Ariaxa’s pulse hadn’t settled since leaving the lower wing.
Her ribs still ached where Kaedan had held her.
Her skin still buzzed with the heat of his words.
If you stay here another second… I will.
Those words stalked her up the stairs, through the marble hall, and all the way toward his private chambers. Riven’s guard escorted her, but even he seemed uneasy — glancing over his shoulder, hand on his sword, steps too fast.
“What’s happening?” Ariaxa whispered.
Riven didn’t answer.
He stopped at Kaedan’s double doors. “Go inside,” he murmured. “Lock them.” His jaw flexed, tension coiled in every muscle. “Don’t open for anyone but him.”
Ariaxa frowned. “Riven—”
But he was already turning, leaving her alone.
The hall felt wrong.
The torches sputtered as if choked by an unseen wind. Shadows gathered at the seams of the walls like ink pooling thicker than darkness should allow.
A chill raced down Ariaxa’s spine as she pushed the door open.
Kaedan’s scent lingered — smoke, steel, the faint warmth she hated that she recognized.
But beneath it, something metallic.
Something sharp.
She stepped inside slowly.
“Kaedan…?” she whispered.
Silence.
Then — a whisper-soft rustle behind the curtains.
Too soft for a guard.
Too soft for Kaedan.
Too soft to be anything but—
A blade flashed.
Ariaxa barely had time to gasp.
Seren lunged from behind the velvet drapes, hair wild, eyes fever-bright. She moved like a creature crawling out of the pits of Vharon’s oldest nightmares.
Her voice was a sharp hiss:
“If I kill the Sun Princess…”
Her hand tightened on the knife.
“Kaedan will finally break.”
Ariaxa jumped back, but not fast enough. The blade sliced her side — a white-hot line of pain tearing across her ribs. She stumbled, gripping the wound, breath collapsing out of her.
Seren pounced.
“You ruined everything!” she shrieked, straddling Ariaxa’s hips, pinning her to the floor. “You took his attention. His desire. His rage. Everything that kept his eyes on me—now they’re on you.”
Ariaxa tried to push her off. Seren slammed her wrist against the stone.
“You think he’ll save you?” Seren snarled. “He’s not here. He’s done saving you.”
The blade pressed to Ariaxa’s throat.
Cold.
Precise.
Ready.
“He won’t come this time,” Seren whispered, breath shaking with hate and triumph. “He can’t.”
Ariaxa felt her own blood seeping under her back, warm and frightening.
She stared up at Seren — at the madness twisting her features — and swallowed against the pressure of the knife.
Then—
BOOM.
The doors exploded inward.
Kaedan didn’t walk in.
He stormed in.
A hurricane of shadows and fury.
His eyes weren’t just black.
They were feral.
He crossed the room in three impossibly fast strides.
“GET. OFF. HER.”
Seren barely turned before Kaedan hit her.
His shoulder slammed into her torso, knocking her off Ariaxa and throwing her several feet across the chamber. She crashed into a table, shattering it under her weight.
Ariaxa gasped, clutching her side as she rolled onto her elbows.
Kaedan didn’t look at her.
He went straight for Seren.
She crawled, coughing, reaching for her knife again — but Kaedan was already on top of her, one knee pinning her spine, his fist slamming into her ribs, her jaw, her shoulder.
“YOU DARE—”
A punch.
“HUNT HER—”
Another.
“IN MY CHAMBERS—”
The guards rushed in behind him — and froze.
Because Kaedan wasn’t using a weapon.
He wasn’t using magic.
He was using his bare hands.
Seren coughed blood onto the broken marble, laughing weakly even as she choked on her breath.
“You see?” she gurgled. “Look at him. Look at what you’ve become, Kaedan. Look what she makes you.”
Another blow silenced her.
Ariaxa tried to push to her feet — her vision blurred — but she forced herself up.
“Kaedan!” she shouted.
He didn’t hear her.
Seren’s head lolled to the side, neck exposed. Kaedan’s hands closed around her throat, fingers tightening.
“Kaedan, stop!” Ariaxa tried again.
No response.
His grip tightened — his whole body coiled with lethal intent.
Seren clawed weakly at his hands, feet kicking uselessly against the floor.
“KAEDAN!” Ariaxa screamed, stumbling forward, reaching for him. “STOP!”
He froze.
Not slowly.
Not gradually.
Instantly.
As if the word itself had seized his spine.
His head turned toward Ariaxa in a sharp, instinctive snap. His eyes were bottomless — swirling with rage and bloodlust — but something else flickered there.
Recognition.
Fear.
Obedience.
Ariaxa pressed her hand to her bleeding side, chest rising and falling too fast. “Please,” she whispered, voice trembling. “Stop.”
His hands were still around Seren’s throat.
He looked down at Seren.
Then back at Ariaxa.
His fingers curled tighter for one last murderous impulse—
—then released.
Seren collapsed to the floor, gagging, coughing blood, choking on air.
Kaedan rose slowly, chest heaving, blood on his knuckles and sleeves. He stepped over Seren like she was debris.
He walked toward Ariaxa.
Fast.
Too fast.
The guards parted in terror as he approached her, eyes still wild, still burning, still dangerous.
He stopped inches from her, his breath harsh, shoulders shaking.
“You are hurt,” he growled.
Ariaxa tried to stand straighter. “I’m fine.”
“You are bleeding,” he repeated, voice cracking with something more violent than anger.
“It’s shallow,” she whispered.
His nostrils flared. “She cut you.”
“She was trying to kill me.”
Kaedan’s jaw clenched so hard she thought his teeth might break.
And then — in a voice that was barely human:
“If you had been a heartbeat slower… she would have.”
Ariaxa’s breath trembled. “But I wasn’t.”
Kaedan leaned in, forehead nearly touching hers. His chest pressed lightly to her arm, heat radiating from him like fire.
“You told me to stop,” he said, voice barely audible. “And I… obeyed.”
“It saved her.”
“It nearly destroyed me.”
Their breaths mingled.
Their pulses collided.
The room waited.
The guards didn’t dare breathe.
Kaedan’s voice dropped into a whisper that shook the world:
“You said one word… and I stopped killing.”
Ariaxa swallowed hard.
“Kaedan—”
He cut her off, stepping closer still.
“Do you understand what that means?”
His lips brushed her cheek, not in a kiss—
in a confession.
And still beneath his feet, wheezing, broken, Seren whispered a single hoarse word:
“Monster…”
Ariaxa didn’t know which of them she meant.
Kaedan didn’t care.
He was staring only at Ariaxa.
As if she was the only thing in the room.