Damien's eyes gleamed under the moon, and he raised the mirrorstone dagger again.
Kyrell stepped in front of Lucian with a speed that split the wind. "You'll die before you touch him."
Damien blinked. The expression on his face wasn't hatred—it was grief. Twisted and poisonous.
"You think I don't know what you're doing to him?" Damien hissed. "He's not himself anymore. You're turning him into something else."
Lucian's voice rang out behind Kyrell, low and clear. "I am becoming who I was always meant to be."
Damien turned his focus to him. "And you think that's love?"
He raised the dagger and launched it straight for Lucian's chest—
Kyrell caught it mid-air. The metal sizzled in his palm, burning through flesh.
But he didn't flinch.
He crushed it in his hand until it shattered.
"I am the thing you fear," Kyrell said softly, voice almost trembling with divine wrath. "And I will tear out your throat if you touch him again."
The mist coiled tightly now, as though the earth itself bent to the vow.
Lucian reached forward, touching Kyrell's back. "Let me finish it."
Kyrell turned, pupils blown wide. "No. Not yet."
---
What Damien Didn't Expect
Kyrell didn't lunge forward.
Instead, he stepped slowly toward Damien.
"You're angry," Kyrell said. "But you're also desperate."
He was close now, close enough to kiss or kill.
Kyrell reached out and brushed his thumb across Damien's cheek.
"I do see you, Damien. But not the way you want."
Damien trembled.
And in that hesitation, Lucian appeared behind him like a ghost.
Fangs sank into Damien's throat. Clean. Swift.
Kyrell held him upright, whispered in his ear, "Sleep."
---
(Back in the Forest Shelter)
Later, when they left far from the moorlands, firelight danced across the walls of an abandoned cathedral, Lucian sat cross-legged beside Kyrell.
Neither spoke for a long while.
Then Lucian said, "He loved you. In his own broken way."
Kyrell leaned back, arms over his head. "Love shouldn't taste like poison."
Lucian chuckled softly, and Kyrell turned to him. "You scared me, you know. When your eyes turned red. I thought I'd lose you."
"You haven't," Lucian whispered.
He moved closer. The air between them thickened.
Kyrell's hands moved under Lucian's shirt, pushing it away slowly—like he was undressing fire. Lucian didn't stop him.
When their mouths met, it wasn't sweet. It was starved.
Lucian pulled him down, fingers threading through dark strands of Kyrell's hair as he kissed him deep—biting, claiming.
Kyrell's hips ground down against his, the friction making both of them gasp.
Lucian broke the kiss only to trail his mouth lower, down the edge of Kyrell's jaw, then his neck, tongue pressing against the pulse. "You want me to mark you again?"
Kyrell smirked, flushed. "I want you to ruin me."
Lucian sank his fangs in, slow and tender—and this time, Kyrell moaned into his mouth, arching into him.
---
(Somewhere Beyond the Forest)
In a hidden chamber lit with blue fire, a woman in crimson robes traced a sigil on the wall.
"The bond has been sealed," she whispered.
From the darkness behind her, a voice rasped like dried leaves. "Then begin the awakening. The throne has slept too long."
The wall trembled.
And somewhere in the realm of the dead, the First King opened his eyes.
---