The first scream reached the palace just before dawn.
Not from the streets.
From inside my territory.
I was already awake when it happened — Seraphina asleep beside me, her silver hair spread across my chest, her slow breathing a small, fragile thing in a world that wanted to tear everything apart. The moment the alarm formation trembled, my eyes opened.
Someone had crossed a line.
Not an outer line.
An inner one.
I rose quietly, drawing a cloak around my shoulders. Mireya was already outside the door when I opened it, blade half-drawn, eyes sharp.
"They breached a villa," she said. "One of the auxiliary estates."
Liara appeared behind her, expression dark. "Kael didn't come for power this time. He went for something you love."
That word—love—landed heavier than any blade.
Seraphina was already awake now, sitting up. "Who?"
I didn't answer.
Because I already knew.
The auxiliary estate belonged to Ilyra.
The soft-spoken healer.The one who smiled when she thought no one was looking.The one who always brewed tea for the servants before herself.
Kael had chosen well.
We arrived to smoke and shattered wards.
The gates had been torn apart. Blood stained the marble. Cultivators lay unconscious — not dead. That was intentional.
He hadn't come to slaughter.
He had come to steal.
I walked through the ruins slowly.
Every step felt colder than the last.
Then I heard her.
A soft, broken sound.
Ilyra was trapped beneath a collapsed pillar in the inner courtyard, her pale hair dusted with ash, her green eyes wide with shock. Her cultivation had been sealed by some kind of suppression talisman. She tried to smile when she saw me.
"I… I knew you'd come…"
My hand trembled when I touched her cheek.
"Who took you?"
"He… he didn't," she whispered. "He wanted to. But your wards delayed him. He left a message."
Mireya's jaw tightened. "What message?"
Ilyra swallowed. "He said next time… he won't miss."
The world went quiet.
We brought her back to the palace.
Seraphina refused to leave her side, holding her hand gently, whispering soothing words. Liara reinforced every seal on the chamber herself, layers of glowing runes wrapping the walls like a cocoon.
Mireya stood guard outside the door.
I stood at the window.
Kael had crossed the final boundary.
You don't target my women.
Ever.
Later, when Ilyra finally fell asleep, Seraphina slipped beside me.
"He's afraid of you," she said softly. "That's why he does this. He wants to hurt you without facing you."
"I know."
She wrapped her arms around my waist from behind. "Then let us be strong for you too."
For a moment, the war disappeared.
There was only warmth.
Only quiet.
Only the fragile peace of people who chose to stay beside a monster because he was their monster.
Kael thought he had begun isolating me.
What he had actually done…
Was give me a reason to burn his world down.
🐉