The Citadel of Shadows slumbered in restless silence.
Selene paced the length of her chamber, her bare feet cold against the polished black stone.Beyond the arched windows, the cavern stretched endlessly — lit only by the faint pulse of ancient sigils and the ghostlight clinging to broken towers.
It had been days — or longer. Time here was slippery, lost between breaths.
Lucien kept his distance most of the time.
But even unseen, she felt him.A presence pressing against her skin, dark and heavy as the forgotten gods.
Sometimes she caught him standing alone on the broken throne dais, gazing into the endless dark.Something in his stillness — a tension, a sorrow — made her breath catch, though she couldn't have said why.
He was a king without a kingdom.A monster left behind by the march of time.
And yet... when she looked at him, she could not look away.
She should have feared him.
Sometimes she did.
Other times — and those were more dangerous — she felt something else.A pull.A hunger.A thread spun between them by forces far older and crueller than memory.
—
She found him that day outside the high windows, standing on a broken balcony overlooking the dead city.
Selene hesitated, then stepped closer.
"You used to rule all this," she said quietly, not sure why she spoke at all.
Lucien's silver-shadowed gaze did not move from the distant horizon.
"I ruled more than this," he said, voice low, almost... wistful. "Before the world learned to fear its own monsters."
Selene shifted awkwardly.
"You... had people?" she ventured.
His mouth curved slightly — not a smile. Something sadder.
"I had an army," Lucien said. "A brotherhood. Warriors who bled for me. Died for me. Some are dead. Some... fled into the cracks of the world, waiting for a king who would never return."
A heavy silence stretched between them.
"But you're here now," Selene said.
Lucien finally looked at her — and the weight in his gaze nearly drove her to her knees.
"Am I?" he said softly. "Or am I only a ghost clinging to ruins?"
Selene didn't know how to answer.
Instead, she asked, "And what about now? What will you do?"
Lucien was quiet for a long time.
Then:
"I will find them," he said. "The ones who remain. The ones the world forgot. Before the storm swallows us all."
He turned away again, his black coat snapping in the cold breath of the cavern.
Selene swallowed hard.
There was so much she didn't understand — about this world, about him, about herself.
And yet... the thought of leaving this place, of walking once more under open skies, kindled something fierce inside her.
Hope.Or foolishness.
She didn't care.
"I want to leave with you," she said suddenly, the words bursting from her mouth before she could stop them.
Lucien went very still.
Then slowly, he turned back.
"You would leave the Citadel?" he said, voice unreadable.
Selene nodded, heart hammering.
"I can't stay caged here," she whispered. "I won't."
Lucien's eyes softened — a flicker of something raw and vulnerable flashing across that beautiful, terrible face.
"You mistake me, little star," he said. "You are not my prisoner."
Then why did she feel the invisible chains tightening every time he looked at her?
Lucien reached out — slowly, giving her time to retreat — and brushed the back of his knuckles down her cheek.
Selene shivered.
"You may walk beside me," he said. "But know this — the world beyond these walls is no kinder than the one you fled."
"I know," she said, lifting her chin.
Lucien studied her for a long moment — then, without another word, he turned and beckoned.
Selene followed him into the Citadel's depths, her heart pounding.
They passed through vast, abandoned halls, crossed broken bridges, and descended spiral staircases etched with forgotten tongues.
At last, they reached the outer gates — a towering wall of blackened bone and iron, sealed by magic so old it tasted of dust and blood.
Lucien placed his palm against the gate.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the runes flared, burning red, and the gates groaned open.
Beyond them lay a shattered world.
Selene stepped forward, blinking against the harsh, gray daylight.
She gasped.
The land was not as she remembered it.
Mountains had split. Rivers had turned to ash. Cities she had once known only from whispered maps had crumbled into dust.
And above it all, banners flew — sigils she did not recognize.
Kingdoms of monsters. Empires of witches. Realms ruled by blood and steel.
The world had changed while Lucien slept.
And it was waiting for them.
Lucien stood at her side, a silent sentinel.
He did not smile.
"This is the world you wished to return to," he said.
Selene swallowed.
"I'm not afraid," she lied.
Lucien's silver gaze flickered with something dark and knowing.
"You will be," he said softly.
Then he turned and began to walk.
And Selene, feeling the weight of a thousand destinies pulling at her heels, followed him into the gathering storm.
—
Far away, across the poisoned seas and ruined forests, in the heart of the Witch Kingdom, a council of seers whispered over a basin of blood.
"The Starborn Princess walks the earth again," the eldest croaked."Bring her to us."
And all across the broken world, ancient forces stirred —races once thought extinct, monsters bred for forgotten wars, kings who had sold their souls for power.
All of them hungry for the blood of a girl who did not yet know she could burn the world to ash.