~LENORA'S POV
The silky sheets felt soft against my skin as I stirred awake. The gentle caress was a stark contrast to the brutal groan that echoed through the room, a sound that made me shudder involuntarily.
I peeled open my eyes slowly, blinking away the haze as I took in the unfamiliar ceiling, that seemed to pulse with a life of its own.
I turned my head while scanning the room, trying to place where I was, but everything felt foreign, like a dream that lingered just out of reach.
I shifted, attempting to sit up, but pain shot from my lower back to my core. My entire body felt battered, bruised, and raw, a dull ache that made every movement a reminder of what had happened…
I pressed a hand to my head, massaging the throbbing pulse, as my memories flickered back like fractured glass.
I remembered trying to escape. Running through hallways, eavesdropping and being found by those creatures.
Valen and the incubi.
They had their hands on me, holding me down as I struggled and pleaded, but they didn't listen.
And then the rage, hatred and disgust I felt towards them changed into something else, a hunger awakening of arousal and need.
The memories sent a wave of disgust through me, followed by a creeping sense of shame.
I closed my eyes, trying to remember more, but all I could see was silver. Silver hair... grey eyes with silver rims, fire licking from him, consuming everything.
Alaric.
The name burned in my mind. My cheeks flushed as fragments of memory pressed forward: the weight of him on me, the heat of his body, the whispers of silver flames curling around us.
The growl that had woken me up echoed again, a low, guttural sound that sounded mournful, seeming to come from the walls themselves, reverberating through my bones.
I stood up from the bed, falling down immediately. I heaved out a heavy breath, and wincing because of the burning sensation flaring in my core.
I wrapped the bedspread lazily around my body, trying to cover myself, but it barely reached my thighs, leaving my legs exposed to the cool air.
Suddenly, and without warning, Zephyr and Lucian appeared in the room, their sudden presence made me jerk back with a shriek, before my hand instinctively tightened around the bedspread.
They didn't announce themselves with words or sound, their presence simply filled the space.
Lucian's piercing gaze swept the room, though his face was calm and unreadable.
Zephyr's eyes, however, flashed a moment of worry before settling into controlled composure.
"Where is Alaric?" Lucian's voice cut through the silence. His eyes, though focused, seemed to pierce through the dim light, scanning not just the room but me.
I swallowed hard, words catching in my throat. "When I woke up this morning... I was alone," I whispered embarrassingly.
For some reason, I felt ashamed and guilty like I had done something unforgivable.
The beastly groan sounded again, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
I turned to Zephyr, my mind swirling with questions, but he just muttered, "Khaos is in pain... Alaric."
His eyes met Lucian's, and they shared a look of distress, their faces mirroring each other's concern.
Without another word, they vanished, leaving me alone in the room.
My body tensed up immediately, my heartbeat thundering in my ears, not just from exhaustion or pain, but from the lingering sense that something unseen was beyond the walls of this room.
Who or what was Khaos? I thought to myself, as Zephyr's last words continued to echo on my mind.
The beastly sound echoed again, its agony seeming to have increased. I stood, frozen for a moment, not knowing what to do, because whatever was sounding behind these walls wasn't human.
My eyes darted to the corners of the room before walking towards the north wall of the chamber.
I pressed my ear against the cold stone, before my fingers brushed against a brick. The brick sank into the wall with a soft click that seemed to unlock a hidden mechanism.
The stone wall departed, revealing a hidden dark stairway, adorned with touches that leaked silver flames.
I stepped into the stairway, the stairs spiralled down into darkness, and I followed, with my footsteps echoing off the silent path.
I reached the bottom of the stairway and froze.
Before me stretched a vast, dimly lit passage. My eyes adjusted slowly, and that's when I saw it, chained to the floor by thick, ironlike links that seemed to drink in the faint light, was a dragon.
Its scales shimmered with an ethereal white glow, like moonlight trapped in living armor. My breath caught in my throat, and my hands trembled as I took a hesitant step closer.
His silver eyes which were impossibly bright stared blankly into the distance, as if gazing through the confines of the realm.
