Chains In Silk
730 Words
Chapter Ten
The moment Seraphina stepped into the Great Hall, every head turned.
The morning sun, filtered through the stained glass above, struck her hair and set the silver streaks alight. They shimmered like molten moonlight against the darkness of her braid.
Kael, seated at the far end of the long table, went very still. His amber eyes fixed on her, sharp and calculating. The easy arrogance that usually sat on his face shifted into something harder possession laced with hunger. His gaze traced the silver like a predator marking prey.
“Come forward,” he commanded, his voice cutting through the hushed air.
She obeyed, her steps even, head lowered. Every instinct told her to keep her expression blank. The court’s whispers prickled along her skin. When she stopped before him, he rose from his seat.
His fingers brushed a lock of her hair, testing the silver as if it might smear away. “The Moon Goddess,” he murmured, almost to himself. “Kissed by her hand… and yet you belong to me.”
Seraphina kept her voice neutral. “As you say, my lord.”
But inside, Ember snarled.
Kael’s lips curved not in a smile, but in something that made her blood chill. “I should have seen it sooner. You are more than I thought. And I do not share what is mine.”
He turned to the gathered court. “Prepare the eastern wing. She will be moved there today. The full moon is in two nights her claiming will not wait.”
Gasps rippled down the table. The rest of the day moved with a strange, tense speed. Maids swarmed her chambers, packing her few belongings. Couriers ran with sealed orders. In the courtyard, warriors sharpened their blades, the clang of steel ringing like a warning.
By midafternoon, Elsa came to her side, her face pale.
“They’re rushing the ceremony,” she whispered. “Kael’s summoned the high priest, the binding oils, the ceremonial silks. If he marks you…” Her voice caught. “…you’ll be bound to him in body and soul. Even the Moon Goddess won’t be able to reach you.”
Seraphina’s stomach knotted, but her face stayed calm. “Then I have two days to make sure it never happens.”
Elsa’s eyes searched hers, but she didn’t ask questions. Perhaps she already knew better. That night, the rain had stopped, but the air remained heavy with the scent of it wet earth, deep pine, and something sharp beneath.
She waited until the halls were quiet before slipping from her chamber. The silver streaks in her hair caught the torchlight as she padded barefoot through the dark corridors, moving with the precision she had been practicing for weeks.
Her feet carried her not toward the outer gates, but deeper into the stronghold into the forbidden eastern wing she had seen in her dream.
Every door here was locked. Every window shuttered. The air was cooler, as though the sun had never touched it. At the very end, she found the heavy chamber. The door groaned as it opened, revealing shelves of ancient scrolls, strange relics wrapped in cloth, and a single silver slab at the center.
The prophecy was there, just as she had seen. When moonlight meets hellfire, the world will burn… or be reborn.
Her fingers traced the words, and something in her chest tightened recognition, though she couldn’t explain why.
A sound made her freeze. Footsteps. Slow. Certain.
She turned, her pulse spiking and found herself staring into the same eyes from her dream.
Red as banked coals. The Hell Alpha stood in the doorway, the torchlight casting his shadow long and dark across the floor.
“Seraphina,” he said, the same deliberate weight in his voice as before.
She didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.
“You are not his to claim,” he murmured, stepping closer, his presence swallowing the air between them. “You were always mine.”
Her heart slammed once in her chest.
And then .The torches along the corridor outside flared, followed by the sound of voices. Guards.
Lucien’s lips curved faintly. “Two nights,” he said. “Be ready.”
By the time the door burst open, the chamber was empty only Seraphina remained, standing before the prophecy, the echo of his voice still warm in her ears.
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