ELARA
Pain.
That was the first thing I felt when consciousness returned. Not physical pain exactly, but something deeper. Like my blood had been set on fire and was still smoldering in my veins.
I opened my eyes.
The ceiling above me was obsidian carved with constellations. Unfamiliar. Beautiful. Wrong.
Where was I?
I tried to sit up. My body screamed in protest. Every muscle felt like I'd been torn apart and poorly stitched back together.
"Easy," a soft voice said. "Don't move too quickly."
I turned my head. A young woman sat beside the bed, lesser Fae by her appearance, with kind brown eyes and servant's clothing. She held a cup of water.
"Who...?" My voice came out as a croak.
"I'm Mira. I've been tending to you." She helped me sit up, bringing the cup to my lips. "You've been unconscious for three days."
Three days?
The ritual. The Blood Moon. Kaelix's hands on me. The kiss. Then, magic. Exploding through my body like lightening. Burning me from the inside.
I looked down at my arms and went cold.
Silver veins traced beneath my skin like glowing spiderwebs. They pulsed faintly with each heartbeat. Beautiful and terrifying.
"What... what is that?" I whispered.
"Wild Court magic," Mira said quietly. "It awakened during the ritual. Everyone in the palace is talking about it. About you."
"I don't understand." I touched one of the veins. It felt warm under my fingertips. "I'm human."
"No, miss. You're not." Mira set the cup aside. "You're half-Fae. Wild Court royal blood, they say. That's why the Shadow Lord bought you."
Memories crashed back. The auction. His cold declaration: I need you to die.
"Where is he?" I asked. "Kaelix?"
"Lord Shadowthorne is in his study. Should I fetch him?"
"No." The word came out sharper than I intended. "No. I need to... I need to think."
I swung my legs off the bed. The room spun.
"Miss, you shouldn't..."
"I'm fine." I wasn't fine. I was the opposite of fine. But I needed to move. Needed to do something other than lie in bed with glowing veins and questions I couldn't answer.
I stood. Swayed. Caught myself on the bedpost.
The room was lavish, clearly part of Kaelix's private chambers. Obsidian walls, plush carpets, windows showing eternal twilight. The bed I'd been sleeping in was enormous, covered in black silk sheets.
Not a dungeon. Not a cell.
Why?
"Where are my clothes?" I asked.
"Burned, I'm afraid. They were covered in blood. But we've provided new ones." Mira gestured to a wardrobe.
I moved toward it, each step an effort. Inside hung dozens of gowns in dark colors, blacks, deep purples, midnight blues. All beautiful. All expensive.
None of them mine.
I pulled out the simplest dress I could find, a dark gray shift that wouldn't look out of place on a servant. I wasn't going to play dress-up in his fancy clothes.
"Will you need help dressing, miss?"
"No. I can manage. Thank you."
Mira hesitated, then bobbed a curtsy and left.
Alone, I struggled into the dress. The silver veins glowed brighter when I moved, pulsing with energy. I could feel the magic under my skin now that I was paying attention.
Dormant but present. Like a sleeping beast I'd accidentally woken.
What had happened during that ritual?
I remembered Kaelix stopping. Pulling away. Saying he couldn't do it.
He'd saved me.
The monster who bought me to kill me had saved my life instead.
Why?
I needed answers.
I moved toward the door. Tried the handle.
It opened.
No locks. No guards outside. I could just... leave?
I stepped into the corridor. It was empty, lit by floating orbs of shadow magic. The palace was silent except for distant sounds, servants moving far away, the rustle of wind through unseen windows.
I walked.
I didn't know where I was going. Didn't have a plan. Just needed to move, to put distance between myself and that bed where I'd almost died.
Except I couldn't.
The further I walked from Kaelix's chambers, the worse I felt. At first it was just unease.
Then discomfort. Then actual pain.
By the time I'd gone fifty feet, agony lanced through my chest like a knife. I gasped, doubling over.
What the hell?
I stumbled back toward the chambers. With each step closer, the pain lessened. By the time I reached the doorway again, it was gone completely.
I tried again. Same result. Fifty feet and the pain became unbearable.
"Trying to run?"
I spun around.
Kaelix stood in the corridor behind me. He looked terrible. Dark circles under his eyes.
Paler than before. The black veins I'd glimpsed on his chest during the ritual were visible at his collar now, creeping up his neck.
He was dying. Faster than before.
"What did you do to me?" I demanded.
"Saved your life." His voice was flat.
Exhausted.
"That's not what I mean. I can't... I can't leave. It hurts when I try to go more than fifty feet from..." I gestured at his chambers.
"From you."
Understanding flickered in his eyes. "The ritual."
"What about it?"
