✦PREFACE✦
◈DISCLAIMER◈
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locations is purely coincidental and unintentional.
◈TRIGGER WARNINGS◈
This book contains content that some readers may find distressing. It also includes explicit scenes.
Strong language
Murder and assassination
Explicit sexual content (both heterosexual and homosexual)
This is a dark romance and fantasy, which means love is chaotic, pain is part of the journey, and healing comes at a price.
◈POINT OF VIEWS◈
This story is written in third person point of view.
◈UPDATE SCHEDULE◈
I post one new chapter every day. However, there may occasionally be skipped days as I am currently balancing this story with the demands of my service as a youth corper.
Please know that I am doing my very best to keep the updates consistent while fulfilling my duty to the government and managing everything else in between.
Your patience and support mean the world to me. Every comment, like, and read keeps me motivated to keep going even on the tough days.
◈AUTHOR'S NOTE◈
Thank you so much for choosing to read my story. Truly, it means the world to me. There are so many incredible books out there, and the fact that you chose to spend time with mine is something I do not take for granted.
If you enjoy the story, I would love to hear your thoughts. Your feedback not only helps me grow as a writer but also keeps me company during those long, solitary hours when it is just me sitting after a long day, with my characters emotionally ruining each other.
Thank you again for being here. I cannot wait to share more of this journey with you.
With all my gratitude,
Prince Nova
✦PROLOGUE✦
I wandered through the museum of Vanilor, my footsteps echoing across the polished marble floors. My eyes were drawn to a statue that seemed almost alive in its stillness. It was a towering figure carved with fierce precision. Torin. I had heard whispers of him across the realms. Seeing him here, immortalized in stone, stirred something deep inside me.
I turned to the guide walking beside me, curiosity lifting my voice into a question I had not expected to ask.
"Who was he?"
The man's eyes flicked to the statue, reverence and caution crossing his face. Then he spoke, his voice low and deliberate as if the story itself demanded respect.
"Torin," he said, "the battle-hardened ruler, feared across nine realms, was never meant to sit on a throne. He claimed Vanilor through blood and silence, building his dominion from the ruins of fallen kingdoms."
My chest tightened as I listened.
"Amid the smoldering remains of his greatest conquest," the guide continued, "Torin captured the last heir of the shattered Kingdom of Aethel. The boy was of remarkable beauty and unbroken pride even in chains. Torin should have ended him, but he did not. Something about that first glance held him, though he would never admit it."
I swallowed hard. The story was not just of war but of desire, danger, and obsession. I studied the statue closely, searching for secrets hidden in the stone.
"What happened next?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper, my eyes fixed on the figure before me.
The guide leaned closer, as if the walls themselves might betray him. "What began as a trophy grew into something far more perilous. Torin found himself ensnared by feelings he dared not voice. Even those closest to him could not resist the pull of forbidden desire."
I could not look away. His voice painted vivid pictures in my mind.
"Powers bent to one man's will, and secrets threatened to destroy everything he had built."
I asked the question that had been burning at the edges of my thoughts.
"How did it all begin?"
The guide's gaze softened. He spoke as if recounting an ancient legend.
"Centuries ago, when peace still whispered through the wind and the world was young, Torin ruled the realm of Vanilor, one among the nine. He was as ruthless as he was ambitious, driven by an insatiable hunger for power. As a youth, he discovered a book that haunted his dreams as he grew. In his final dream, a cloaked figure with flowing gray hair appeared and said, 'To prevent this nightmare from unfolding, the nine bearers must be brought across the night realms and the boy must be stopped.'
"Driven by those words, Torin gathered the bearers, securing some through allegiance and forcing the rest into submission by war. Aethel, next in line, chose the path of resistance and accepted the inevitability of conflict."
He turned to me, his gaze locking with mine. As he spoke, his words no longer echoed in my ears but came alive, as though the past itself had reached out to claim me.