The moon was too bright.
Lucien stood in the clearing, masked, breath shallow, heartbeat alive in his throat. The silver trees glowed under moonlight, casting long, ghostlike shadows over the mossy ground.
He could feel it.
Not just the magic. Not just the curse pulsing faintly against his collar.
Them.
Kael and Elias.
Drawn by different reasons. Love. Guilt. Control. Longing. They were opposites — but both pulled toward him as if fate had tied them by the throat.
Footsteps came first — slow, sure, heavy.
Kael.
He emerged from the shadows in his hunting cape, eyes fixed, jaw set, refusing to wear a mask like the others.
"Running alone," he said. "Brave. Or arrogant."
Lucien smiled behind his fox mask. "I prefer irresistible."
Kael stepped back. "You shouldn't be here."
Elias's voice trembled. "I was always here. You just never looked."
Lucien's heart beat like thunder.
This wasn't a game anymore.
It was them.
All of them.
Standing in a space that couldn't hold them all without breaking.
Lucien took a step forward.
Elias didn't move.
"Tell me to go," Lucien said softly. "Say it. I'll leave. I'll choose."
But Elias didn't speak.
He just stepped into Lucien's arms.
And for the first time — kissed him.
---
The kiss was soft.
Softer than he expected. Softer than Kael.
It didn't burn.
It melted.
Elias kissed like he was afraid Lucien would vanish again. Like every second was borrowed.
Lucien felt something under his skin — the sigil pulsing, not with pain, but desire. It accepted this. Welcomed it.
And for a moment, he wondered if maybe…
He could have both.
---
But then—
A burst of cold magic ripped through the clearing.
The silver trees withered.
The sigil on Lucien's chest glowed bright red.
And a voice, not human, whispered through the wind:
"Choose."
Lucien fell to his knees, gasping.
The curse flared. Not because of who kissed him — but because he hadn't made a choice.
Both? That was the sin.
One would save him.
One would destroy him.
Kael circled him, silent. The tension between them coiled tight, like a blade waiting to be drawn.
"You planned this," Kael said. "You wanted us to chase you."
Lucien turned, facing him. "I wanted to see who would catch me first."
Kael grabbed him.
Not harsh. Not gentle either.
A hand around his waist. The other cupping the back of his neck.
Lucien didn't resist.
"Are you really him?" Kael whispered. "Or is this all some spell to ruin me?"
Lucien's voice dropped, low and intimate. "You were ruined before I came back."
Kael's breath caught.
And then — he kissed him.
There was no warning. No ceremony. Just fire and teeth and memory. It wasn't soft.
It was hungry.
Lucien gasped into it — not from surprise, but from the rawness of it. Kael kissed like a man who'd denied himself something vital for too long. Like he was trying to remember how Lucien once tasted.
And then—
"Stop."
A voice.
Soft. Broken.
Elias.
He stood at the edge of the clearing, mask in hand, pale robes soaked in moonlight, expression torn wide open.
Lucien turned slowly.
Their eyes met.
And everything stilled.
Elias looked at him — no mask now. No priest. No duty. Just a man.
"I came here to chase you," he whispered. "Not to find you already caught."
But not knowing which?
That would kill them all.