{"He was carved from twilight and wicked intent, a beautiful disaster draped in old magic and newer sins."}
CAELEN'S POV
" You are an outcast!!"
The words always rung through my mind every day of my life. Why? Because I was a highbred of a Witch and Fae, a forbidden birth in the Fae Kingdom. I had arrived at the Sanctuary, and I hated it. Mostly because I didn't belong. They let me in. The wards couldn't keep me out, and ofcourse, because someone wanted me here.
But much to my surprised a strong scent hit my nostrils and I obliged to follow it and see who the hell it was. A man stood on a raised coral dais, cloaked in shadows and stormlight, with a crown of jagged black pearl resting on his brow like it belonged there, like it grew there. And when he moved slightly, I realized who he was.
Morkai Vaelan, the Abyssal Sovereign.
Gods, he was, Ridiculously handsome, he looked like the ocean sculpted a man out of fury and regret, then forgot to smooth the edges. Tall and broad-shouldere, dark hair with a streak of silver at his temple, like a scar left by lightning. His skin gleamed like sea-glass lit from within, touched by magic, or power, or both. And his eyes stormed, were endless abyssal blue so deep it looked like they held currents behind them.
How the fuck had he maintained himself looking like sin at his age?
I was blown away, and it made something in my spine tighten, like a bowstring pulled taut. It wasn't just an attraction. It was recognition that terrifying, exhilarating moment when your soul looks at someone else and says: You.
My naughty streak rose out, and the magic around me could not help as I chose to push into his mind link and smirked while at it.
"Oh, Caelen, you do love trouble,e " I muttered to myself, and then the minute my powers reached his mind, I realized I hadn't touched a storm, but I'd touched a maelstrom. And he had felt me. I knew it. His stance had shifted slightly. His jaw was tense, and his gaze had searched the crowd, sharpened by suspicion or instinct. But he didn't know what he was looking for, and I exhaled slowly, adjusting the dark-cut formal cloak I'd stolen off a corpse two kingdoms ago (they hadn't needed it, and I had places to be). My glamour shimmered faintly, hiding the raw glyphs carved into my arms, the scars, the things I didn't want the world to see yet.
I moved through the outer arc of the sanctuary, careful not to attract attention as I watched him, with his cold crown and haunted eyes, and felt the strange, terrible ache of destiny tightening around my throat. A few minutes later, I watched as Lady Nerisca moved to stand next to him, and all the control I held slipped.
"Gods, how do you stand the scent of her?"
I voiced the thoughts out loud and forgot I had initiated a mind link power connection to him and then my eyes widened as I watched Morkai Vaelan stiffen. I felt it like the jolt of a net catching something far bigger than I meant to drag in. He scanned the chamber with a predator's patience, hands curling into fists. He was searching for me as Nerisca leaned into one of her spies, whispering some poison dressed up as diplomacy.
I could not help but push more words through "She smells like rotted pearls and ambition," I went on, amused. "If I were you, Sovereign, I'd rather drown."
His breath hitched and my Fae powers felt how he reached back like a sea beast waking from the deep, cautious but powerful. I felt his senses drag through the room, lust, fear, greed, the usual political rot. He sifted through it with finesse. Then he found the connection I had created. Just a brush. A whisper. A tether against his thoughts.
"Ah. You fucking heard me." I grinned alone. "Wasn't sure you could. You seemed… distracted. Probably Nerisca's perfume. Clings to the spine like oil, doesn't it?"
His reaction was deliciou, rage laced with disbelief. Several heads turned at whatever expression crossed his face. He waved them off, descending from the coral dais like a storm pretending to be fog. I should've felt fear but I felt for the first time in my life I felt alive. Taunting him and even making him search for me was exhilarating.
"Careful, Sovereign," I warned him gently. "Talking to voices makes you look mad but then again, you already are in some circles a Murderer, a monster or Drowned heir."
