No one should have been in the blood chambers.
No one except the Emperor.
And yet here they were — Kaedan carrying Riven’s limp but convulsing body, Ariaxa running beside him despite the pain lancing through her wounded shoulder. They plunged down the narrow stone stairwell into the depths beneath the palace.
The torches crackled with sickly green flame.
Chains hung from the ceiling.
Ritual symbols scarred the floor.
Ariaxa shuddered.
“You’ve taken me somewhere even the harem whispers about,” she murmured.
Kaedan didn’t respond.
His jaw was tight, eyes burning with a desperation she had never seen before. He kicked open the chamber door with a violent crack.
“Clear the table,” he barked. “Now.”
Guards scrambled. Instruments clattered aside. Spell scrolls scattered.
Kaedan lay Riven onto the obsidian table, the commander’s veins pulsing with dark poison that spread like ink through his skin.
Riven groaned, eyes barely open.
“D-Don’t… do it… Kaedan—”
“You’re dying,” Kaedan snapped, voice raw. “There is no other cure.”
Royal vampire blood.
The most powerful substance in the empire.
Forbidden to share.
Punishable by execution.
Riven shook his head violently — or tried to.
“Too… dangerous… the cost—”
Ariaxa stepped forward.
The smell of poison burned her nose.
The sight of Riven’s trembling hand made her chest tighten.
“Kaedan,” she said quietly. “Do it.”
Kaedan hesitated. The law bound him, even here, even now. “If I give him my blood, he becomes—”
“A threat?” Ariaxa finished. “Then he owes us his life.”
Riven choked out a pained laugh. “I already… do.”
Kaedan clenched his teeth.
Then, with a snarl of frustration, he sliced his own palm open with a ritual blade. Blood — dark crimson, almost glowing — pooled in his palm.
The chamber vibrated.
Riven’s eyes widened in terror. “No. Kaedan—don’t—”
Ariaxa stepped to the table.
She grabbed Riven’s jaw with steel-like grip.
“Drink,” she ordered.
Riven shook his head violently. “Ariaxa—no—”
She tightened her grip.
“DRINK.”
And she forced Kaedan’s bleeding palm to Riven’s mouth.
Kaedan lurched forward— “Ariaxa, WAIT!”
But it was too late.
Royal blood touched Riven’s lips.
Royal blood slid between his teeth.
Royal blood entered his body.
The effect was immediate.
Riven arched off the table, a scream ripping from his throat — raw, guttural, shaking the chamber walls.
Ariaxa grabbed his hand. “Riven—Riven, stay with us—!”
Kaedan slammed his hands onto Riven’s shoulders, holding him down as the power surged through him.
Riven convulsed violently.
His veins glowed black-red.
His eyes rolled back.
His spine arched so far Ariaxa feared he would break in half.
“KAEDAN—!” Ariaxa cried.
“He has to survive it!” Kaedan growled. “This is the cost!”
Riven thrashed, shattered breath leaving him in strangled sobs.
Ariaxa clung to his hand. “Riven—listen to me—fight it—!”
But his screams grew louder.
Magic coursed through him like fire made of lightning.
Blood roared.
Bones cracked.
His skin rippled with unnatural power.
Kaedan gritted his teeth, muscles trembling from the effort to restrain Riven.
Ariaxa leaned in close, forehead touching Riven’s.
“You are not dying today,” she whispered fiercely. “You hear me? You are NOT dying—!”
And then—
With one final wrenching scream—
Riven went still.
The glow faded.
The air quieted.
The chamber stilled.
Ariaxa’s heart hammered.
Riven lay limp on the table…
then took a long, slow breath.
Alive.
Exhausted.
Unconscious.
But alive.
She exhaled shakily.
Kaedan staggered back from the table, blood dripping from his hand, chest heaving in the silence.
He stared at Ariaxa — not at Riven, not at the ritual, not at the chamber.
Her.
Only her.
“You disobeyed a sacred law,” he said, voice trembling with anger and awe and something darker.
Ariaxa turned toward him, face pale, shoulder bleeding, eyes burning.
“And you hesitated.”
Kaedan stepped closer. “I tried to protect you—”
“And I saved him,” Ariaxa snapped, voice cracking. “You said you couldn’t lose me — but I’m not someone you get to hide away every time things get dangerous.”
Kaedan’s expression darkened, something primal stirring beneath the surface.
“You don’t understand what you’ve done,” he growled.
Ariaxa took a step toward him.
“Then punish me.”
Silence.
Thick.
Electric.
Explosive.
The air between them ignited.