Chapter 6 IN LUST

Amara woke before the sun, wrapped in sheets that still carried the heat of Kael's body. The air in the chamber was quiet, but not empty. Magic trembled faintly at the edges, like a breath held too long.

Kael was gone.

She sat up slowly, pulling the blanket around her shoulders. Her body ached in places she hadn't felt in years-alive and sore, like something inside her had shifted. Not just her flesh, but something deeper. As if she'd stepped too close to a boundary she couldn't uncross.

The shadows lingered, watching from the corners.

But they did not move.

They didn't need to. Not when her thoughts were already tangled in the man who had left without a word.

Coward, she thought-but the word felt hollow.

Kael wasn't afraid of battle. He was afraid of her. Of what she made him feel. Of what control cost him.

She dressed quickly and moved through the keep like smoke. No one stopped her. The halls were empty, the torches unlit. Everything in Ravencroft lived in half-light-silent, waiting.

She found him on the northern battlements, where the mist spilled thickest.

Kael stood alone, cloak billowing in the wind, golden eyes fixed on the horizon.

"You always vanish after," Amara said, voice steady.

He didn't turn. "I didn't trust myself to stay."

"And now?"

A long pause.

"I still don't."

She stepped beside him. The chill bit at her skin, but she didn't flinch. "You don't get to retreat every time it gets real. You made a choice last night."

"So did you," he said quietly. "You touched something in me no one has in years. Something I buried."

"You mean the thing that feeds the shadows?"

"No." He turned then, gaze fierce. "The part that fought them."

His voice dropped, raw and aching. "I didn't want to hurt you. I didn't want you to see the worst of me."

"I did," Amara said. "And I stayed."

They stared at each other, words caught in the space between them.

But before Kael could answer, a bell tolled deep in the keep.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Kael stiffened. "That's the warding bell."

"What does it mean?"

His jaw tightened. "It means someone breached the outer woods."

Her blood turned to ice. "A rescue party?"

"Or a trap," he muttered, already moving. "Either way, they'll be coming for me. Or for you."

Amara followed Kael through the winding halls of the keep, his stride quick and purposeful. The shadows flinched from his presence now, as if sensing the shift in him.

Outside, the bell tolled once more-low and resonant, like a heartbeat echoing through stone.

They reached a watchtower where one of Kael's sentries knelt before a scrying basin. The water inside shimmered like starlight, images flickering just beneath the surface.

"A campfire," the woman murmured, eyes pale as frost. "At the edge of the Thornmere. Five riders. Armed."

Kael's expression darkened. "Uniforms?"

The woman nodded. "Black with red sigils. Varnan crest."

Amara's breath hitched.

Varnan.

That was her uncle's banner-her mother's brother. She hadn't seen him since the massacre, but if he'd sent riders into Ravencroft...

"They're not here for me," she said, heart pounding. "They're here for something else."

"Or someone," Kael countered, gaze narrowing. "They shouldn't even know this place exists."

Amara stepped closer to the basin. One of the riders dismounted, pulling back his hood.

Recognition struck her like a blow.

"Elias Vane," she whispered.

The mercenary who'd given her the route. The one with the too-smooth lies and dead eyes.

Kael looked at her sharply. "You know him?"

"I trusted him to get me here."

Kael's eyes burned. "Then you were bait."

Her stomach turned. The memory of Elias's smirk, the way he'd said 'No one ever comes back'-it wasn't a warning. It was a promise. And now he'd brought others.

Maybe to finish what Ravencroft started.

Maybe... to find something else.

Then the image shifted.

A sixth figure stepped into the light of the fire-small, cloaked.

Bound at the wrists.

Amara's knees buckled. She grabbed the edge of the basin to steady herself.

"Thalia."

The name was a breath, a prayer, a wound.

Kael was already moving. "They're using her. To draw you out. Or draw me out."

But Amara was no longer listening.

All she could see was her sister.

Older. Pale. Alive.

"I'm going," she said, voice like steel.

Kael's jaw clenched. "It's a trap."

"I don't care."

"You could die."

She met his eyes. "She already did. Seven years ago. If there's even a chance-"

"I'm coming with you," Kael said, cutting her off. "Don't argue."

Amara stared at him. The prince she'd sworn to kill. The monster who haunted her nightmares. The man who now stood at her side.

"You're doing this for me?"

"No." His voice was low. "For you both."

He looked back at the basin, where the flames still flickered.

"They want blood," he said. "Let's give them something else."

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