로그인Akira's POVThe manor felt different.Not colder.Not darker.Just... watched.Every candle flicker.Every shift of the air.Each heartbeat that was none of ours.The enemy had become part of the walls like it was part of the walls.We were passing through the corridor towards the war room and Lyra was clutching Kaiden by the arm. Her little fingers shook, yet there was some weird calmness in her eyes--as though a child were in the midst of a storm and still would not cry.Kaiden held her close to him as a kind of protection, but the strain emanating out of him was like a knife cutting marble.He branded you, he said, in a low voice. "He touched you with power. That in itself is a sign that he is audacious... or desperate.Lyra swallowed. "I didn't see his face. Just his... voice."The voice of Lyra was older than her years. Too old.There was something about that that
Akira's POV The monster did not explode out of me as I was afraid. It peeled out. Slowly. As though a shadow were being torn off its master at last after centuries. The air parted and its huge body, horned and winged, lifted behind me, gilded with molten silver. Pure hunger. Pure instinct. Pure ancient wrongness. It was neither quite flesh, nor quite mist. It was... identity. Heritage. A repetition of the original error the moon has made. And for the first time-- It looked at Kaiden. Not with hatred. Not with hunger. But with recognition. The Vale's mist recoiled. Souls flew like frightened birds. Even Lyrien reeled at the back, with his eyes open and his power quailing all about him. Kaiden didn't move. He was before me as a shield, as a barrier, as a wall, which could not f
Kiran's POV The council-room is too small to-night. Too many eyes. Too many questions in the air. Too much tension aching under my skin. And it all revolves round a single individual-- Lyra. She is standing next to Draven and her body is straight and steady, yet I am familiar with her to notice the crack under the surface. The minor contraction of her fingers. The manner in which she does not stare at me too long. The silent terror she attempts to conceal. My lover has a burden of her own, which should not have been hers. And time is wearing out me to save her. Elder Maelis says, bringing me to my senses, "Prince Kiran. "Your report?" I nod once, stepping forward. The southern barrier stood, and just. Whatever power is trying our arms is not doing so without purpose. There is a person who is organizing
Akira's POV The arms of Kaiden remained closely round my waist, as though it would be tantamount to letting the creature within me to crawl out of my body to grant it leave to creep back in. His warmth made its way through the cold of the Vale, yet it did not still the throb of the old power smouldering in my blood. It was awake. It was watching. It wanted him gone. The fog was shuddering about us like a terrified sea. Silver waves came and went, ebbed away in terror whenever the monster within me was excited. The souls, too--they that wander in the fog like wandering shadows--even they kept their distance, murmuring in the broken glass like wind. Lyrien, who was a few feet away, was heaving his chest, and still pale with all that he had just seen. He was gazing at Kaiden as though he were gazing at a madman who had decided to die in the most painful manner. You n
Akira's POV The figure behind me was lifted up--there were too many members, too many forms, and it was wavering, not knowing which one to assume. Every breath I exhaled fed it. Each beat of the heart gave it strength. It wasn't separate from me. It was me. The Vale responded first. The fog was driven away by the creature like frightened prey, and in wild curls. Silver lightning flashed over the skyless sky. My feet sank in the earth, vibrant with primitive danger. "Akira--don't move." The voice of Lyrien was steady, but the panic was there below. He had seen this before. Before this, he had likely feared this. Kaiden didn't move an inch. His eyes were glued to me, and blazing and desperate, entreating me to remain me. The world obeyed him--death realms, spirits, mist--but the thing that came behind me did not. It gazed at him as a challenge.
Akira's POVThe Vale reacted before I did.The fog which enclosed me became even tighter, whirling like a living tempest, and the roar of Kaiden resounded in the world. His presence struck me as hard as the falling star - crude, unrelenting, unavoidable.He was here.He even crossed the Vale on my behalf.My breath had come out in stutters, my fingers trembling as the silver ground beneath me throbbed a warning. The old force within me--the force which Lyrien said I had brought to light--was raging, and stroking like a caged animal under my flesh.Do not get near, I said to him.Not that I did not want him close.But that the Vale was not a kingly building...And I wasn't built for wolves."Akira!"His voice clanked again against the mist, nearer this time, more profound, bordered with anger and terror.The type of fear that only a single individual can invoke in the Lycan Kin







