The King's Torment

The cold water in the stone basin did little to soothe the burning sting on my face.

I leaned over the washbasin in the lower servants' quarters, pressing a damp rag firmly against my cheek. When I pulled it back, four streaks of blood stained the cloth. The King’s claws hadn't torn deep, but the cut marks were sharp and too obvious to ignore.

The door swung open with a sudden creak.

I stiffened, turning my head away from the light.

Neris slipped inside, carrying a bundle of sweeping brooms. The moment she caught sight of me standing by the basin, she halted. Her eyes dropped straight to the blood on the rag, then jumped to my bloody exposed cheek.

"Elara," she whispered, her eyes widening in horror. She shut the door quickly behind her and rushed over. "What happened to your face?"

"I tripped," I said smoothly, forcing every muscle in my face to stay relaxed. "I was carrying the oil-can up the narrow steps near the royal hall. I lost my footing and caught myself against a sharp iron sconce."

Neris reached out, catching my wrist to pull my hand down so she could see the marks clearly. Her breath caught in her throat.

"That's not a scrape from an iron sconce," Neris whispered, her eyes darting toward the closed door as if the walls might overhear. "Those are claw marks, Elara. Lycan claws."

My chest tightened, but I kept my gaze calm and steady. I couldn't risk telling her the truth. If Neris knew what the King had done, the fear and the secret would only put her in just as much danger as me.

"I don't know what you mean, Neris. I refilled the lamps in the corridor, took a wrong step on the landing, and fell. That's all that happened."

Neris searched my face for a long second, her brow furrowing with deep unease.

"Those are definitely not a mere cut, they're claw marks," Neris said, her voice dropping lower. "But I'll let it go if you insist. Just... be more careful. The royal wing is strictly guarded, and the royals don't tolerate mistakes. If alpha Vaelor or anyone else finds you bloodied near their quarters, they won't care how you fell. They'll just punish you."

"I was only doing my job," I answered quietly.

"Then hurry up with it," Neris warned, handing me a clean dry towel from the wooden bench. "Wash the blood away before the chief servant spots you. We have three more halls to sweep before the evening bells."

"I will," I said.

Neris gave me a long, troubled look before picking up her brooms and slipping back out into the corridor. The moment the latch clicked shut, the calm mask fell from my face.

I turned toward the small mirror mounted above the basin. The cuts along my cheekbone were swollen and red. I patted the skin dry with the towel, keeping my chin tucked low, and stepped out into the hallway to return to work.

Kaelith's POV

The doors to my private chambers clicked shut as the human girl scrambled out into the corridor.

I remained unmoved in the center of the dark room, staring at the floor where deep scratches from my claws had torn into the wood. My dark tunic hung loose against my shoulders, my breathing slow and ragged as I tried to pull my mind out of the suffocating haze that had gripped me.

Aliyah turned from the doorway, her dark robes rustling quietly. She held a single dark glass vial sealed with black wax tightly in her hand.

"You almost killed that servant, Kaelith," Aliyah said, her voice sharp and direct.

I didn't look up from the floor. "I lost control."

"You pinned a terrified human girl down and drew blood," Aliyah said, walking toward me. "If I hadn't walked through those doors when I did, her neck would have snapped."

I rubbed a hand over my face, a deep, exhausted sigh escaping my chest. My muscles ached, weighed down by the lingering aftermath of the trance.

"For a moment... I thought..." I hesitated, my jaw tightening as I stared into the dim corners of the room. "I thought I saw her in my vision. It felt like she was actually there."

Aliyah watched me closely, her expression softening with concern. "She wasn't in your vision, Kaelith. You were caught in another waking nightmare. Your hallucinations are only growing more intense because of the strain."

"It didn't feel like a hallucination," I murmured, my brow furrowing as the image of the girl's face flashed in my mind. "It felt real."

"That is what the visions do to you," Aliyah countered smoothly, stopping right in front of me. "They distort everything around you until you cannot tell reality from shadow. But she is nothing more than a new servant who walked in at the worst possible moment."

I looked toward the fresh scratches in the floor, and a faint smirk touched the corner of my lips. "She struck me."

Aliyah raised an eyebrow. "What's funny?"

"When I cornered her against the wall," I said, the memory cutting cleanly through the lingering haze. "She didn't cower. She didn't drop to her knees and weep like the rest of them. She drove her knee straight into my ribs and tried to bolt for the door."

"She was terrified, Kaelith," Aliyah replied dryly. "She was trying to save her own skin."

"A frail human girl striking a Lycan King," I mused, a low rumble of amusement in my chest. "Most would have frozen in terror the second my claws appeared. She fought back."

"And she nearly died for it," Aliyah reminded me, her tone turning strict. "I had to compel her mind just to clean up the mess. If she had remembered you losing control in a trance, word would have spread through the lower quarters by sunset."

I looked directly at her. "The compulsion held?"

"Of course it held," Aliyah said, gesturing toward the table where the servant's brass oil-can still sat. "I looked directly into her eyes and placed the veil over her memory. She believes she came in, refilled the lamps, saw you reading peacefully at your desk, and walked out. She has no memory of the attack, and she will explain the scratch on her face as a clumsy accident."

I remained silent, looking down at the small vial in her hand. Aliyah held it out to me.

"Thaddeus brewed this himself," she said. "The previous mixtures are no longer keeping the trances at bay. This contains concentrated moon-root, nightshade, and crushed obsidian-leaf. It is far more potent than the last."

I took the vial, the glass slightly heavy between my fingers. The fluid inside moved like dark oil.

"It will suppress the visions?" I asked quietly.

"It will suppress the hallucinations and keep your mind grounded," Aliyah assured me. "You need to drink it, Kaelith. You cannot afford to lose your senses like this again. Not while Darian is marching toward our gates."

I cracked the wax seal with my thumb, the bitter, sharp scent of crushed herbs rising between us. Without another word, I brought the glass to my lips and drained the vial in a single swallow.

A harsh, icy burn traveled down my throat, spreading rapidly through my veins.

Almost immediately, the heavy, buzzing pressure behind my temples began to fade, locking the strange visions back into the dark corners of my mind.

"Darian arrives before dusk," Aliyah said, stepping back toward the door. "He is bringing an escort of armed guards. Whatever he intends to demand from the throne, he must see you steady and composed."

"He will see a King," I replied, my voice settling into its usual cool, commanding resonance.

Aliyah nodded once, satisfied. "Good. Rest until the evening bells. I will have the guards clear this hall."

She walked towards the door and paused in her tracks, then turned back to look at me. “If you notice anything unusual, Kaelith, I should be the first to know.”

She pulled the door open and slipped out into the corridor, leaving me alone in the quiet room.

I stood by the table, staring down at the abandoned oil-can. The herbs were working, numbing the violent edge of the trance, but as I ran my fingers over the faint ache in my ribs where the human girl had struck me, her wide, fiercely defiant eyes remained sharp in my mind.