The frantic energy of the chase was a short-lived, pathetic reprieve. I ran three blocks before the stitch in my side became a searing, crippling pain. The emissary, who I now mentally referred to as "Glacial Eyes," didn't even sound winded. His footsteps, if you could call the sound of stone scraping stone "footsteps", were measured and getting closer.
"Stop, Solar," his voice commanded, closer than it had any right to be. "You are merely delaying the inevitable."
I gasped, cutting sharply down an alleyway between a dry cleaner and a defunct bakery. The air in the city felt thick, heavy with exhaust and the chill of impending dawn. The alley was dark, mercifully hiding me for a moment, but I knew the Fae could see in true shadow. I pressed myself against the cold brick, desperately trying to summon that blinding light again.
Do it. Use the fire!
But my hands only felt numb and tingly, the raw power from moments ago vanished, leaving me nothing but a frightened girl in a thin t-shirt.
I was too slow. A shadow detached itself from the wall to my left, solidified into a physical form, and grabbed my arm. It was Glacial Eyes. His grip was inhumanly strong, iron pressing into bone.
"Crude, but effective," he said, looking at the scrubbing brush abrasion on his chest. His expression was a perfect mask of cold disdain. "A pity your inherent power is so untamed. It could be useful."
I kicked out, aiming for his knee, but he didn't even flinch. He just tightened his hold, and suddenly, the buzzing static inside me, the energy I usually tried to suppress was gone. It was as if he'd simply pinched the wire, cutting off the current. I was inert, powerless.
"My name is Kael," he informed me, his breath cold against my ear. "And I am the King's First Blade. You will address me with respect, or you will not address me at all."
"Go to hell," I spat, my voice shaking despite my best efforts to sound tough.
Kael merely chuckled, a dry, grating sound. "An amateur threat. Perhaps the Nightshade Court will improve your manners, Seraphina Solstice."
He didn't give me time to process the use of my full, terrifyingly magical-sounding name. He lifted his free hand, and a hole of perfect, obsidian blackness opened in the space above the bakery's dumpster. Unlike the shimmering distortion in the library, this was solid, silent, and felt like it actively sucked the light out of the world.
"Hold your breath," Kael advised, though the warning felt more like a threat.
He shoved me toward the gateway. A sick, dizzying lurch hit my stomach. It felt an awful lot like the sensation of falling through static, and then my feet hit solid ground again.
I staggered, blinking rapidly, trying to clear the dizzying vertigo. The air here was sharp, cold, and smelled of frost and something else: rich, dark ozone, like lightning had struck a field of velvet.
We were in a cavernous hall, but this was no library. The walls were constructed of a black stone that seemed to absorb all light, yet every surface was detailed with carvings of intricate, twisting vines and thorns. Towering columns rose to meet a vaulted ceiling that was actually the night sky. It was a real, impossibly huge, star-dusted night sky, visible through a dome of enchanted glass. Everything was beautiful, gothic, and intensely hostile.
"Welcome to the Nightshade Court, little moth," Kael said, releasing my arm. I stumbled away, clutching the spot where his cold fingers had bruised my skin.
Before I could form a question, the heavy, ornate doors at the end of the hall swung inward, propelled by an unseen force.
All noise stopped. My heart stopped.
A figure emerged. He was flanked by guards in armor that looked like solidified shadow, but I didn't see them. I only saw him.
He was Fae, like Kael, but where Kael was a deadly tool, this man was the entire arsenal. He wore no crown, yet he radiated an authority that was heavier than gold. His hair was like polished obsidian, falling to the collar of a tunic made of material that shifted between liquid shadow and deep indigo velvet.
I felt it immediately: the static within me, which Kael had suppressed, surged back, reacting to his presence like iron filings to a magnet. Only this time, it wasn't fear; it was a terrifying, violent recognition. My solar power, the light, was instinctively reacting to the pure, overwhelming darkness of him.
He was King Lorcan.
As he descended the steps toward me, I finally saw the physical toll of his curse. It wasn't a mark; it was an aura. The shadows weren't just around him; they seemed to writhe beneath his skin, giving his movements a frightening weight. But it was his eyes that truly held the terror. They were luminous, the color of burnt amber, ringed by a cold, unsettling darkness that looked permanent. He moved like a predator—slow, deliberate, confident.
When he stopped three feet away, I had to crane my neck to look at him. His scent, like cold rain and ancient power, filled my senses.
"Look upon me, Seraphina Lyra," King Lorcan commanded. His voice wasn't loud, but it stripped the air of oxygen, making my lungs burn. "Tell me what you see."
I swallowed, the instinct to kneel warring with the desperate urge to run. "I see someone who broke into a library and kidnapped me."
His lips curved slightly, a tiny, dangerous movement that somehow didn't reach his eyes. "A human perspective. Allow me to offer the truth." He leaned in, and the world narrowed to the cold intensity of his gaze.
"I see the last remnant of the Solar line," he continued, his voice dropping to a near whisper that felt like a caress and a knife wound all at once. "And I see the Sun-Fire that will save my kingdom from the Shadow-Curse that consumes me."
He straightened, the shadow aura around him deepening. "You are not a citizen of this mortal world, Seraphina. You are my last, desperate weapon. And the price of that weapon is simple."
His gaze locked onto mine, amber burning into grey.
"You will marry me."