Chapter Two The Warlock’s Warning
855 Words
The tension between the two men spilled into the warm night air like a storm seeking a target. Lyra stepped back, her breath quickening as Kael and Darius stood only inches apart, dominance radiating from both of them in different, devastating ways.
Darius’s jaw tightened. “If your presence here is anything more than arrogance, speak it.”
Kael’s golden eyes flicked toward Lyra before returning to the prince. “A vision. One I would rather show the princess privately.”
“No,” Darius snapped. “If she hears it, I hear it.”
Kael’s lips curved faintly not a smile, but something knowing. “As you wish, prince.”
He lifted his hand, and the runes along his skin flared like molten metal. The air shimmered, bending into a swirling image of smoke and light.
Lyra gasped.
She saw herself lying lifeless across the marble floor of the palace throne room, the great crystal windows shattered around her. In the vision, blood pooled beneath her hands. Her crown lay broken at her side.
Darius stiffened. “What sorcery is this?”
Kael’s voice deepened. “A warning. One that came to me unbidden.
Lyra’s heart pounded painfully. “When did you see this?”
“Just after sunset,” Kael answered. “The vision struck me hard enough to rip me out of meditation.” His gaze sharpened. “It felt close. Too close.
Darius stepped protectively in front of her. “You expect us to trust your magic?”
“You expect me to ignore what I saw?” Kael countered.
The two men glared at one another power against power, dominance against dominance while Lyra tried to steady her breathing.
She reached out and brushed her fingers across the phantom image. The vision dissolved instantly into sparks that faded in the wind.
“Who would want to kill me?” she whispered.
Darius took her hand firmly. “Half the realm, perhaps. You are heir to the Sapphire Throne. Power breeds enemies.”
Kael’s gaze darkened. “This was no political strike.”
Lyra looked between them. “Then what?”
Instead of answering, Kael moved closer—close enough that Darius’s grip on her tightened as if expecting the warlock to steal her away.
Kael’s voice dropped to a dangerous softness that curled heat low in her belly.
“The danger is not the attack itself. It’s what triggers it. I saw something else… a shadow rising behind you. Something bound to your blood.”
Darius’s protective stance grew hard as stone. “Speak plainly, warlock.”
Kael’s eyes slid toward Lyra again, lingering on her as if he could feel the truth pulsing inside her.
“The princess,” Kael said quietly, “is awakening.”
Lyra’s breath caught. “Awakening? To what?”
Kael stepped closer, his voice brushing over her skin like a touch.
“To power you were never meant to unleash.”
Before she could respond, Darius pulled her back against him, one arm crossing tightly around her waist. His breath brushed her temple.
“She is not yours to teach, Kael.”
Kael’s eyes ignited with heat and challenge. “And yet she listens to me.”
Lyra swallowed hard. Caught between them—between duty and desire, between certainty and temptation she felt her world narrowing to the space held between their opposing wills.
“Both of you,” she whispered, breath trembling. “Stop fighting over me.
They froze.
For a moment, the night was silent except for the distant hum of the enchanted orchards.
Darius’s voice softened but the dominance in it never faded.
“I swore to protect you, Lyra. From enemies… and from men who seek to claim you with sweet words.”
Kael’s response was a low murmur.
“And I swore nothing. That makes my truths sharper.”
Lyra stepped away from both of them, her heartbeat echoing in her ears.
“If this vision is real, then we deal with it together. I need answers not rivalry.”
The princes exchanged a look filled with heat, challenge, and years of unspoken conflict.
But when Kael spoke next, his tone shifted stripped of arrogance, layered with gravity.
“Then meet me at the edge of the Fire Blossom orchards at dawn. Alone. There is more you must know.”
Darius’s eyes flared with fury. “She will not meet you alone.”
Kael only smirked. “Then you’d better wake early.”
With a shimmer of shadow and light, he vanished.
Lyra exhaled shakily.
Darius turned to her, brushing her cheek with his thumb. His voice dropped, deep and possessive.
“You should not trust him.”
She met his blue, storm filled gaze. “And yet… part of me already does.”
His jaw clenched, and something dark and hungry flickered in his eyes.
“Then I will not lose you,” he murmured.
The crimson moons watched silently as Lyra’s fate shifted pulled forward by two men bound not only by rivalry, but by something deeper, older, more dangerous.
Tomorrow at dawn, everything would change.
- Writer
