Chapter 10— A Shadow She Couldn't Shake
Sleep did not come easily.
Every time Aelinne closed her eyes, she saw green.
Cold. Flat. Unmoved.
She lay still in her bed, the ceiling lost in darkness above her, her magic humming steadily beneath her skin like it always did. Safe. Powerful. Untouched.
And yet she felt unsettled in a way no battlefield had ever managed.
Draviel.
The name meant nothing to her.
Nothing—except the way it had sounded in his mouth.
She turned on her side, frustration curling in her chest. He had looked at her as if she were insignificant. As if she were a passing thought. Men did not look at her that way. Soldiers feared her. Nobles revered her. Enemies trembled at the sound of her title.
But him?
He had dismissed her.
And it bothered her far more than it should have.
---
Morning was relentless.
Training began before the sun fully rose. Spells tore through the air. Soldiers collapsed and rose again. Commands rang across the grounds. Aelinne was sharp, merciless, flawless.
Yet her focus slipped in quiet moments between orders.
She found herself scanning the horizon without realizing it.
Searching for nothing.
Lior noticed.
"You're elsewhere today," he said during a pause in drills.
She didn't look at him. "No, I'm not."
"You nearly missed that shield strike."
"I didn't."
"But you almost did."
Silence stretched between them.
Lior studied her face, softer than the soldiers ever saw it. "You've been restless for days."
She stiffened. "We are on the brink of war. Restlessness is expected."
"That's not what this is," he said quietly.
Her gaze snapped to his. For a moment, raw warning flashed there.
"Drop it, Lior."
He held her gaze… then reluctantly nodded.
But his worry did not fade.
---
The council debated borders and blood well into the evening.
Vampire movements near the eastern pass. Missing scouts. Neutral villages going dark without explanation. Every report tightened the invisible noose around her kingdom.
Still—
Her thoughts betrayed her again.
Not to strategies.
Not to war.
To a man who had meant nothing to her.
She hated that most of all.
---
Night fell.
And with it came the decision she had promised herself not to make again.
Aelinne stood alone in her chamber, the vial resting cold in her palm. The candle beside her flickered violently, as if protesting what it knew she was about to do.
"One more time," she whispered. "Then I stop."
The disguise spell sealed her magic away with a deafening inner silence. The crown was left behind. The throne forgotten.
She became small again.
Human again.
And slipped back into the night.
---
The border settlement was quieter than before.
Too quiet.
Fewer lanterns burned. Fewer voices roamed the streets. Even the taverns seemed subdued, their laughter low and cautious.
Her senses screamed that something was wrong.
Yet she continued forward.
A familiar street rose ahead.
Her steps slowed.
She didn't know why her heart began to race.
And then she saw him.
Not waiting.
Not searching.
Just standing beneath a dying torch, arms folded, gaze distant.
Draviel.
Her breath caught before she could stop it.
He did not look at her.
Did not sense her.
Did not care.
The realization stung.
She told herself it did not matter.
She told herself she would walk past him and never think of him again.
But fate was cruel.
As she passed—
His head turned.
Green eyes met hers.
Not with recognition.
With annoyance.
"You again," he said flatly.
Her pulse betrayed her. "Do you stand in that same spot every night, or am I simply unlucky?"
"Neither," he replied. "You returned."
"So did you."
He looked her over once — brief, clinical, dismissive.
"Curiosity kills faster than blades," he said. "You should run before yours gets you buried in a nameless grave."
"And yet," she replied softly, "you still haven't scared me."
Silence fell between them.
Heavy.
Unspoken.
The war that neither of them knew they were already fighting pressed quietly into the space between their breaths.
"You shouldn't be here, Elin," Kael said at last.
Her false name rolled easily off his tongue.
And even that felt dangerous.
---