All Chapters of Bound to the cursed king: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The night I was sold to King Ronan Draven, the palace servants warned me never to look him in the eyes. “Keep your head down,” the old woman whispered as she tightened the silver chains around my wrists. “Every woman who has looked at him with desire has died before dawn.” I laughed, though my throat was dry. “Then I’ll look at the floor.” The woman didn’t smile. Outside the carriage, thunder rolled across the mountains. Black rain fell over the kingdom like ash, soaking the banners that hung from the palace walls. The fortress ahead of us rose from the cliffs like a beast carved from midnight stone, its towers clawing at the moon. The Shadow Palace. I had spent my entire life stealing bread, jewels, and secrets in the lower districts of Valebryn. I knew the stories. Everyone did. King Ronan Draven, the cursed ruler. The king whose lovers were buried before sunrise. The king who spoke to shadows. The king who never removed his black crown. The carriage stopped

Chapter 3: The Queen Beneath the PalaceThe words on the mirror vanished as suddenly as they had appeared.I stared at the glass, my pulse pounding so violently I could hear it in my ears.THE FIRST QUEEN DID NOT DIE.SHE IS WAITING FOR YOU BELOW THE PALACE.My reflection looked just as terrified as I felt.I touched the mirror with trembling fingers. The surface was cold and solid now, no ripple, no blood, no silver letters. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I would have thought exhaustion had driven me mad.A knock sounded at the door.I spun around.“Lady Lyra,” a maid called softly. “His Majesty has ordered that you eat.”His Majesty.The title sent an unwelcome shiver through me.“I’m not hungry.”A pause.“The king said you would say that.”Of course he did.The lock clicked, and the maid entered carrying a silver tray. She was young, perhaps my age, with dark curls hidden beneath a servant’s veil. Unlike the others, she avoided looking directly at my wrist.She set the tray on the ta

“At last.”The whisper brushed my ear like cold breath.I spun toward the voice, but darkness swallowed everything. The chamber had become a void where even the silver glow from my mark struggled to survive.“Ronan?” My voice trembled.“I’m here.”Relief hit me so hard my knees weakened. Then a black flame ignited in his palm, casting a circle of dim light around us.The chamber looked different now.The altar was gone.In its place stood a woman.Silver hair flowed to her waist, untouched by the wind that howled through the room. Her gown shimmered like moonlight on water, and a delicate crown rested upon her brow.Queen Selene.She was not a ghost.Ghosts did not cast shadows.The guards backed away in terror. One dropped his sword with a clatter that echoed through the chamber.Ronan stepped in front of me, blade raised.“Stay back,” he commanded.Selene’s gray eyes settled on him with unbearable sadness. “You still protect her, even after all these centuries.”The air thickened.R

The first hunter reached us with a cry that vanished beneath the roar of Ronan’s shadows.Black fire exploded outward from him, swallowing the man whole. The hunter’s scream cut off abruptly, leaving only drifting ash where he had stood.The others did not retreat.Moon hunters poured across the cliffside like a tide of silver and black, their crescent-marked armor flashing beneath the crimson moon. Arrows hissed through the air.“Down!” Lucien shouted.He spun forward with impossible grace, twin silver blades cutting through the darkness. One hunter fell before he even realized Lucien had moved.Ronan dragged me behind a jagged pillar of stone as another volley shattered against the cliff wall.The blood moon burned overhead.My mark pulsed.And somewhere beneath the mountain, that ancient heartbeat answered.Boom.Boom.Boom.I pressed my hand against my wrist, fighting the pain.Ronan crouched beside me, shadows coiling protectively around us. “Can you run?”“Yes.”“Good. Because i

The claw burst from the chasm.Stone exploded upward in a rain of shattered crystal as the enormous limb slammed onto the sanctuary floor. Black scales veined with silver moonlight scraped across the rock, each talon longer than my arm.The creature kept rising.A head emerged from the abyss, vast and serpentine, crowned with jagged horns of obsidian. Silver eyes the size of shields fixed on us with ancient intelligence.The guardian.Its breath rolled across the chamber in a wave of freezing air.Hunters screamed.One of them bolted toward the tunnel.The guardian moved with terrifying speed.Its claw swept sideways, crushing the man against the wall with a wet crack. Blood splashed across the moonlit stone.Silence followed.Then chaos erupted.“Fall back!” Cassimir shouted.The remaining hunters scattered, their discipline shattered.Ronan seized my arm and pulled me behind him as the guardian lowered its head, nostrils flaring.It was smelling me.My mark burned.Silver light puls