Chapter 19

Chapter 19 – The Dawn Pact

The first light of dawn crept through the window, brushing the edges of my chamber in gold. But it didn’t feel warm. It felt pale, fragile—like a candle flickering against a storm.

I hadn’t slept. Not really. My body might have closed its eyes, but my mind stayed wide awake, tuned to the faint scrape of boots in the corridor. Kael was still there, a silent sentinel leaning against the wall outside my door. Every so often I’d hear the shift of leather as he adjusted his stance, but otherwise, nothing.

It was strange, how comforting that quiet presence was. Even stranger how it unsettled me in a completely different way.

When I finally opened the door, Kael straightened immediately, amber eyes sweeping over me with that assessing sharpness.

“Morning,” I murmured.

“You didn’t sleep,” he said flatly, like it wasn’t even a question.

I raised an eyebrow. “Neither did you.”

His lips twitched, but didn’t quite form a smile. “I’m used to it.”

He stepped inside without asking, scanning the room with quick, efficient precision. His gaze lingered on the corner where I’d seen the shadow. “Still nothing,” he said, though I caught the slight narrowing of his eyes. “But they were here. I can smell it.”

“You can smell a shadow?” I asked, trying for levity.

“I can smell intent,” he replied, voice low. “And this one reeked of malice.”

We were still talking when the door swung open again. Lucien slipped in without so much as a knock, moving with the smoothness of liquid shadow. His eyes, bright as fresh-spilled wine, flicked between Kael and me, and the corner of his mouth curled.

“Well,” he drawled. “Isn’t this cozy?”

Kael’s jaw clenched. “Get to the point.”

Lucien ignored the edge in his tone, strolling toward my writing desk and picking up one of the glass pens. “The palace is whispering,” he said lightly. “Apparently, our dear Astrid has caught the Queen’s attention.” He glanced at me with deliberate slowness. “She’s summoned you.”

The weight in those words pressed against my ribs. “Summoned me? Why?”

Lucien set the pen down with a click. “You’re attracting too much interest. Public interest. Last night’s… disturbance… didn’t go unnoticed.”

Kael’s expression hardened. “She’s not walking into the throne room without me.”

Lucien’s smirk widened. “How quaint. Do you plan to follow her into the Queen’s private chambers too?”

Kael took a step forward, his height casting a shadow over Lucien. “If I have to.”

“Enough,” I cut in before either of them decided to make a morning sport out of each other’s throats. “If the Queen wants to see me, I’ll go. But—” I looked between them— “both of you are staying close. No arguments.”

Kael inclined his head in a silent promise. Lucien’s response was a slow, elegant bow, though his eyes glittered with some unreadable thought.

The Queen’s audience chamber was a cathedral of shadow and light—tall stained-glass windows casting fractured colors across a floor of polished black marble. The throne itself was silvered metal, carved into shapes that suggested both thorns and wings, and upon it sat the Queen.

Her beauty was as arresting as it was unnerving. Skin pale as winter frost, hair a cascade of midnight, and eyes—cold and bottomless—like the heart of the sea at night. She wore power like a second skin.

“Astrid,” she said, her voice smooth but carrying the weight of command. “Step forward.”

My footsteps echoed in the silence as I approached. Kael and Lucien flanked me, though they stopped several paces short when the Queen’s gaze cut to them.

“Alone,” she said.

Kael didn’t move. “With respect, Your Majesty—”

“This is not a request.”

Lucien, for once, didn’t press the issue. He stepped back, though his eyes never left me. Kael followed reluctantly, his stance still taut as a bowstring.

I stopped at the foot of the throne.

“You have been… disruptive,” the Queen said, studying me as though she could read my blood. “You arrive, you survive what should have killed you twice, and now Veyris himself chooses to walk into my palace for a taste of your presence.”

Her fingers drummed lightly on the throne’s armrest. “Tell me, Astrid. Why are you worth his attention?”

The truth caught in my throat. Because I’m not supposed to be here at all.

Instead, I said, “Maybe I’m not. Maybe he just thinks I am.”

Her lips curved faintly, though I couldn’t tell if it was amusement or disdain. “Veyris does not waste his time on false prizes.”

She leaned forward slightly. “If he wants you, it is because you have something he desires. Perhaps your blood. Perhaps your loyalty. Perhaps both. I would know which.”

“I don’t even know,” I said honestly.

“Then you will find out.” Her gaze sharpened. “And you will tell me before you tell him.”

There it was—the hook.

When I was finally dismissed, Kael fell into step beside me immediately, his expression unreadable. Lucien trailed just behind, his silence unusually heavy.

“Well?” Kael asked once we were far enough from the chamber.

“She wants me to find out what Veyris wants,” I said quietly. “And tell her first.”

Lucien’s low laugh was without humor. “Ah. So she wants you to be bait and spy all at once. Delightful.”

