Chapter 4
802 Words
As the doors swung open, every guard along the hall snapped to attention.
Kael entered alone, no advisors, no escort, just the quiet authority that always seemed to charge the air around him.
The great chamber went still. Even the light hung motionless, wary.
Lina, beside me, bent in a trembling bow.
Kael’s gaze brushed her once.
“You may leave.”
She didn’t hesitate. The doors sealed behind her with a final echo.
Now there was only him, and the strange, restless energy that always followed when we were alone.
He pulled off his gloves slowly, one finger at a time, his eyes never leaving mine.
“I hear you’ve been speaking with the attendants.”
It wasn’t curiosity. It was a statement. A warning.
I met his stare head on.
“And since when is conversation an act of treason?”
His expression barely shifted, but the tension snapped tight.
“You know what I protect can’t be shared.”
“And you expect silence from your supposed partner?” I said softly.
Something flickered behind his eyes, anger, or maybe hurt.
“You always have to test me.”
“Someone has to remind you you’re still human.”
For a heartbeat, neither of us moved. The low rumble of thunder rolled through the glass panes behind him, as if the storm itself was listening.
For a moment, his face betrayed exhaustion before the mask returned.
“You shouldn’t trust those who serve the palace,” he said quietly.
A bitter laugh escaped me.
“And you expect me to trust the king who cages me?”
His eyes burned.
“I was protecting you.”
“No!” I snapped. “You were protecting your throne from shame.”
Kael stepped forward; the space seemed to shrink.
“You don’t grasp what I’ve spared you from.”
His tone was low, rough, danger simmering beneath.
My pulse tripped.
“Haven’t I?” I whispered. “Your subjects despise me; your council fears me; your lovers wish me gone. And you, you stand there pretending it means nothing.”
He flared, real anger this time, unguarded.
“Do you think this kingdom would endure if I claimed you openly?” he barked. “Half my court believes your father sent you here to destroy me!”
“My father would never!”
“Your father sent assassins over my borders for three years.”
I went rigid. His breathing turned uneven; the perfect façade cracked. The war had carved its scars into him too.
“When you look at me, you see a beast,” he said flatly. “But your realm buried children of the North long before I ever struck back.”
Pain caught in my throat. I remembered those stories.
War makes no heroes, only survivors.
Yet none of it explained why destiny had chained us together.
The bond pulsed again, fierce and relentless.
Kael noticed my stifled breath; his eyes fell to my mouth.
A fatal glance.
The air shifted, no longer rage, but something molten.
I stepped backward.
He followed.
Until the hearthstone pressed against my spine.
“You should hate me,” I hissed.
“I keep trying,” he murmured.
The honesty in that whisper hit harder than any threat.
The hush between us deepened, broken only by rain on glass and fire’s slow crackle.
He stood inches away, so close his warmth pulsed against my skin.
“You once asked why I hid the bond,” he said.
I nodded once.
“Because,” his voice softened to a confession, “everyone I love is taken from me.”
The words stung.
For the first time, fear, not fury, colored his tone.
“My mother was slaughtered when she became Luna,” he said. “My brother fell because enemies wanted leverage over me. The moment they know you mean anything…”
His eyes hardened.
“…they’ll come for you.”
And at last I understood his rejection was armor forged from loss.
It wasn’t cruelty.
It was terror.
Something fragile inside me loosened.
He saw it.
Kael lifted a hand, his fingers brushing my cheek too gentle for the man the world feared.
The bond blazed between us, bright and wild.
My lips parted, despite every warning in my mind.
His touch trailed lower, toward where a mate’s mark would burn.
Then the doors exploded open!
“My king!”
Kael recoiled instantly.
Selene stumbled in, tears streaking down her face.
Her gaze found us, and hatred sharpened her sorrow.
“They discovered another corpse,” she gasped. “A border guard… from the south.”
Stillness fell.
Her next words quivered.
“Moonfire sigils carved into his chest.”
Kael’s composure cracked.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
- Writer
