Chapter 11
The guards hesitated in the doorway, eyes darting between the scorch marks across the floor and the faint glow still clinging to my skin. But Malakai didn't acknowledge them.
Not once.
He kept his gaze locked on me—unmoving,
unblinking, as though the entire world had narrowed to the breath trembling in my chest.
"Your Majesty," one guard stammered, "should we secure the perimeter? Call the—"
"No." Malakai's voice cut like a blade.
"Leave."
"But—"
He turned his head a fraction.
A fraction was enough.
The guards scrambled out of the chamber so fast the door slammed shut behind them.
The silence that followed felt alive.
Malakai took one step toward me.
I instinctively took one back.
Not out of fear.
Out of… whatever this was.
The air between us crackled again, faint light pulsing beneath my skin like a second heartbeat.
"What's happening to me?" I whispered.
Malakai's eyes lowered to my hands. "You lost control."
"I didn't do anything."
"You don't have to. Power like this—" His jaw tightened. "—it responds to emotion."
Emotion.
Fear, confusion… him.
All of it tangling together like live wires.
"Did I hurt you?" I asked.
His lips parted—surprise flickering across his face.
"No."
"Did I hurt the guards?"
"No."
"Then what are you so tense about?"
He didn't move for a long moment.
Then he said quietly, "It wasn't the burst that concerns me."
"It wasn't?"
"No."
His voice dropped, a deep rumble low enough to feel.
"It was the presence behind it."
A chill rippled through me. "What presence?"
"The one that answered you."
I swallowed hard. "I didn't hear anything."
Malakai stepped closer again, slow, deliberate, until the enormous room felt too small around us.
"You didn't hear it," he murmured, "because it wasn't speaking with sound."
My pulse thudded wildly.
"Something," he continued, "called to you through the magic."
"Called to me?" I breathed. "From where?"
His eyes darkened. "From outside the wards."
My stomach twisted. "I thought nothing can cross the palace wards."
"Nothing can." His tone sharpened like iron being drawn. "Which means something powerful enough to reach through them is watching."
Because of me.
The light beneath my skin flickered—
responding.
Malakai noticed instantly.
"Stop." He reached out—then caught himself, fingers curling before touching me.
"Breathe. Do not give it more to follow."
I tried.
But my heart was slamming too fast.
"Malakai," I whispered, "am I dangerous?"
"Yes."
The honesty hit like a blow.
Before I could speak, he added:
"But not to me."
Heat pooled in my chest. A different kind of fear curled beneath it—warm, hungry,
impossible to name.
"Then who am I dangerous to?"
"Anyone who wants to claim you."
His eyes hardened. "Anyone except me."
My breath caught.
"Sit," he said again, but this time his voice wasn't commanding—it was low, rough, like he was holding something back.
I sank onto the nearest chair.
Malakai stood before me, arms folded behind his back, the posture of a king trying—and failing—not to reveal too much.
"We need to begin your control training," he said.
"Training?" I echoed. "Already?"
"Yes. Your power responded to fear tonight.
What happens when it responds to anger?
Pain? Desire?"
My cheeks burned.
He noticed.
Of course he did.
Malakai exhaled sharply and looked away, as if steadying himself.
"You are not safe," he said, "until you can command it."
"But you said the palace isn't safe either."
"It isn't."
"Then where?"
His jaw flexed.
"The only place your magic cannot be sensed." A pause. "The Shadow Sanctum."
The name alone felt cold.
"And where is that?" I asked.
"Below the palace."
"Below?"
"It was sealed centuries ago." His expression shifted—something haunted passing through his eyes. "Because the last Lightborn who entered it never came out."
My blood froze.
"Malakai—"
He lifted a hand.
"You won't be alone. I will go with you."
That shouldn't have steadied me.
But it did.
"When do we go?" I asked softly.
He didn't hesitate.
"Now."
"What? It's the middle of the night."
"That is why we go now."
His eyes burned into mine.
"There are too many watching you in daylight."
My heart pounded. This was happening too fast. The palace was dangerous. My magic was dangerous. Something beyond the wards was calling me.
Everything inside me was screaming to slow down.
But Malakai was the only solid thing in the chaos.
"Elaine."
I met his gaze.
"You trust me," he said—not a question.
A truth.
I hated how easily he could read me… and how right he was.
"Yes," I whispered.
Something shifted in him at that—something sharp enough to break a king.
He offered his hand.
A single, steady anchor.
"Then come," he said softly. "Before your enemies realize you've awakened."
I placed my hand in his.
His fingers closed around mine, warm and firm and far too careful for a man feared by kingdoms.
And for the first time…
I didn't feel like I was walking into danger.
I felt like I was walking toward a truth that had been waiting for me all along.
A truth buried in the shadows beneath a cursed palace—
and in the hands of the king who refused to let me fall.