Chased By The Dark

KAELITH

The cold didn't bother me anymore as I welcomed it - needed it. A punishment. A distraction. Anything to silence the roar inside me that demanded I return to her.

I didn't trust myself around her.

Every time I was near, my restraint swayed. She didn't understand the weight of what she'd walked into and I couldn't explain it without revealing everything. Not without admitting I'd been watching her long before she ever laid eyes on me.

That kind of obsession didn't deserve softness.

I turned from the frozen fountain, my hands clenched at my sides. The mark of Obsidian meant something. It always did. But even as my thoughts drifted toward war, alliances and shadowbound traitors, they kept circling back to her.

Aurelia.

Her name felt wrong in my mouth. It felt too sacred for someone like me. I didn't speak it aloud, at least not yet.

The sun barely pierced the gray sky, casting long shadows over the stone halls as I walked back inside. My steps echoed, calculated. Controlled. The guards straightened when I passed, but I barely saw them.

She was the only one I saw.

When I reached the war chamber, my general, Cassian, was already waiting, arms crossed, flanked by Talon and Virelle. The tension was immediate.

"You're late," Talon said. His tone wasn't disrespectful, but it wasn't warm either.

I ignored him and took my seat at the head of the obsidian table.

"Let's speak of the northern movement."

Cassian unfurled a map, placing a dagger over the territory edge. "Shadows have spread past the boundary. Villages near the Draven Vale report vanishing livestock. People disappearing."

"Obsidian's growing bold," I muttered.

"It's not just them," Virelle added, her voice silken but sharp. "There are whispers. At court. They say our prince has laid with a human."

I looked up slowly. "They whisper too loudly."

Talon didn't blink. "Is it true?"

"What difference would it make?"

Cassian shifted. "It makes all the difference if it weakens you. You're the heir to a fractured kingdom. You need a queen, not a distraction."

I smiled, but it held no warmth. "Are you concerned for the future of the realm, or just suddenly curious about what happens in my bed?"

The silence was heavy.

"The prophecy," Virelle said. "You remember it. The oracle. Five centuries ago."

"Spare me superstition."

"Not all of us believe it's superstition," Talon said quietly. "Not when the signs are aligning."

I stood, pushing back my chair with the sound of grinding stone.

"This council is not to mention the prophecy again. If I want a queen, I'll take one. If I want a human, I'll keep her. And if the heavens object — let them try to take her from me."

They said nothing more.

But I felt it, the fracture forming.

Soon, it would all break apart.