Masuk~ Nolan’s POV ~I didn’t sleep.Couldn’t.Her face wouldn’t leave my head. The fire in her eyes when she burned that cage open, the way she didn’t even flinch when I dragged her away—like she’d already been through worse.Aliyana Morwen Hastings.The girl who never broke.I told myself it was irritation that made me restless. That it was anger keeping me awake. But deep down, I knew that wasn’t it. It was her.Every time she refused to bend, she got under my skin a little more. Every time she looked at me like she could see straight through the armor I’d built, something inside me cracked.I hated it.I hated her for making me feel something I swore I buried a long time ago.The fortress was quiet. Too quiet. Elias had gone to handle the council’s mess, and the guards were scattered. The air itself felt strange, thick with the echo of what happened earlier.I found myself by the balcony, staring down at the courtyard below. The moonlight spilled across the stone walls, sharp and cold.
~ Aliyana’s POV ~When I woke, the first thing I felt was warmth.Not the kind that came from a blanket or the weak rays of morning light that managed to sneak through the fortress windows,but a living warmth. Solid. Steady. Too close.For a moment, I stayed still, my mind hovering somewhere between sleep and confusion. The last thing I remembered was fire, chains, Alessia’s voice screaming that she hated me, and then Nolan—his hands, his command, the sharp bite of his anger.And now… this.I turned my head slowly, my hair brushing against something rough. My breath caught when I saw him lying beside me, one arm draped carelessly across the sheets, his face angled toward me. His eyes were closed, but even at rest, he looked nothing like peace. His jaw was tight, his expression unreadable, as if even his dreams were made of control.Nolan.The name alone was enough to make my pulse stutter.I didn’t understand him. I didn’t think I ever would.The monster who’d ordered my sister beaten
~ Nolan’s POV ~There was something about her that kept clawing at the walls I built around myself. Every time I told myself I was done, every time I convinced myself she was just another burden, another liability, she’d go and prove me wrong in a way that left me staring.Aliyana didn’t cry. Not when the truth about her bloodline was thrown in her face. Not when her so-called sister turned against her. Not even when I left her locked in that cell with nothing but silence for company.She didn’t break.And I hated how much I loved that about her.I told myself it was fascination, not affection. But the more I tried to bury it, the more it grew, twisting inside me like a hunger that refused to die.The fortress was too quiet that night. Elias had gone to deal with the council’s latest panic, and the guards moved with unease, like they could feel something shifting in the air. They were right. Something had shifted.Her.When I walked down the corridor to her room, I already knew what I
~ Aliyana’s POV ~The world outside my cell was silent, but inside me, it wasn’t. It was chaos…fire, wind, and the sharp, unbearable sting of betrayal. I didn’t know which burned worse: the truth about my bloodline, or the way Nolan looked at me afterward—as if I was something filthy. Something is wrong.Selene Morwen.The name replayed in my mind until it became a whisper that wouldn’t stop. My mother. The witch they burned alive. The woman whose screams I could almost hear when I closed my eyes.And Lord Benedict Hastings,my father. The man who stood by and did nothing.I pressed my hands to my temples, my heart hammering so hard it hurt. “Why?” I whispered. “Why didn’t you fight for her? For me?”No answer came. Just the same thick, suffocating silence that had filled my prison since they locked me in here. No food. No light. No one.Not even Nolan.That was what hurt the most. Not the hunger, not the cold,but the emptiness where his presence used to be. I hated that I missed it. H
~ Nolan’s POV ~Power had a scent. It wasn’t just in blood or in dominance, it lingered in the air, heavy and sharp, like storm clouds before lightning struck. And that night, it was everywhere.I stood by the long table in the council chamber, hands gripping the edge so tightly the wood cracked beneath my fingers. The firelight flickered over the maps and parchments scattered before me, but my mind wasn’t on strategy. Not on shipments, not on the rogues, not even on Elias’ endless reports.It was on her.Aliyana.That name had started to feel like a curse, one I couldn’t escape even when I wanted to.Elias was speaking, his tone sharp and clipped as he went on about the underworld unrest, but I wasn’t really hearing him. My focus broke only when he slammed a parchment onto the table.“They’re testing you, Nolan,” Elias said. “Testing your patience, your power. Every rumor about the fortress is feeding the chaos down there. The hybrids, the witches—they all think you’re distracted.”“
~ Aliyana’s POV ~Calista’s words rolled around the room like venom.She looked too comfortable standing there, arms crossed, her face twisted into that familiar smirk that always made my blood boil. The guards had let her in under Nolan’s permission, though I doubted he knew exactly how far she’d go.“Still sitting in the dark, princess?” she drawled. “I thought by now you’d have figured out that crying doesn’t open doors.”I didn’t answer. I just stared. I’d learned that silence made her uneasy, even if she pretended otherwise.She took a few steps closer, boots clicking against the stone floor, her scent sharp like blood and roses. “You should thank him, you know. He could have left you to rot after what you did. Nolan’s got a soft spot for broken things.”“Why are you here, Calista?” My voice came out low, quiet, but steady.Her smile deepened. “To tell you the truth, of course. You’ve been living in such a pretty lie for so long, I thought it was time someone told you what you re







