Claimed By A Midnight King

Chapter 8

The fever raged within me, a relentless scream that echoed in my mind. My cheek was pressed against the icy floor. Every breath felt like inhaling ground glass. The withdrawal from the tonic was a brutal assault on my body.

This time, the heavy iron door did not let out a cry. Instead, it opened with a soft but foreboding click.

I kept my head down, unable to muster the strength to lift it. A pair of polished, silver toe boots stopped inches from my face.

“Drink this”.

It was Silas. He knelt beside me, his raven-feather mantle rustling like dry leaves. He held a wooden cup to my face, but the scent hit me first. It wasn’t the chemical tang of the Sun tonic. It smelled of iron and bitter herbs.

“What is it?, I managed to ask , my voice raspy and rough.

“It’s an apothecary’s brew”, Silas replied softly. His shiny silver eyes were focused on the violet sparks still flickering beneath my throat. “It won’t stop withdrawal, but it could prevent your heart from failing. Dominic doesn’t want to deal with a dead body yet”.

I pushed the cup away, the effort making my vision spin. “I need…. I need the tonic. Sofia said "I will die without it please”.

Silas’s eyes flared with strange satisfaction. “Sofia Thorne is a chemist, not a saviour. And you aren’t dying. You’re waking up. That tonic was a muzzle, and the Astrae doesn't like being silenced. No wonder Damian wants his battery”

“Astrae?”, I whispered, the word tasting like spark. I didn’t understand it, but the sound of it made my veins pulse harder. “I’m just sick…Silas. Pleas , if you have a message for the Sun clan…. Tell them I’ll do anything. I just need the medicine”.

The temperature of the room dropped sharply. I didn’t need to see him to know he was there. I felt my chest tighten like a heated wire.

“Out, Silas”.

Dominic appeared in the doorway, looking as though he hadn’t rested at all. His dark eyes were tingled with red, and his jaw was clenched tightly, as if it could crack.

Silas stood slowly, smoothing in his mantle. “She thinks she’s sick, Alpha. She’s begging for the chemists leash”.

“I told you to leave”, Dominic growled.

Silas pretended to bow and moved past him, his silver eyes lingering on me for a moment too long.

Dominic approached me. He stood over me like a mountain. He looked down at the untouched herbs , then at my shaking hands.

“You haven’t touched the water”, he said.

“I’m not .. thirsty”, I gasped, clutching my stomach. A wave of nausea rolled over me. “I need the tonic, Dominic. If you don’t give me, the noise……it won’t stop. Sofia said my mind would break”.

Dominic swore under his breath. He reached down ,and before I could protest, he took me off the floor. He sat on the bench against the wall and pulled me into his lap, his massive strong arms holding me tight as if they were made of iron.

“Don’t”, I sobbed, trying to push against his chest. “You hate me, remember? I’m the traitor's brats, so let me go.

“Shut up” he growled out, the words vibrating against the sensitive skin of my throat as he buried his face there. He wasn’t just breathing, he was devouring my scent in desperate gasps that made his massive frame tremble.

“The bond is screaming, Vivian. If I let go, the beast will tear through every guard in this building just to claim you. You think this is a choice? Because I’d rather take a silver blade right through my chest before I’d choose to be this close to you”.

Yet, even as his words stung like venom, his heat was a miracle. My shivering slowed as the heat of his body began to soak my skin, shielding me against the icy withdrawal.

“Why won’t you let me have it?” I whispered, my head falling onto his shoulder. I was too tired to fight him anymore. “Why would Damain keep it from me if I need it to survive?” He loved me”. I whispered—clinging to the last thing that still made sense.

“He loved the power he could siphon from you”, Dominic rasped, his fingers tangling roughly in my hair, anchoring me to him. “He didn’t give you medicine Vivian. He gave you a cage. Because a girl who can turn the world to ash doesn’t make a good Qween. She makes a better battery. He was only using your light to fuel the citadel's ward. You weren’t just a maid, you were a generator”.

I looked up at him, my eyes searching his dark ones. The words he just said felt like a sharp blade piercing through ribs, more painful than the fever. “A generator?” You’re lying.. you just want me to hate them so I’ll serve you”.

Dominic’s grip hardened until it was almost painful. He looked at my mouth, his pupils dilating until the amber light of his wolf swallowed the black.

“I don’t want you to serve me”, he whispered, his voice cracking. “I want to snap your neck for what your father did, and I want to claim you until you forget that Prince ever touched you. I haven’t decided which one will happen first”.

“Then make a choice,” I challenged, a sudden flash of violet light igniting in my eyes in response to his anger. “Either kill me or assist me. But don’t leave me in the dark, Dominic. I've spent ten years believing I was broken.”

Dominic moved closer, his nose nearly touching mine. The atmosphere between us crackled with the weight of a decade’s worth of repressed magic and a week filled with intense animosity.

“You want to awaken, little star?” he growled. “Fine. Just remember this: when you finally wake up, you’ll understand that the Sun was the gentle one. Here in the North, we don’t just wield weapons; we become them.”

He took the cup Silas had left behind and brought it to my lips. “Drink it all. Tomorrow, you’ll scrub. And if that brush slips from your hands, I’ll make you wash the stones with your tongue.”

I swallowed the bitter concoction, keeping my gaze locked on his. The liquid seared as it went down, but once it reached my stomach, the chaotic noise in my head began to fade into a low, manageable hum. It wasn’t a cure, but it felt like a stepping stone.

Dominic didn’t let go . He held me in the dark of the vault, his heart beating a heavy rhythm against my ear.

“He’s coming for me”, I whispered into his tunic.

“Let the bastard come”; Dominic’s voice was as cold as a grave. “I’ve been waiting to show the Sun what happens when the generator stops working”.

As I finally succumbed to a fevered sleep in the arms of the man who loathed me, I felt a strange cold weight settling in my chest.

Suddenly a horn blasted from the Citadel's walls—three long, low notes that vibrated through the stone floor and jolted me awake.

Dominic rigid, his wolf surfacing so fast his eyes turned a solid, glowing amber. He dumped me onto the bench and stood up, his hand going to the heavy blade at his hips.

The door burst open, and Silas appeared, his face drained of all colour.

“Alpha”, Silas’s voice cracked. “The gates. Now”.

“Is it the prince? Dominic demanded.

“No”, Silas replied, glancing at me with a look of pure dread. “It’s black carriage from the high council. Sofia Thorne is at the gates. And she says she’s here to collect her property”.