The creature's sheer size and the coiled tension in its muscles all made my stomach twist, making me dig my fingers into the folds of the bed spread for support.
It's real. It's actually real.
I instinctively took another step back. My voice came out as a small, shaky whisper. "I... I thought dragons were—"
The thought died on my tongue. Nothing I had ever imagined compared to this living, breathing being.
A low, mournful groan left it's mouth and vibrated through the room, echoing off the walls and into my bones. I flinched, instinctively hugging myself.
For a long moment, I simply stared, frozen by a mix of terror and awe. I couldn't bring myself to move closer, couldn't even imagine reaching out.
But I did anyway.
I took a careful step forward, my heart hammering in my chest. My fingers hovered over the edge of its massive flank unsure whether I was doing the right thing by being this close to the creature.
"You must be... Khaos," I whispered in awe.
My words barely carried through the room, yet the dragon's silver eyes seemed to flick toward me, tracking my presence without moving.
"Khaos..."
I slowly rested my hand against its flank.
The scale was smooth, almost like cool marble, but warmth pulsed faintly through it.
The dragon shuddered, not violently, but enough to make the chains rattle. My body tensed, ready to retreat, but it did nothing else. It didn't strike. It didn't roar. It merely shifted slightly, as if acknowledging me.
I exhaled slowly, forcing my racing thoughts to calm. The initial terror had dulled, replaced by a cautious fascination.
"I... I won't hurt you," I whispered, barely audible. "I'm... I'm not here to hurt you."
I internally face palmed due to my choice of words. What possibly could a human girl do to a mystical beast?
The dragon's silver eyes blinked, and his groan softened into a low, almost mournful hum.
But my awe didn't last, as I felt something stir in the shadows behind me, and I froze again.
The sensation crawled across my skin, prickling like icy fingers.
I spun slightly, and looked around the space but I didn't see anything.
I decided to focus back on the dragon, pressing my hand to his side, and he shivered faintly, but did not recoil from my touch.
My mind raced with questions tumbling over one another. Why was he here? Chained? What is he waiting for? Is he a prisoner? And why was he chained in a hidden stairway in Alaric's room?
I had no answers to my questions.
The air grew colder suddenly, and the soft whisper of movement brushed past me. It felt as if eyes that doesn't belong to the room were watching me.
I stepped back slowly, never taking my gaze off the dragon. "Khaos... I don't know why exactly you were chained here, but... I think I should leave you be." I murmured.
The chains rattled again, louder, as if responding to my words, or perhaps to the unseen presence in the room.
I took a cautious step back, my fingers brushing along the cold stone wall for support, eyes locked on Khaos.
A black smoke began to swirl before me, curling like dark fingers in the air. It wasn't just a shape—it moved with intent, shifting and twisting, with distorted echoes of voices merging within it.
Khaos groaned low, a warning that resonated through the floor.
The smoke pulsed, and a voice emerged, deep and yet strangely calm.
"You are the promised human, yet your soul remains untouched."
The words slammed into me like a fist. I stumbled back a step, hand clutching my chest as if I could hold the meaning in.
My mind raced, the echoes of the smoke still whispering in my ears, a thousand soft murmurs blending with the harshness of that single statement.
I whispered with a trembling voice, "W-who... who are you?"
The smoke hesitated for the briefest moment, curling tighter as if gathering itself, and then it vanished into nothing.
Khaos' groan softened, almost like a resigned sigh, and he settled back onto his stomach.
I swallowed hard, my mind spinning. The promised human with untouched soul...? What does that even mean?
I felt small, insignificant, yet somehow, I was brought into situations that were bigger than me. Why me? What exactly am I here for?
I wanted to run. I wanted to scream. But curiosity held me rooted, and against my better judgment, I couldn't tear my eyes from the space where the smoke had been.
"What... what did that mean?" I whispered again, but no answer came.
And as I stood there, frozen and unsure, one terrifying truth became clear: I was the promised human.
But promised by whom... and for what?
The questions twisted through my mind, and the sense that my life had just been pulled into a story far larger and far darker than anything I had ever known.