POV: Ravyn' Draven
The night smelled of rust and rain. A storm was coming, I could feel it in my bones, in the way the chains around my wrists hummed softly with the pulse of lightning. The sky above Kart Thalas was bruised purple, the moon half-- swallowed by cloud, the air thick enough to choke on.
The stage beneath me creaked as the crowd gathered, eyes aglow in the dim torchlight. Wolves mustly their hunger masked with polite smirks and silken cloaks. The glint of crescent fang was everywhere, a curse I couldn't scrub off, some where out there, pretending not to know the girl he'd sold.
' Lot forty-- seven , " the auctioneer called.
His voice cut through the heavy air. " Unshifted female. Seventeen cycles. Half blood lincage, cursed stock-- but trained Strong " laughter ripled. Someone whistled. Another person muttered, " worthless ". My throat was dry, but I didn't look down, I never did. I had learned long ago that weakness invited teeth.
So I kept my gaze forward, empty detached like a doll that had forgotten hay her name meant.
Then, the air changed.
It wasn't the storm this time. It was colder, quieter, as if the night itself had bowed to something unseen. A figure emerged from behind the shadows of the balcony. He didywalk like the others, didn't swagger or sneer . He moved like something carved out of moonlight and malice, his sober hair catching the dim light in a way that made the air around him shimmer. His eyes - God's, his eyes were pale as fractured glass, and when they met mine , every sound in the moon died.
Maelor Vryn Aeris,
The Glass prince of the unseelie court.
He didn't belong here. Fae prince didn't come to were werewolf slave auctions. They sent servants or assassin's. Yet here he was stepping closer, his presence sharp enough to make the crowd stumble back without him saying a word. He stopped before me, gaze dragging from my bound hands to my face lingering too long. " Unshifted?" He murmured, his tone like silk over steel. "How, disappointing ". The auctioneer laughed nervously."A defect ,. Your Grace. But she'ss Obedient "
Obedient,
The word burned like acid. I didn't mean to lift my head, but I did slowly, untill my eyes met his. For one breath, one terrible heartbeat, the world titled. His expression didn't change but something in his eyes flickered a fracture , like glass catching fire.
'Obedient," he repeated softly, the word sounding almost like a test . Then his gaze cut through me, precise and cold," I ' LL take her." The crowd erupted into whispers.
The auctioneer stuttered, " But -- but Your Grace , she's s cursed. There are rules.
" Break them".
The prince did not raise his voice, he had no need to. And just like that my fate was sold not for coin , not for mercy, but for curiosity. The guards unchained me, rough hands on my arms. I' ve stumbled once, twice , then felt it again, that gaze, anchoring me in place. When he stepped close enough for the scent of him to reach me - frost, steel, and something faintly electric the edges of the world blurred. His fingers brushed my chin, tilting it up. Cold skin . Perfect control.
But beneath that , a pulse . The heartbeat of something not a monster.
" What's your name?" He asked . I didn't answer. Couldn't his lips curved , not to smile, more like a secret he didn't intend to share. "No matter" he said " you ' LL remember it when you kneel, his words should have broken me. Instead I burned. Not with hatred, though it was there , but something else , something I didn't yet understand. The sort of heat that comes from fear and fascination tangled too lightly together. He turned away and finally, the storm broke. Lightning tore the sky asunder, the rain fell hard , cold against my skin, and I thought foolishly that maybe the gods were washing me clean . But I was wrong . They were baptizing me for war.
The rain followed us through the veil when the portal sealed behind me. The world changed . The air wasn't heavy with the salt of Kaer Thalas anymore it shimmered, thinner, touched with frost and something sweet that burned the lungs like wine . There were no wheels on the carriage that brought us , it glided our glass ground that reflected the stars, though I knew it has still night.
Maelor didn't say another word all the way. He sat opposite me , one hand resting lightly on the silver hilt of blade that looked more ornament than weapon . The silence between us wasn't empty it was measured . I felt him watching even when his eyes were closed. When the gates opened, light spilled out , a cold , crystalline blue that looked alive. The palace rose like a wound in the horizon : spires of obsidian , and viens of light threading through them, pulsing faintly, as if the structure breathed. Every sound -- whispers of wind , the shuffle of my bare feet on the marble -- echoed too clearly. It was like being inside the throat of something ancient.
I kept my head low as the guards bowed, none of them looking human, their eyes were shards of gem stone, their expressioncarved in obedience, when Maelor passed by them, they bent deeper, afraid to breathe his air.
He did not introduce me, he did not say one word. Inside the corridors stretched endlessly,line with mirrors that didn't show reflections. They showed memories. In one, a woman danced in a room of falling petals. In another, soldiers burned beneath a white sun. When I passed the mirror cloud. I thought of all the things they didn't want me to see. " Are you afraid of silence?" He asked abruptly. His voice was low, yet it hit like thunder after the long silence.
I hesitated " NO"
" Good" he gestured towards the hallway ahead. " You' LL find plenty of it here". I wanted to say something, anything to fill the ache between us , but words had never saved me before, only been used against me, twisted into ropes that milled tighter around my throat.
The last time I spoke too loud my father's hand had found my jaw. " You sound like your mother" he said, before the crack of bone made everything quiet again I swallowed that ghost and followed.
The room he led me to was n' t a prison, but it felt like one. Everything gleamed glass doors, silver drapes, a bed carved from living crystal. Beauty so sharp it hurt to look at. I stood awkwardly by the doorway, water dripping from my hair.
" Sit", he said .
It wasn't a command . Not quite . But the tone left no space for refusal . I sat on the edge of the bed and placed my palms against the chilled fabric . Maelor remained standing, half - shadowed by the doorway. The light from the corridor lit his hair and for the first time I saw faint trace of exhaustion beneath the perfect calm of his face.
He looked at me for too long too long " You are quieter than most wolves". Perhaps you prefer it that way , I murmured.
One corner of his mouth curved -- not smile , not yet", perhaps " . Once more , the silence stretched , this time softer . He approached slow, deliberate, until I could smell the faint electricity on his skin. The air shifted the light around as if he were the centre of gravity. I forced myself not to move.
" Why didn't you speak when I asked your name ?". Because everytime I said mine, someone used it as a weapon.
* I forget it for a moment " I lied . He studied me and I had the feeling he knows. " You lie like someone who's s had to survive it."
I flinched before I could stop myself. He saw that too. He stepped back then the spell broken, and turned towards the tall window beyond which a forest of white tress stretched , and rivers that glowed from within. The sight was almost holy.
"I don't keep slaves" he said finally.' you ' LL stay untt I decide what to do with you. Eat. Sleep. Don't run' " .
" And if I do?.
He turned his head just enough for the light to catch his profile - cut from frost, beautiful and merciless. Then I will find you.
Something in the way he said it didn't sound like a threat . It sounded like a promise. He left the door whispering shut behind him.