“She didn’t give me a choice,” I muttered.

Kael’s eyes flicked to mine. “Then we make our own choice. We find out first—and we don’t give her more than she needs.”

Lucien tilted his head, studying Kael. “Careful, wolf. Playing your own game in the Queen’s court tends to end with your head on a spike.”

Kael didn’t even blink. “Better mine than hers.”

The words hit me harder than I expected, settling in the hollow behind my ribs.

That night, the palace felt different. Restless. I could hear murmurs in the corridors, the shuffle of feet where no guards should be posted.

Kael insisted on staying inside my chamber this time, taking the armchair in the corner like he belonged there. Lucien didn’t leave either—he simply made himself comfortable by the window, moonlight spilling over him like silver paint.

It should have felt cramped, the three of us in one room. Instead, it felt like the air was wound tight between us, thrumming with unspoken things.

I was the first to break the silence. “If the Queen thinks Veyris wants me, what happens when he comes back?”

Kael’s voice was quiet, but certain. “He won’t take you.”

Lucien’s was softer, but no less intense. “And if he tries, we make sure he regrets it.”

For a while, none of us spoke again. The only sound was the faint hum of the wind against the glass.

Somewhere deep in the palace, a bell tolled midnight.

And in the pause between its echoes, I thought I heard it again—the whisper. Not in my head. Not in my imagination. It was close, curling along the edges of the room.

Lucien’s head turned sharply toward the door. Kael was already on his feet.

The latch clicked.

The latch clicked again, louder this time.

Then—silence.

Kael moved first, crossing the room in three strides. His hand closed around the door handle, and in one sharp motion, he yanked it open.

The corridor beyond was empty.

Almost.

I caught it—the faintest flicker of movement to the left, like heat-shimmer on stone. Kael was already sprinting toward it. Lucien blurred past me in a rush of wind and shadow, his movement so quick my eyes could barely track him.

I stepped into the hall, my heart pounding, and that’s when I saw it. Not quite a figure, not quite invisible either—something in between. Like a human-shaped ripple in the air, bending light around itself.

Kael slammed into it with bone-cracking force, his arm locking around where its throat should be. The shimmer twisted violently, a low hiss curling out of it. Lucien materialized on the other side, his hand gripping the thing’s shoulder hard enough to make the distortion falter.

It was a person.

And not just any person.

The air shimmered again, peeling back like water off glass, and I saw a face I recognized.

The young woman from the market. The one who had brushed past me days ago and left me with that strange prickle at the base of my neck. Her hair was cropped short now, her eyes too bright, too sharp—like something had burned the softness out of them.

“Astrid,” she said, her voice strained under Kael’s grip. “You shouldn’t be here.”

Kael’s hold tightened. “She’s exactly where she should be. You, however—” His voice dropped to a growl. “—are about three seconds from losing the ability to breathe.”

Lucien tilted his head, his expression more curious than angry. “I know that trick. Phase-walkers. Rare. Dangerous. And usually loyal to Veyris.” His gaze cut to me. “Care to explain how one of his pets knows your name?”

“I—” I swallowed. “I don’t know.”

The woman’s eyes flicked toward me. For a heartbeat, something almost human passed over her face. Then it was gone. “He knows,” she said softly. “And he’s coming.”

Kael jerked her closer, the air between them crackling with heat. “You’re going to tell us exactly what he knows.”

A strange smile touched her lips. “You don’t have time.”

Then she dissolved.

Not in a blaze of light. Not in a puff of smoke. She simply unraveled, her form scattering into a thousand threads of shadow that bled into the air.

Lucien cursed under his breath. “She’s gone.”

Kael released his grip into empty space, his chest rising and falling hard. He turned to me immediately. “Did she touch you? Did she give you anything?”

I shook my head, though my hands were trembling. “No. But she looked at me like—like she already knew me.”

Lucien’s eyes narrowed. “Then it’s worse than I thought.”

He didn’t elaborate, but I could see the calculation in his gaze. Kael looked from him to me, then stepped close enough that his presence blocked out the cold of the hallway.

“He’s coming for you,” Kael said quietly. “We’re not going to wait for him to make the first move.”

Lucien’s mouth curved—not quite a smile, not quite a sneer. “So we hunt him instead?”

Kael didn’t look away from me. “We make a pact. No more keeping secrets. No more letting the Queen, or Veyris, or anyone else decide how this ends.”

My pulse thudded in my ears. “And if finding out what he wants means finding out what I am?”

Kael’s hand brushed mine, warm and grounding. “Then we find out together.”

Lucien’s gaze flicked between us, something unreadable in his expression. Finally, he nodded once. “Dawn pact, then.”

Somewhere far below the palace, a bell rang to mark the hour. The sound rolled through the corridors like distant thunder.

I had the unsettling feeling it wasn’t marking the start of a new day.

It was a countdown.

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