Chapter 25 I’m hurting you
The library was the only place where the silence didn't feel like a threat. I sat on the floor in the furthest corner of the restricted archives, my back against the cold stone, watching the shadows dance. But the shadows weren't behaving. They flickered and coiled around my fingers like loyal pets, fueled by the hundreds of necromantic leeches currently churning in my gut.
I felt... heavy. Every heartbeat sent a pulse of cold through my veins, and my skin had taken on a faint, translucent shimmer that made me look more like Kael’s kind than my own.
The heavy oak doors creaked open. I didn’t have to look up to know who it was. The scent of rain and ancient ozone followed him everywhere.
"Aria."
"I told you not to come," I said, my voice sounding like two stones grinding together.
Kael ignored the warning and stepped into the light of my flickering candle. He had changed his shirt, but he still looked haggard. The lines around his eyes were deeper, and for the first time since I’d met him, he looked every bit of his two hundred years.
"I am the King," he said softly, sitting on the floor a few feet away from me. He didn't try to touch me this time. "I go where I please in my own stronghold."
"Then you should go to the infirmary," I snapped, finally looking at him. "Selene nearly drained you dry. You need blood, Kael. Not a lecture from your 'little bird'."
Kael flinched at the callback to his earlier insult. He looked down at his hands, his expression pained. "I was wrong, Aria. About Selene. About everything."
"You were," I agreed, the bitterness in my chest flaring. "You let her touch you. You let her whisper in your ear while she was poisoning the very air we breathe. You brushed me off like I was a jealous child playing dress-up."
"I am a creature of logic and ancient wars," Kael said, his voice raw. "I saw a master witch offering resources I desperately needed. I was so focused on the 'how' of saving the city that I forgot to look at the 'who'. I thought I was being a King. I was just being a fool."
He looked up, his amber eyes searching mine. "And I was scared. Not of her. Of you."
"At least you're honest about it now," I whispered. I held up my hand, and a small, writhing shadow-leech manifested between my fingers, trapped in a tiny void-sphere. I crushed it. "I felt it, Kael. When I had her by the throat. You looked at me like I was the monster in the room."
"Because for a moment, you were," Kael said, his voice steady. "The power you’re holding... it’s not meant for a mortal vessel, Aria. You’re bloated on death-magic. You’re radiating a hunger that could swallow this entire castle."
"Then maybe you should stay away," I said, my voice trembling. "Maybe Selene was right. Maybe a 'traditional' match wouldn't be this dangerous."
Kael moved then, faster than I could track. He bridged the gap between us and grabbed my hands, pinning them to the floor. The coldness in my skin met the burning heat of his, and for a second, the air between us screamed.
"Don't you dare," he hissed, his face inches from mine. "Don't you dare use my own stupidity to push me away. I don't want a 'traditional' match. I don't want a witch who bows and scrapes and redirecting my light. I want the woman who dragged me out of the stone. I want the void that keeps me grounded."
"Kael, I'm hurting you," I gasped, feeling the leeches inside me trying to jump to his warmth. "I can feel your energy... I'm draining you just by being close."
"Then let it drain," Kael growled.
He leaned in, his lips crashing against mine. This wasn't the slow, exploratory kiss from the night before. This was a battle. He was fighting the void with his own ancient life-force, pouring his silver-blood strength into me to stabilize the churning darkness.
It was agonizing and beautiful. I could feel the shadow-leeches dying off, neutralized by the sheer purity of his vampire essence. The heavy, leaden feeling in my chest began to lift, replaced by a searing, golden heat.
I clung to him, my fingers digging into his shoulders, as the library around us began to shake. Books tumbled from the shelves as our combined auras flared, a collision of absolute darkness and eternal light.
When he finally pulled back, we were both gasping, our foreheads resting together. The shimmer in my skin had faded, and the shadows in the corner of the room had returned to being just shadows.
"Better?" he rasped, his eyes glowing like molten gold.
"Better," I whispered, my heart finally finding its rhythm again.
"Good," Kael said, standing up and pulling me to my feet. He kept his arm around my waist, pulling me firmly against his side. "Because the Northern Coven hasn't just retreated. Selene was a puppet, Aria. She was working for the Circle of Hecate. They’ve taken over the Space Needle. They’ve turned the human Null-Spire into a Necromantic beacon."
I looked at him, the weight of the new threat settling in. "They’re going to raise the dead, aren't they?"
"Every body in the city," Kael confirmed. "Unless we stop them. But this time, we do it together. No batting eyelashes. No secret agendas."
"And Selene?" I asked.
Kael’s gaze turned cold. "She’s in the dungeon. I’ve left her to Thierry. He has a very... specific... way of dealing with traitors."
I felt a shiver of satisfaction, but I pushed it aside. I looked at the obsidian mirror on the table. It was glowing with a steady, watchful light.
"We have to go to the Spire," I said. "If they raise an army of the dead in a city without power, there won't be anything left to rule."
"Then let's go, My Queen," Kael said, handing me my practice sword the real steel one this time. "Let's show them what happens when the void gets hungry."