The next morning, the sky over Soavy burned a strange shade of violet, as if the heavens themselves had been stirred by what had passed beneath them.
Seraphina stood at her chamber window, wrapped in a silken robe, Kael's warmth still clinging to her skin like starlight. Her body ached with memory—of closeness, of surrender, of something sacred that now lived in her bones.
But peace didn't last long in a palace built on rules.
There was a knock at her door—sharp, urgent. Her lady-in-waiting, Elyra, entered without waiting for permission, her eyes wide and trembling. "Your Highness," she whispered, "the High Council has summoned an emergency gathering. They say something unnatural has entered our realm."
Seraphina's stomach turned to ice.
"They believe it came from the forest near the old garden… from beyond the Veil," Elyra continued, lowering her voice. "They're ordering a full search of the palace and the surrounding grounds."
Seraphina's heart pounded. Kael.
She needed to warn him. But more than that—she needed to protect him.
Hours later, cloaked in royal white and gold, Seraphina stood in the marble Hall of Judgment. The council elders, with their silver-trimmed robes and hollow eyes, whispered among themselves like a nest of watchful crows. At the head of the dais, her father—King Alzareth—sat on the Throne of Radiance, his gaze heavy with suspicion.
"There has been a breach," the High Seer intoned. "A surge of dark energy. Something unnatural now breathes in Soavy's air."
Seraphina kept her expression calm. "Perhaps it was only a false signal. Soavy's borders are still strong."
A younger councilor stepped forward. "Or perhaps someone invited this darkness in."
A silence followed that was heavier than any accusation.
Seraphina's throat tightened. They didn't know the truth—not yet—but the scent of it was in the air. She could feel them watching her, wondering. And in her silence, a seed of danger had begun to grow.
That night, she slipped away again.
Kael waited for her in the shadows of the old crypt beneath the cathedral—hidden, but not safe. He could feel the shift in the wind, the hunt rising.
"They're searching for you," she whispered, clutching his hands.
"I know," he said calmly. "But they'll have to tear through the Veil itself to take me now."
Seraphina looked at him, her heart full of fear—and something fiercer. Love. The kind that made her willing to burn her own crown if it meant keeping him alive.
"We need allies," she said. "We need to leave this city. There's a place in the Eastern Mountains… forgotten ruins. No one dares go there. But it's where the veil between our worlds first tore."
Kael studied her. "You'd give up your kingdom for me?"
"I'd give up everything… if it meant choosing myself."
He smiled then. Not with cruelty, but with awe.
"Then let's run, my angel."
And under a blood-colored moon, the princess of light and the demon of shadow fled into the night—bound by a love that could destroy them both, or remake the world.