The silence of the clearing was unlike anything Ava had ever known. The forest was usually alive at night with the chatter of crickets, the distant hoot of owls, the restless stirrings of unseen animals. But here, now, everything was still.
Ava's pulse hammered in her ears as she stared at the figure standing at the center of the clearing. Moonlight pooled around him, yet it was not the moon that made him glow. He carried his own light, soft and silver, as if the stars had wrapped him in their embrace.
Her throat tightened.
He was no ordinary man.
His cloak shimmered faintly when it moved, like the surface of water catching the reflection of constellations. His dark hair, though tousled, seemed touched with faint streaks of silver that glowed as though kissed by starlight. But it was his eyes that rooted her to the ground two pools of midnight blue with threads of light dancing in their depths, as though fragments of the heavens had been sealed inside them.
"You wished for me."
The words were low, steady, and spoken as though they were the most natural thing in the world. But they struck Ava like a storm.
Her lips parted, but no sound emerged. She had whispered those words the words of her heart alone in her room, believing no one would hear. And yet this stranger stood before her, speaking them back as though he had been there, listening, waiting.
She forced herself to shake her head, to laugh softly, though the sound trembled. "That's impossible. No one could know that."
The faintest smile touched his lips, but it wasn't mocking. It was quiet, patient, as though he had expected her disbelief.
"The stars know," he said. His voice was deep but not harsh, carrying a weight that felt both ancient and sorrowful. "And I am bound to them."
Her heart stumbled in her chest.
She wanted to run. To turn back to the safety of her bed, to pretend this was just a trick of her imagination, born from a restless heart and too many nights staring at the sky. And yet, her feet did not move. Instead, she found herself stepping forward, as though drawn to him by something she could not resist.
"Who are you?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
The question hung between them, heavy as the night air. The man no, the being studied her for a long moment. His expression softened, and when he finally spoke, it was with a solemn weight, as though he was sharing a truth that cost him dearly.
"My name is Kael," he said. "Prince of the Celestial Kingdom. Son of the Starlit Throne."
Ava blinked, her breath catching. A prince? A kingdom beyond the stars? The words sounded like they had been lifted straight from a bedtime story. She wanted to scoff, to call him mad but there was something in the way he spoke, something in the undeniable light in his eyes, that made the words feel frighteningly real.
"You… you can't expect me to believe that," she stammered.
"I expect nothing of you," Kael replied softly. "But truth remains truth, whether it is believed or not."
His gaze dropped for a moment, and she caught the shadow that passed across his features pain, regret, loss.
"I was betrayed," he said quietly. "Cast from my kingdom by one who wears my blood. My brother." His jaw tightened, and his hands curled slightly at his sides. "He seeks the throne that was meant to be mine. And to take it, he would see me destroyed."
Ava swallowed hard, struggling to make sense of his words. Her mind swirled with disbelief, yet her heart kept pace with his story as though it recognized something her logic refused to.
"Why here?" she whispered. "Why… me?"
Kael lifted his eyes again, and when they met hers, Ava felt the air catch in her lungs. There was no doubt in his expression, no hesitation.
"Because you called me," he said simply. "Your wish tore through the veil between worlds. Your heart bound itself to mine, and the stars obeyed."
Her knees nearly buckled beneath her. She thought of every night she had pressed her forehead to the window glass, whispering to the sky as if it might listen. Every longing she had buried in her chest, too afraid to voice aloud. Could such fragile, foolish wishes truly have power?
Her voice cracked as she whispered, "That's not possible."
Kael stepped closer, and the glow that surrounded him seemed to soften, no longer distant and celestial, but warm like the glow of a lantern in the dark. He was close enough now that she could see the faint scars etched into his skin, the mark of battles fought far from her world. He was not untouchable. He was real.
"Everything is possible when the stars are listening," he said gently.
Ava's breath came uneven, and she pressed a hand to her chest as though she could steady her heart. He was a stranger, and yet she felt as though she had always known him.
Before she could find the courage to speak again, a sound split the night.
Low. Guttural. Wrong.
It echoed from the shadows at the edge of the clearing, and Ava froze. The hairs on her arms rose as the sound repeated, closer this time the snapping of branches, the drag of something heavy through the undergrowth.
Kael's expression shifted in an instant. The warmth in his eyes hardened into steel.
"Stay behind me," he said sharply, his voice suddenly that of a warrior, not a dreamer of stars.
Ava's body trembled, but her feet obeyed, carrying her a step back as the darkness at the forest's edge began to stir.
And then they emerged.
Shapes that were not men, but not beasts either. Their bodies writhed like smoke, shifting and reforming, yet their limbs struck the earth with the weight of something solid. Their eyes burned an unnatural red, glowing like embers in the dark.
Ava clapped her hands over her mouth to smother the scream rising in her throat. "What ....what are they?"
Kael's jaw clenched. His hand lifted, and with a sudden flare of light, a blade appeared born not of steel, but of pure silver fire. The clearing lit with its glow, shadows fleeing from its brilliance.
"They are shadows of the void," he said, his voice low and grim. "Creatures born of my brother's will. He has found me."
The nearest creature lunged, its mouth opening in a hiss that revealed rows of jagged, shifting teeth. Kael moved with startling speed, his blade slicing through it in a single, fluid arc. The creature dissolved into smoke, vanishing into the night with a shriek.
Ava stumbled backward, her chest tight with terror, her hands trembling so violently she could barely keep them raised. But even through the fear, her eyes clung to Kael. The way he moved fluid, precise, as though he had danced this battle a thousand times before. His cloak rippled, his blade shone, and for the briefest heartbeat, he looked less like a fallen prince and more like a god descended to earth.
More shadows surged from the forest, their forms twisting and multiplying. Kael planted himself firmly between them and Ava, his shoulders squared, his blade blazing brighter.
"You are bound to me, Ava," he said over the hiss of the creatures, his voice unshakable despite the danger pressing in. "Your wish tied our fates together. And I will not allow the darkness to touch you."
The clearing exploded in silver light as Kael met the shadows head-on, his fire cutting through the void. Ava pressed her back against a tree, her breath ragged, her mind screaming that this was impossible monsters, princes, kingdoms beyond the stars yet her heart whispered something entirely different.
This was real.
And somehow, it had all begun with her wish.