chapter six- The kings Eyes
1415 Words
I’m still in the courtyard when the shadows shift.
They move differently when Kael is approaching—like smoke parting for a storm. But this time, they move away from someone else. Someone heavier. Older. Colder.
The temperature drops.
My stomach twists.
A man enters the courtyard, surrounded by guards who walk as if escorted by death itself. His cloak is a deep void of black, his eyes pale like winter glass. Hair silver at the temples. Power radiates from him thick enough to choke on.
King Malakar.
Kael’s father.
The ruler of shadows. The monster Aurelion warned us about. The man I was told would destroy anyone with a spark of light.
He is exactly as terrifying as the stories.
His gaze drags over the courtyard. Over the runes. Over the air—as though tasting for magic.
And then—
He sees me.
Every muscle in my body locks.
He stops walking.
His eyes narrow—not in recognition, not yet—but in interest. A dangerous, lethal sort of interest that makes my skin crawl.
“And who,” King Malakar says softly, “are you?”
His voice is smooth velvet—deadly in the same way silk can be a noose.
I open my mouth, ready to lie—
When Kael appears so quickly, I don’t even see him walk in.
He steps between me and his father, like a shield made of shadow and fury.
“Father,” Kael says, bowing his head a fraction. “She is under my command.”
My heart leaps.
He’s protecting me.
Malakar’s eyes slide from Kael to me again. “Your command,” he repeats slowly. “Interesting.”
His attention sharpens. Too much. Too focused.
I feel the bracelet warming on my wrist, suppressing my Sunfire’s signature, but is it enough? Can it hide everything?
Malakar steps closer.
My pulse spikes.
Kael’s jaw tenses. He moves subtly, positioning himself more fully in front of me.
“Step aside,” Malakar murmurs. “I wish to see her.”
“No.”
The atmosphere shifts violently—like the world itself flinches at Kael’s defiance.
Malakar lifts a brow. “No?”
“She is mine,” Kael says coldly. “Under my protection.”
He says it without hesitation.
Without shame.
Without explanation.
Heat floods my cheeks—anger, confusion, fear… and something else that makes me want to slap him and run to him at the same time.
Malakar studies him. Then me. Then him again.
A slow, dangerous smile spreads across his face.
“Oh,” the king murmurs. “I see.”
He doesn’t. He can’t. But he thinks he does.
He’s misinterpreting Kael’s protectiveness… and that misunderstanding is the only thing keeping me alive.
“Very well,” Malakar says. “Keep your… servant.”
The way he says servant makes my skin burn.
But the danger is not gone. He gives me one last lingering look—like butcher memorizing where to place the knife—before turning away.
As he leaves, the shadows curl eagerly around him, as though relieved to follow.
Only when he disappears does Kael finally breathe.
And only then do I realize—I haven’t breathed at all.
My hands shake.
Kael doesn’t look at me. He stares at the ground, jaw clenched so hard it could shatter.
“You shouldn’t be here alone,” he says quietly.
“You told me to stay.”
“I didn’t think he would come.”
A beat.
Then Kael turns toward me, voice low, hard, almost frantic.
“Lyra, listen to me very carefully.”
“I am.”
“If he ever approaches you again—don’t speak. Don’t move. Don’t let him near your skin. The moment he touches you, he will know everything.”
My blood goes cold.
“Everything,” Kael repeats.
“Even… the Sunfire?”
“Yes,” he says. “And what he does to you after that…” His voice breaks off. He swallows. “I won’t let it happen.”
Something in his tone shakes me.
“What would he do?” I whisper.
Kael meets my eyes—briefly—then looks away as if the truth disgusts him.
“He would break you open,” Kael says softly. “Piece by piece. And when he was done, there would be nothing left of you.”
Silence crushes the air around us.
I wrap my arms around myself, suddenly cold. “Why protect me, Kael? You barely know me.”
His jaw flexes. He steps closer.
He lowers his voice to something so raw it hits me in the chest.
“Because even if I didn’t know you, Lyra… the shadows do.”
My breath steals.
“And that,” he adds quietly, “makes you mine to protect.”
I don’t know what to say.
So I say nothing.
For a long moment, we stand there in the courtyard—light and shadow trembling between us, neither of us stepping back, both of us afraid to step forward.
Then Kael inhales sharply.
“We train harder tomorrow,” he says, voice guarded again. “If you want to survive the Keep, you must control your Sunfire.”
“And if I don’t?” I whisper.
His eyes meet mine. Dark. Intense. Possessive in a way that makes my heart hitch.
“Then I’ll control it for you.”
The words hit like lightning.
He turns to leave.
But as he reaches the archway, he stops… and says without looking back:
“And Lyra…?”
“Yes?” My voice is barely a breath.
“Don’t ever let him smell fear on you again.”
Then he vanishes into the shadows.
Leaving me shaking.
Not with fear.
But with the terrifying realization that the man I came to kill…
May be the only thing standing between me and destruction.
Kael
Father smelled her.
Not her magic—not exactly—but her difference. He always notices when something is out of place. When something is new. When something is dangerous.
And Lyra is all three.
I nearly lost control in front of him.
Not because he suspected her light.
But because of the way he looked at her.
Like prey.
Like an experiment.
Like something he’d enjoy breaking.
A voice inside me—dark, ancient, rarely awake—growled when he moved too close.
Mine.
I hiss the thought away.
She is not mine.
She is a spy. A liar. A threat.
And yet—
I can’t get her expression out of my mind. The way she stood tall even when my father’s shadow nearly choked the courtyard. The way her pulse raced but she didn’t run. The way her eyes flickered—not with submission, but with fury.
She doesn’t bend.
I’ve always hated those who grovel.
But her defiance…
Her strength…
Her light…
It pulls at me like gravity.
I reach my private chamber and lock the door behind me.
The moment I’m alone, Soulshadow surges in my veins—violent, restless, pulsing with the imprint of her Sunfire.
I brace against the wall.
My own magic hisses at me.
Find her.
Touch her.
Take her light.
“No,” I snarl through clenched teeth. “Enough.”
But the shadows don’t listen.
They want what they want.
And what they want…
Is a girl who should not exist.
I pressed a hand to my chest—feeling the faint warmth she left there when her fire reached for mine earlier.
Light and shadow are forbidden to merge.
Yet mine reaches for hers without permission.
Without hesitation.
Without fear.
I exhale slowly, letting the shadows settle.
There is only one conclusion I can accept:
She is dangerous.
To my kingdom.
To the prophecy.
To my father.
To me.
But the greater danger?
I don’t want her gone.
I want to understand her.
Train her.
Protect her.
Claim—
I crush the thought before it forms.
No.
I can't want the light.
My father would kill her.
And if he doesn't...
The prophecy might.
I sink into the nearest chair, gripping its armrests hard enough to c***k stone.
“I will keep you safe, Lyra,” I whisper to the empty room.
Not because the shadows demand it.
Not because the prophecy hints at it.
But because—
This is the part that terrifies me:
I don’t know how to stop myself.
- Writer
