Chapter Three

MALAKAI VOLKARIS POINT OF VIEW

Fuck, she was beautiful.

Caidy only seemed to get prettier the longer I watched her and I hated how easily she could make me forget every damn thing around me. She was too good for Corbin. Hell, she was too good for any of us. That arrogant bastard didn't deserve to stand beside her, let alone put a ring on her finger and call her his.

And yet, here I was, watching her like a fool.

The Volkaris name carried enough power to make kingdoms bow but none of it mattered when it came to Caidy. I could have all the authority in the world and I still wouldn't feel worthy of her. Neither would my brothers. She was the one thing our name could never earn, no matter how much blood, power, or nobility came with it.

I wanted her more than I had any right to… that was the part I couldn't fucking stand

Seeing Caidy standing in our mansion hit me harder than it should have. Tonight was supposed to be her wedding night. By now, she should have belonged to another house and bonded to Corbin through a marriage that would cement the rivalry between our families for good. Instead, she stood in the middle of our sitting room, soaked from the rain and completely out of place in a way that made it impossible for me to look anywhere else.

I couldn't stop staring at her.

Maybe it was the shock of seeing her here when she should have been with him. Maybe I had spent too long pretending I didn't want her. Either way, my eyes stayed on her and the thought of Corbin seeing her like this made something ugly twist inside me. She was supposed to be his tonight yet she had somehow ended up here.

Back in the academy, Caidy and I had something real. It was subtle and never had a name but I was young enough to believe it meant something. Then she disappeared without a word. She ghosted me completely, only to show up weeks later and make my brothers’ lives hell at every chance she got. Whatever we had died after that. At least, that was what I told myself because my brothers are my number one priority.

When my parents died, naturally, I took over as Alpha of House Volkaris. House Ellis became our sworn enemy and hating Caidy should have been easy. She was an Ellis. She was the daughter of the family we had spent years fighting against. Every bit of logic told me to keep my distance, so I did. I buried the memories of her beside me, the sound of her voice, the way she used to look at me and every damn moment when I had wanted to pull her closer instead of letting her go.

I thought I had buried it all well enough. Then I heard she was marrying Corbin.

I kept my face straight when the news reached me but my brothers knew me too well. They saw the way my control started to crack, so they decided the best solution was to fill the house with a parade of women and force me to forget her for one night. It was ridiculous, loud, and exactly the kind of mess I didn't need.

Then Caidy walked through the door.

Of all the nights she could have chosen to come back into my life, she had to pick the one when I was surrounded by women I didn't even want. I should have been embarrassed. I was, but that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was how quickly everything I had spent years trying to bury came rushing back the moment I saw her.

Silence settled over the sitting room. The smell of spilled liquor and rain filled the air but I barely noticed either. My four brothers stood around Caidy as all of them watched her with the same suspicion. I know I couldn’t blame them for treating her this way. She looked out of place among us and the sight of her standing there made something in my chest tighten.

Her hands trembled as she unfolded a sheet of yellowed parchment. She looked exhausted yet she still held herself together as she faced us.

“What is that?” Knoxx asked. He took a slow sip from his glass and kept his eyes on the paper.

“My mother told me to bring this to Lady Seraphine,” Caidy said. Her chest rose and fell as she caught her breath. “Now that she’s dead, I guess I have to bring it to you.”

Her eyes found mine.

For a second, I forgot how to breathe. I hated how easily she could still do that to me. After everything that had happened between our families, after all the years I had spent convincing myself that I wanted nothing to do with her, one look was enough to drag me right back to the girl I had once cared about.

I swallowed and looked away before anyone could notice.

“Your mother died years ago, princess,” Lucien said. He stepped closer with a bitter laugh. “What game are you playing?”

Before she could offer another explanation, Knoxx snatched the paper straight out of her hands. I stepped up beside him and leaned over his shoulder to read the script, while Lucien, Sylas, and Evren crowded into our tight circle.

Instead of a long letter or neat family explanation, sprawling, jagged runes covered the parchment and burned with a faint, unnatural violet light. At the bottom, a single block of ancient script glowed like dying embers, spelling out an incantation that made my stomach drop.

“Sanguine nectere, animae imperare.

Servus ligatur, Domini imperant.

Procul dolor, prope vinculum.

Ne mors quidem hoc pactum solvet.”

I recognized the structure immediately. My eyes snapped to Sylas. He was already staring at the parchment, and the look on his face told me he understood exactly what we were looking at.

“What the hell is this?” Lucien muttered. He leaned closer and frowned at the unfamiliar script. “Is this a spell?”

“Don't read it out loud—” Sylas warned.

It was too late.

Knoxx's eyes reached the final symbol and the entire parchment erupted with light. The flash hit so hard that I had to shield my eyes. A violent gust tore through the room and blew out the fire in the hearth. The warmth vanished at once and the room fell into darkness.

