silent as Lucian pulled me closer, his other hand coming up to cup my face.
"You shouldn't have come," he said again but there was no anger in it, just exhaustion.
"Too bad," I said. "You're stuck with me."
Something that might have been a smile flickered across his face before he turned back to the council.
"This meeting is over," he said. "Leave."
"We haven't finished—" Miriam started.
"I said leave." Lucian's voice carried that Alpha command that made even my knees want to buckle.
The elders filed out one by one, some shooting me hateful looks, others just looking tired and afraid.
Miriam was the last to go and she paused at the door.
"Three weeks," she said quietly. "If she dies in that ceremony, her blood will be on your hands, and if you die, the kingdom falls to chaos, think about that before you condemn us all for love."
Then she was gone and the doors slammed shut behind her.
Lucian's shoulders sagged and I felt the exhaustion hit him through the bond, felt how much effort it had taken to hold the darkness back.
"You should sit," I said.
"I'm fine."
"You're not fine, sit down before you fall down."
He looked at me for a long moment, then slowly sank into one of the chairs around the council table. I pulled up another chair and sat across from him.
"They're right, aren't they?" I asked quietly. "The bond is making the curse worse."
Lucian was quiet for so long I thought he wouldn't answer.
"Yes," he finally said. "The bond triggered something, the darkness is spreading faster than it should."
My throat tightened. "Then maybe we should—"
"No." His eyes snapped up to meet mine. "Whatever you're about to suggest, the answer is no."
"You don't even know what I was going to say."
"You were going to suggest breaking the bond or leaving or sacrificing yourself somehow," Lucian said. "And I'm telling you now, none of those things are happening."
"Even if it kills you?"
"Even then."
I stared at him and tried to understand how someone could be that stupid and that brave at the same time.
"Why?" I asked. "You barely know me."
"Because you're mine," Lucian said simply. "The bond didn't make me feel that way, it just confirmed what I knew the moment I saw you in that forest, that I would burn the whole world down before I let anyone hurt you."
The words should have scared me but instead they made something warm bloom in my chest.
"That's insane," I whispered.
"Probably," Lucian agreed. "But I've been cursed for fifteen years, insanity is kind of my specialty."
I laughed and it came out broken but real, and Lucian smiled at the sound.
"There it is," he said softly.
"What?"
"The first time I've heard you laugh."
I hadn't even realized until he said it.
We sat there in the empty council chamber and the bond hummed between us, warm and steady, and for just a moment I let myself believe that maybe we could survive this.
Then the doors burst open and a guard stumbled in, his face pale.
"My King," he gasped. "There's been an attack at the southern border, rogues, at least twenty of them, and they're demanding to speak with the human Queen."
The warmth in my chest turned to ice.
"They're asking for me?" I said.
"By name," the guard confirmed. "They say if you don't come, they'll start killing the border guards one by one."
Lucian was on his feet instantly, his eyes flashing gold.
"How do they know her name?" he demanded.
The guard swallowed hard. "They say someone from the castle told them, someone who wants her dead."
I looked at Lucian and saw my own fear reflected in his eyes.
Someone inside the castle had just sold me out to rogues, and now people were going to die if I didn't go.
"I have to go," I said.
"Absolutely not."
"Lucian, they'll kill innocent people—"
"And they'll kill you," he cut me off. "That's the whole point, it's a trap."
"Then we spring the trap," I said. "Together."
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