The silence of the palace was deceiving.
At a glance, Lunaris seemed to sleep under the moonlight, its towers gleaming, its guards patrolling steadily, its nobles tucked away in their chambers, wrapped in dreams or schemes. But in the oldest corners of the palace, silence was not peace.
It was a breath held in suspense.
From the vaulted beams of the Grand Hall, a hooded figure lingered in shadow. Cloaked in black, face obscured, they watched the loitering echoes of a moment that shifted the entire balance of the realm.
"She is mine."
The words still hung in the air.
A declaration. A bond.
It hadn't been calculated. It hadn't been political.
It had been instinctual.
And the figure had felt the ripple of power, subtle, but ancient. A resonance in the bones of the palace itself. Like a forgotten melody suddenly remembered. The girl, Selene, was not just another prisoner. Not just a rogue from the forests.
She was marked. Not just by fate, but by blood.
And now Kael had claimed her.
The figure's gloved hands clenched slightly. The Moonblood mark on Selene's shoulder, faint but pulsing in the moonlight, confirmed it. A sign only spoken of in scrolls buried deep beneath the palace. A lineage that had vanished, exiled, or so they thought.
And Kael, the prince raised on steel and silence, had instinctively recognized her.
Why?
The figure dropped silently from the rafters to a lower ledge, eyes still following the echo of Kael's voice. It was not affection that had driven him. Not yet. It was something else. Something primal, locked deep within him.
He doesn't even know what he's done.
They pressed a hidden stone, and a stairwell spiraled open beneath the floor. Down they went, through centuries of stone and dust and magic long forgotten. Into a chamber pulsing with faint light, an ancient map glowing on the floor, reacting to the strand of Selene's silver hair released from a vial.
The lines shifted.
The air grew tense.
A heartbeat thundered from the walls, not the figure's. Not human.
She was waking.
The seal that bound her magic was cracking, breaking. And the realm would not remain unchanged.
🔹🔹🔹
KAEL'S CHAMBER
Kael stood alone in his chambers, unable to rest. The candle on his desk had burned halfway, the wax dripping into hardened rivers down its brass holder.
He didn't touch the reports scattered before him.
He didn't touch the wine.
Instead, he walked to the balcony, fists gripping the stone railing as he stared out over the moonlit city, though his eyes didn't see the spires and rooftops.
He saw her.
Selene.
The moment she had been dragged into the throne room, bloodied but defiant, something had stirred within him. Not pity. Not anger.
Recognition.
The palace murmured about her, a rogue captured at the forest border. Dangerous. Disobedient. A threat. Possibly cursed. But Kael had seen her eyes when she stood up to the general. Eyes that flared like silver lightning.
And then, the whisper of her name in his mind.
He had never heard it before. He was sure.
And yet he knew it.
Selene.
It echoed inside him, not as a thought, but as a memory. One he couldn't place.
He turned away from the balcony and ran a hand through his hair, pacing.
He was no stranger to battle. Or to loyalty. But bonds? That was another matter. He had seen how love was used as a weapon. His mother had been shattered by it. His father was consumed. So he built walls instead of bridges. Ice instead of warmth.
And yet when he saw her bleeding and proud, chains biting her wrists, something in him snapped.
He didn't regret claiming her.
But he didn't understand it either.
Why did it feel like a vow?
His mark, an ancient royal birthmark hidden under his collar had burned faintly ever since. Not in pain. In response.
A connection.
One not forged by decree or magic. But by something far older.
Fate.
Suddenly, a soft knock interrupted his thoughts, creaking open. The captain of the guards entered, bowing stiffly.
"My Prince. She's in the east wing. Under guard. As you ordered."
Kael nodded once. "Keep her there. No harm is to come to her. Not unless I say so."
The guard hesitated. "Forgive me, but why protect her? She's..."
Kael's gaze snapped to him, sharp as a blade.
The captain lowered his head. "Understood."
As the door closed again, Kael let out a breath and glanced toward the western wing. It was far from the dungeons. Far from the council.
She wasn't safe.
But neither was he.
Something about her was unraveling his control, his logic. She stirred things in him he had spent his life suppressing.
And worst of all?
A part of him didn't want it to stop.
As Kael stepped out into the corridor, determined to find answers, a gust of cold wind passed through the torch-lit hallway.
Far below, the figure in the hidden chamber turned sharply.
Kael was moving.
Too soon.
The bond was accelerating.
And they…
They were watching.
To be continued...