The sword had long been lowered, but the tension cling to the air like smoke.
After the sparring match, after the chain of Phoenix had melted in the fire, and Valen had whispered she belonged to him... She hadn't spoken a word.
Her pride as a warrior was cracked, but not shattered. And her soul? Restless, unsure, and far too aware of the man who had claimed her with obsession instead of chains.
Seraphine followed behind him in silence, gaze sharp, spine straight , refusing to let him see how her thoughts spiraled. The enemy, he was still the enemy. No matter how close he leaned, how softly he whispered, how his touch-
No.
Her eyes darted to the nape of his neck as he walked ahead. The collar of his dark shirt shifted slightly with his movements, revealing the edge of something inked on his pale skin.
A rose.
Delicate and dark, curling in eternal bloom just above his spine.
She frowned, " You have a rose tattoo? "
Valen stopped mid-step.
Then slowly, he turned to her, dark eyes gleaming with something unreadable. "I do. "
"Why? "
He tilted his head, and for a moment, he looked almost vulnerable. "Because you love them. You always smelled like a rose field in bloom. Even on the battlefield. Even when you were drenched in blood. That scent drove me mad. "
Her heart stuttered.
She didn't know why it hurt.
Didn't know why something about that confession made her chest ache and her fingertips tingle.
"You.... did this for me? "
"I carved it into my skin the day I realized I would never love another. "
Her breath hitched, unsteady. "You're insane. "
"Only for you. " He said, brushing a loose strand from her face.
There was a war between her instincts and her heart. One wanted to push him away. The other remembered the feeling of his lips on her hand, the devotion in his voice when he whispered mine.
"Is this obsession? " She asked, voice barely a whisper.
"No, " Valen said softly, stepping even closer. "This is centuries of hunger. A God's curse. And a love so ruinous. I'd burn down heaven if it meant I can hold you, Serenyth. "
Seraphine's heart raced at his words. "Stop saying things like that, " her voice trembled.
"Why? " He asked gently, eyes never leaving hers. "Because it makes you want to give in? Because it makes you want to break every rules? "
She looked away unable to resist his gaze any longer, " You speak like a man who's convinced I'm already his. "
Valen's voice dropped lower, "You are, princess. You're just refusing to see it. "
She swallowed hard.
Seraphine didn't answer. But her silence screamed everything.
That night, she didn't run. Didn't fight.
He turned away before she could speak again, leading her down a spiraled staircase. At the end stood a heavy door carved with black roses and dragon bones.
When it opened ,her breath left her.
A grand throne room bathed in eternal twilight. The stars shimmered across the enchanted ceiling like a living sky. And at the center of it, was a dark majestic throne. Thorned, regal... and hauntingly beautiful.
Valen stood before the throne, its dark spires rising behind him like the shadows of history hitself.
"This throne, "he said, voice soft yet deep, "was never meant for me alone. "
Seraphine narrowed her eyes, pulse unsteady. "You rule this kingdom. "
"I hold it together, "he said. " But ruling? That was never my purpose. Not truly. Not without you. "
He stepped closer. His voice dropped, intimate.
"You are not my prisoner, Serenyth. You never were. You're the queen this throne aches for... the only soul it ever belong to. As I do. "
Her lips parted, but no words came.
Inside her chest, her heart waged war.
She took a step back, then another.
"I'm not who you think I am, "she whispered. " I'm not a woman meant for love. "
With clenched fists, she turned from him, footsteps echoing as she walked away - back through the corridor where silence now bloomed like a haunting melody.
Behind her, Valen did not follow. He only watched as she disappeared , his gaze heavy with longing and years of restraint.
And Seraphine? Her heart fluttered with a thousand cursed butterflies.
Because the more she tried to deny it, the more it burned inside her.
The weight of a name spoken like a vow.
His words - You're not my prisoner, you're the queen this throne aches for - wrapped around her like silk and steel. Gentle, binding, and far too dangerous.
She clenched her fists, the echoes of her boots clicking along the floor as the throne room stretched behind her.
But it wasn't just him she was walking away from.
It was something more treacherous.
Herself.
The girl inside her who fluttered under his gaze, who felt seen and worshipped in a way she never had before.
The warrior within her, loyal to the kingdom that betrayed her ,but still hers.
She stopped halfway down the hallway, breath shallow, chest tight.
What am I doing? She screamed inside her own mind.
If she let herself fall for him - this man, this king, this vampire who was supposed to be her enemy - what would that make her?
A traitor?
To the people who crowned you a hero but never let you rule? a voice whispered inside her.
No.
She bit her lip, nails digging into her palms.
Valen was her captor, wasn't he?
He should've been.
But he hadn't caged her. Hadn't hurt her. Hadn't even touched her without reverence.
Instead, he gave her the truth. A thorne. A name. A memory that was no longer just a dream.
And worse - he made her want it.
Serenyth.
The name danced across her soul like a wound she didn't know she carried. She remembered the way he said it, as though it was holy.
But she had a duty.
She had a kingdom.
She had Evander -
Her stomach twisted.
And suddenly , she didn't know if it was guilt or betrayal or the cruelest thing of all : yearning.
Because something inside her whispered that Valen had never truly been her enemy.
And that terrified her more than anything.