Elowen stood in the great hall long after the gates sealed behind the men who had brought her.
The silence was oppressive, thick with heat and watchful eyes. Demons clung to the stone arches and pillars, their forms half-melted into shadow, their gazes sharp with curiosity. None approached. None spoke. They watched her the way predators watched something unfamiliar—uncertain whether it was prey or poison.
Kael Draven had not moved from his throne.
He observed her with an intensity that made the air prickle against her skin. Not hunger. Not desire. Assessment.
"You were told to kneel," he said at last.
"I was told nothing," Elowen replied.
Her voice did not shake. She was proud of that. Fear coiled tightly in her chest, but she had learned young that fear, once shown, invited cruelty.
A demon snarled, baring obsidian teeth.
Kael lifted one finger.
The demon went still.
"You speak boldly for something so small," he said.
"I speak honestly," Elowen answered. "There is a difference."
That earned her his full attention.
He rose slowly, unfolding to his full height. The hall seemed to shrink around him, shadows bending as though unwilling to touch him. His presence was suffocating—ancient, violent, restrained by will alone.
"You do not fear me," Kael said.
"I do," she said. "I simply don't see the point in showing it."
Something flickered across his expression. Amusement, perhaps. Or irritation.
He descended the steps, each footfall echoing. With every step, the warmth inside Elowen's chest stirred, subtle but insistent, like embers coaxed by wind. She clenched her fists, grounding herself.
She was human. Ordinary. Whatever this sensation was, it had to be her imagination.
Kael stopped a few paces away.
"What are you?" he asked quietly.
"Human," she said without hesitation.
The word rang wrong.
Behind him, stone scraped against stone.
A massive dragon shifted in the shadows of the rear hall—its scales etched with glowing sigils, its wings bound by ancient magic. Its great head lifted, eyes narrowing.
It growled.
Not at Kael.
At her.
Elowen's breath hitched.
Heat surged through her veins, sharp and sudden. Torches flared white-hot along the walls. The dragon recoiled with a roar that shook the hall, chains screaming as it pulled back.
Then—
Silence.
The warmth vanished as quickly as it had come, leaving her trembling.
Kael stared.
For the first time in centuries, something had entered his domain that did not bow.