CHA0TER 7
436 Words
---
Chapter 7: The Bond That Burns
The forest didn’t let her rest.
Selene’s lungs burned as branches whipped against her cheeks, clawing like shadows that didn’t want her to leave. The stranger’s words still echoed in her skull.
> “You’re the reason he’s bleeding power.”
“He belongs to you now.”
No. It wasn’t true. Couldn’t be.
She couldn’t be the one breaking Valerian.
She had barely begun to understand him. Had barely tasted the layers beneath his silence, the heat behind his coldness. That kiss — gods, that kiss — had awakened something ancient inside her. And if that kiss fractured him…
What would loving him do?
Selene stumbled over a root, collapsing into a patch of wild violets. Her fingers curled into the soil. She wanted to scream.
Instead, she whispered, “Valerian… where are you?”
—
He heard her.
Miles away, deep in the heart of the Blood Citadel, Valerian stood motionless on the balcony of his tower, eyes fixed on the horizon. The sky bled crimson — too early for sunset. He felt the pull again.
Her.
Selene.
The bond burned through his spine like fire in winter. She was scared. Alone. And he couldn’t reach her.
Lucien entered the chamber silently, bowing slightly. “You’re unraveling.”
Valerian didn’t look at him. “I know.”
“The Council’s whispering. The other kingdoms feel it. Something’s shifting. They say your control is… slipping.”
Valerian’s jaw clenched. “I don’t answer to whispers.”
“But you answer to her,” Lucien said. “Don’t you?”
Silence.
Valerian turned slowly, shadows curling around his shoulders like smoke. His voice dropped to something colder than ice:
“She’s mine.”
—
Selene kept moving, heart thudding like a war drum. Her body ached, but something stronger than fear pushed her forward.
She didn’t know where she was going — only that she couldn’t stop. Not now. Not with creatures watching from the trees. Not with that golden-eyed vampire still out there.
She reached a narrow creek. The water shimmered red.
Not from blood.
From the moon.
It was full tonight. And glowing darker than it ever had.
She knelt at the bank, touching the water.
And something answered.
A vision slammed into her — pain, chains, flames — and Valerian, on his knees, surrounded by thrones made of bone and fire.
His voice echoed through her skull:
> “They’re coming for me.”
She gasped and fell backward.
The moon pulsed.
A whisper rippled through the air.
> “The Abyss Crown awakens.”
---
- Writer