"The claiming wasn't completed, but it was started. It created a partial bond." He ran a hand through his hair. "You're tethered to me now. We can't separate without pain."
"How do I break it?"
"You don't."
"There has to be a way..."
"There isn't." He moved past me into his chambers. "This is permanent. You're bound to me until one of us dies."
I followed him inside, fury rising. "You had no right!"
"I had every right. I bought you." The moment the words left his mouth, he flinched. "I didn't mean..."
"But you did. That's what you think, isn't it? That you own me?"
"No. That's not..." He sank into a chair, looking suddenly much older than his appearance suggested. "I thought I did. When I bought you. But I was wrong."
"And now I'm stuck with you anyway."
"Yes."
I wanted to scream. To throw something. To run far away from this palace and this impossible situation.
But I couldn't run. Not anymore.
"I was ready to die," I said quietly. "On that platform. I'd made my peace with it. And then you stopped. Why?"
He looked up at me. Those silver eyes were tired. Haunted.
"Because you're not just a sacrifice. You're a person. And I'm not..." He trailed off. "I'm not as much of a monster as I thought I was."
"That's not good enough."
"I know."
We stared at each other. The monster and the girl he'd almost murdered. Bound together now by magic neither of us wanted.
"You have Wild Court royal blood," he said finally. "Did Mira explain?"
"She said I was half-Fae."
"More than half, I think. During the ritual, your magic awakened. It was..." He shook his head. "I've never seen anything like it. Pure. Ancient. You're not some distant descendant. You're close to the royal line. Very close."
"My mother."
"Yes. Which means every court will want you now. Either as an ally or a threat."
"And you're keeping me here because...?"
"Because if I let you go, they'll kill you. Or worse."
"How noble," I said sarcastically. "The man who bought me to murder me is now protecting me from murder."
"I know how it sounds."
"Do you?" I moved closer. "Do you know what it's like to have every choice stripped away? To be bought and sold like cattle? To be told your life isn't your own?"
"No," he admitted. "I don't."
"Then don't pretend you're protecting me. You're protecting your asset."
"That's not..."
The door burst open.
Lysander rushed in, his usual composed demeanor shattered. "My lord, we have a problem."
Kaelix stood. "What?"
"The Light Court. They know about her. About what she is." Lysander looked at me with something like pity. "Lady Seraphine has sent assassins."
My stomach dropped. "Assassins?"
"They breached the outer defenses ten minutes ago. They're in the palace. Coming here."
Kaelix's entire demeanor changed. The exhausted, guilty man vanished. In his place stood the Shadow Lord, cold, lethal, dangerous.
"How many?" he asked.
"At least a dozen. Maybe more."
"Get Ravyn. Full defensive formation around my chambers." He turned to me. "You stay here. Don't leave this room. Don't open the door for anyone but me or Lysander."
"I can fight..."
"You can't." He cut me off. "Your magic is untrained. You'd be more danger to yourself than to them."
"Then teach me!"
"After we survive this." He moved toward the door. Shadows gathered around him like living things. "Lysander, with me."
"My lord." Lysander hesitated. "Your curse. You're not strong enough for a full battle."
"Then I'll die fighting." Kaelix looked back at me one last time. His expression was unreadable. "Stay alive, Elara. That's an order."
Then he was gone.
I stood alone in the chamber, listening to the sounds of combat echoing through the palace. Shouts. The clash of weapons. The crackle of magic.
They were coming to kill me.
And I had no idea how to stop them.
The silver veins pulsed under my skin, as if responding to my fear. Magic stirred inside me, wild, untamed, dangerous.
I looked at my hands. At the power I didn't know how to control.
Maybe Kaelix was right. Maybe I was more danger to myself than anyone else.
But I'd be damned if I'd just stand here waiting to die.
Not again.
I moved toward the door, every muscle tense. I could feel Kaelix through the bond now, a faint presence at the edge of my awareness. Fighting. Struggling.
Dying.
The door exploded inward.
An assassin stood in the doorway, Light Court by his golden armor. He had a sword in one hand and fire magic dancing in the other.
"There you are," he said, smiling. "The Wild Court heir. Lady Seraphine sends her regards."
He raised the sword.
Magic exploded from my hands.
Vines erupted from the stone floor, impossible, but real. They wrapped around the assassin's legs, his arms, his throat. Thorns tore through his armor like paper.
He screamed.
I screamed too, horrified by what I was doing. By the power pouring out of me uncontrolled.
The vines kept growing. Kept tightening.
Until he stopped screaming.
I stared at the body. At what I'd done.
My first kill.
More footsteps in the corridor.
More assassins coming.
And I had no idea how to stop the magic now that I'd started it.
The silver veins blazed like fire under my skin.
Wild Court magic, ancient and deadly.
And it was all mine.