He snarled in thought, and shoved back, hard, and I reeled. Just for a second, and centuries of mental defense slammed into my walls of tidecaller logic, whisper-diviner, raw abyssal force. Beautiful but brutal, but not enough to shake me loose control for a minute.
"Impressive," I murmured, genuinely pleased. "You're stronger than they say, but not nearly as untouchable as you pretend."
He pushed harder, and the command laced his mental voice now with iron and storm.
"Show your fucking self coward " A command, not a request.
"Oh, you wound me," I said, mock-affronted. "But not yet, not here, as there are too many eyes. Even now, Nerisca watches you like a shark circling a seal that forgot it was bleeding."
His attention flicked subtly, but I felt it. Nerisca had stopped speaking as she stared at him, and they always knew when something shifted. So did she, and he turned away.
And I struck the final chord, and it pleased me immensely. "You're not alone anymore, Morkai Vaelan," I said, softer this time, almost fond. "And gods help us both, I bet you are going to need me sooner or later."
Then I slipped away, cut the tether clean, and vanished from his mind like foam into surf and was proud that he didn't know who I was, not yet, but he was going too. I slipped from the Sanctuary before the final toast. One second, I stood at the edge of the coral dais, and the next, I was sliding like a shadow between shell columns and curtain-veils of bioluminescent kelp, laughter and harp strings fading behind me. That was the trick of being unwanted: you learned how to vanish before they told you to leave.
Gods, but he felt alive.Morkai Vaelan, the Abyss Sovereign. Cold-eyed, storm-souled, carved from grief and shadow, and I'd just touched his mind. And he had felt me. I grinned, sharp and pleased with myself. Not many could say they'd trespassed into the mind of a living god and walked away whole.
I reached the outer foyer of the Sanctuary, and the air was cooler out here.
"Well," came a voice like silver poured over poison, "if it isn't the stain of my bloodline."
I froze mid-step, the shadows parting around me as Lord Ardanis, High Fae of Aeldoria, stepped into view. Regal, cruel, and colder than winter steel. Antlers like wrought gold rose from his brow, casting fractured shadows across the marble path. His retinue of starlight-robed courtiers trailed behind him like a funeral procession, and of course, my dear Uncle.
"Did you forget how to kneel, Caelen?" he asked, smile razor-thin.
"No," I said smoothly, "I just stopped seeing the point."
The temperature dropped, and the courtiers gasped. I was so tired of pretending to be grateful for a seat they'd never offered. Ardanis stepped closer, and his glamour flared—the weight of his title pressing down like drowning. "You mock the blood that protects you."
"Funny," I said, cocking my head, "I've only ever seen it bind me."
He moved then, swift as a falcon dive, and the back of his hand caught my cheek, sharp and sudden. Fae magic crackled against my skin. I didn't flinch. I'd been hit harder by truths. "Watch your tongue, Witch-Fae," he snarled. "You walk the edge of exile."
"I was born in exile," I replied coolly. "You just gave it a name."
Another blow was coming, I felt it in the coil of his posture, the twitch of fingers ready to summon fire or ice or worse—
"Enough."
The word cracked through the tension like lightning splitting a tree, and then Elowen appeared. She stepped from the shadows, hands still ink-stained from her scrollwork, eyes burning with quiet fury. "Strike him again, and I will summon the entire High Lexicon and bind your words until solstice."
Ardanis turned, affronted. "Elowen, scholar or not, you forget your place."
"I forget nothing," she said, calm and terrifying. "But you, my lord, forget that even in Aeldoria, knowledge outranks cruelty. Plus, we are in the Sanctuary today, and the laws here protect him. She stepped between us, offering me her hand. I took it and heaved a sigh of relief that she had found me.
Ardanis glared at her, then at me. "You'll regret aligning yourself with him. He is cursed."
Elowen didn't blink. "Then he'll have company."
She led me away, arm linked in mine, and I didn't look back not until the sea wind lifted again and I felt, just faintly, a ripple of distant thought still echoing across the tether I'd cast.