For a moment, none of us moved. Then I heard Caidy gasp as my head immediately snapped toward her.

Caidy gasped and dropped to her knees. She clutched the front of her dress as if something had burned straight through the fabric. Across the room, my brothers and I groaned at the same time. A sharp heat tore through my chest, and when I looked down, a black mark had appeared beneath my skin.

“What did you do?!” Lucien roared. He drew his dagger and pointed it at Caidy. “What the hell did you just put on us?”

My eyes went straight to her. She looked terrified, and for a second, every instinct in me told me to move toward her. I forced myself to stay where I was. Whatever this was, I couldn't afford to let my concern for her cloud my judgment.

Sylas dropped to one knee and closed his eyes. Green fae light gathered around his fingers as he tried to trace the magic. Sweat ran down his temples but before he could get anywhere, a sharp spark cracked through the room and threw his hands back. He hissed and held up his palms. The skin was raw and smoking.

“Damn it.” Sylas pressed one burned hand against his chest. “I can't fucking break it. It's ancient blood magic. Whatever did Mom and Caidy’s mother put into this… it’s raw witchcraft. It's locked directly into our souls.”

“Fix it!” I snapped. My gaze stayed on the black mark etched into my chest. “Undo it, Sylas.”

“I can't!” he shot back. His usual calm had disappeared. “It's a binding contract. A Master-Servant spell.”

I stilled on my spot. No way. No fucking way….

“A servant?” Lucien spat. He took a step toward Caidy, his grip tightening around the hilt of his blade. “You brought a fucking curse into our house! You trapped us with you!”

“Back off, Lucien,” Evren said. He stepped between them although the tension in his voice gave away how worried he was. He rubbed at the glowing mark on his chest and paced across the rug. “Think about this. The Ascendant Trial is next month. How the hell are we supposed to compete if we're bound to her?”

“To hell with the trial,” I growled.

My jaw tightened as I stared at the mark on my chest. I had spent years preparing for the Ascendant Trial. Aside from that,I was weeks away from finding my true mate and the elders had already begun arranging the formal court proceedings. I was supposed to be thinking about my future, my position and the responsibilities that came with being Alpha.

Instead, I had a blood bond tied to my soul.

And Caidy was at the center of it.

I looked at her on the floor. She had gone pale and her hands shook as she tried to push herself up. Every instinct in me screamed to cross the room and help her. I wanted to pull her into my arms and make sure she was all right. I wanted to shield her from whatever pain this spell had caused.

I hated that I still wanted her after all these years.

So I hardened my expression and forced myself to look at her with something close to disgust. If I let my brothers see what I was really feeling, I would never hear the end of it.

“I didn't know!” Caidy cried. She pushed herself up with one trembling hand. “I didn't know what was written on the paper!”

I looked towards Sylas to confirm whether she was lying or not. Sylas let out a harsh breath before shaking his head. She wasn't lying. She really didn't know what the letter entailed.

But for some reason, my brother couldn’t grasp the fact that Caidy isn’t lying to us.

"Shut up! I don't know what kind of witchcraft you're using but I know you're lying to us!” Lucien barked. He turned toward the door and started walking away from her.

“Lucien, get back here!” Sylas shouted. Lucien stopped and looked at Sylas with a menacing gaze.

“The contract enforces proximity,” Sylas said as he let out a loud sigh. “She is the servant and we are her masters. If any of us tries to leave her, or if she tries to leave us, the magic will tear our souls apart until we get close again.”

Silence fell over the room. I stared at the black mark on my chest and forced my face into something cold. Across from me, Caidy still knelt on the rug. She looked exhausted and the sight of her like that made something twist in my chest. I wanted to go to her. I wanted to make sure she wasn't hurt.

Instead, I stayed where I was.

Evren stared at the floor as he worked through the political disaster this could cause. Lucien kept his eyes on Caidy with enough hatred to make it clear he still blamed her for something she hadn't even known about.

Then all of the sudden, Knoxx laughed.

It was quiet at first but it was enough to make all of us look at him. He straightened and inspected the mark on his chest before a slow grin spread across his face. He walked toward Caidy and stopped beside her. The tip of his boot brushed against her wet cloak.

“Well, look at that,” Knoxx remarked. He bent down until his gray eyes met hers. “The high-and-mighty princess of the House of Ellis is officially our little servant.”

Caidy glared at him but she didn't have the strength to move away.

“I don't know about you, my dear brothers,” Knoxx said with a low chuckle, “but I think I'm going to like this.”

My jaw tightened as I shot my brother with a sharp glare.

I didn't like the way he looked at her… and I liked it even less that a part of me wanted to drag him away from her.