In front of the entire world, I was the Captain of the Royal Guard, the right hand and sworn protector of the King. While Castel was the absolute monarch who ruled the kingdom through a terrifying birthright of blood magic.
But behind closed doors, away from the prying eyes of everyone, the hierarchy dissolved. Castel was my brother. He was the one person with whom I could share a bitter laugh, speak with unfiltered candor, and shed the weight of command.
Yet standing in this ruined courtyard, the gap between my public duty and my private reality had never felt more dangerous. As I watched Astelion completely dismantle Aheem, a roaring pride flared in my chest.
She was magnificent, fluid, devastating, and deeply attuned to the telekinetic current she commanded. But that pride was instantly choked by a cold, paralyzing dread. I knew my brother. I knew the calculation behind those eyes after all he was raise by that man.
The more she revealed the true depths of her power, the more I feared what Castel would do to break her, or destroy her.
An absolute silence fell the moment Aheem surrendered. It was heavy. Thick. Watching.
Astelion's grip on her weapon finally loosened. The double-bladed purple spear trembled once in her hand then slipped completely free, clattering against the shattered stone with a sharp, echoing ring that seemed to vibrate through the marrow of everyone present. Her small hands began to shake. It wasn't the tremor of fear it was the raw, exhausting vibration of restraint. It was the physical toll of everything she was desperately holding back and all we did early this morning.
Above the devastation, Castel laughed.
It was slow at first a low, rhythmic rumble in his chest. Then it grew louder full entirely unhinged. The sound rolled across the courtyard like a localized clap of thunder, bouncing off the fractured stone arches and sinking deep into the bones of the guards standing along the perimeter.
My eyes remained fixed ahead.
Still.
Unmoving.
Emotionless.
I forced my posture into a statue carved from pure silence, refusing to give my even a microscopic flicker of expression to feed on.
Then, Castel turned his burning gaze back to Astelion. And that was the exact moment his eyes caught the ring on her hand.
She stood there in the center of the ruins, her chest dragged uneven, exhausted breaths into her lungs. Her eyes locked onto mine, searching for any sign of the man who had proposed to her in a bed of crushed roses, but I gave her nothing but a wall of ice. Slowly, deliberately, her fingers slid the ring off her hand. Seeing this made my chest burn. This was her idea, she wanted us to be strangers.
No one spoke. No one dared to move.
She tucked the silver band deep into the pocket of her uniform. It was a simple gesture, executed like it meant absolutely nothing yet the heavy, deliberate movement made it clear it meant everything.
Castel's unhinged laughter abruptly faded into the quiet. His head tilted slightly to the side
"Why," he asked calmly, his voice smooth and terrifyingly even, "would someone of your caliber reduce herself to a common maid..."
His glowing eyes narrowed into razor slits as he scanned her form. "...when you could easily stand among my royal guard?"
Astelion swallowed hard, the muscles in her throat tightening. When she spoke, her voice came out steady but only barely. "I hate fighting."
A heavy pause settled over the courtyard.
"It reminds me of my father," she continued, her gaze dropping to the floor. "He was a cruel ma "
It was a lie. Or, at the very least, it was enough of a dangerous, twisted truth to serve as a shield.
Castel watched her with intensity. He wasn't listening to the words leaving her lips, he was measuring her breathing, tracking the frantic spike of her pulse, and feeling the magic bottled beneath her skin, waiting to explode. And somehow, despite the physical exhaustion and the emotional whiplash, she was still standing. Still composed. Still pretending she was just an ordinary girl caught in a bad situation.
Castel smile slowly returned.
"Then let me offer you something significantly better," he murmured, the air shifting around his levitating form.
"Be the future Queen's personal guard..." His voice dropped into a dark, gravelly tone that made the hairs on my arms stand up. "...or leave this palace right now and never return."
The words hit her harder than any physical blow she had taken from him during our sparring matches. Astelion's composure cracked, and she dropped to her knees instantly, her hands slamming against the hard pavers.
"My king—please," she pleaded, her voice breaking for the first time since she entered. "I can't guard the Queen." Her head bowed low, her hair shifting over her shoulders. "I am entirely incapable of doing so."
Silence stretched.
"So please... don't dismiss me," she whispered, her small hands clenching into tight, desperate fists against the stone. "I have to avenge my parents." Her voice trembled with a raw, bleeding honesty, but she forced it not to break. "I cannot leave this palace."
The courtyard completely froze. Every single guard held their breath. I felt a spike of pure terror pierce through my icy exterior, though I didn't allow a single muscle in my face to twitch. She had just admitted her real reason for coming here.
Castel's smile disappeared completely. The temperature plummeted, turning the morning air freezing cold.
"You are very brave," Castel said slowly, his voice sharpening into an edge that could cut glass, "to admit to me... that you are here to kill people within my walls..." His eyes burned like dying stars. "...without my explicit permission."
The air cracked with psychic pressure.
"Everyone and everything in this palace," his voice dropped to a low, suffocating whisper that echoed in the minds of everyone present, "belongs entirely to me."
Astelion lowered her head even further, her forehead nearly touching the cracked floor. "I apologize, my king."
Castel stood up from his bench. The floating stone bench dropped instantly to the floor behind him as he descended slowly to the ground, his boots touching the pavement without a sound. Yet each step he took toward her felt heavier than the last, carrying the crushing weight of his absolute sovereignty.
He stopped directly in front of her kneeling form. Close. Far too close.
He leaned down, his shadow completely enveloping her. When he spoke, his voice was nothing more than a quiet whisper against the side of her face. "Next time you try to lie to my face... make it believable." A heavy, terrifying pause hung between them. "Or I will kill you myself, without a second thought."
He pulled back smoothly, a casual, untroubled smile returning to his lips as if he hadn't just threatened to execute her. Then, he turned on his heel, his voice rising again, light and almost amused as his gaze landed directly on me.
"Well..." He gestured toward my rigid form. "If you cannot protect the future Queen... then you can certainly protect my dear cousin."
The courtyard held its collective breath.
"And her husband," Castel added, his smile widening into something deeply malicious. "Right, Kiono?"
Astelion's head snapped up, her eyes wide as the words registered. I didn't react. Not a single movement, not a single change in my breathing. I kept my mask locked tight, even as my own chest burned with fury.
"As she will soon be a bride many envy," Castel finished, his eyes dancing with amusement.
The words cut deeper than any blade had faced today. Astelion looked directly at me, her eyes filled with a shattering mixture of shock, acute pain, and total betrayal. I could see something vital breaking silently inside her chest, but she swallowed the agony, burying it deep beneath the surface as she forced herself to comply.
"Yes... my king," she said, her voice cracking just enough to reveal the raw wound beneath her words.
Castel stepped forward, casually brushing a layer of grey stone dust from her uniform shoulder as if she were nothing more than a piece of property. "Good girl." Then, he lazily waved his hand toward the exit. "Leave."
The moment the command left his mouth, a catastrophic surge of power exploded outward from his body. The entire courtyard shook violently, the kinetic ripple tearing through the palace walls, the polished floors, and the very foundations of the kingdom.
Astelion didn't hesitate. She turned on her heel and ran, her boots sprinting through the archway and out of the ruined courtyard. But the exact moment she stepped beyond the threshold of the grand, heavy doors, she stopped, her breath catching as she threw one panicked look back over her shoulder.
Inside, the horror had begun.
Dozens of the royal guards who had failed to keep the arena secure were suddenly lining up, their own hands clawing desperately at their throats. Their bodies were lifted inches off the ground by an invisible, suffocating force, their legs kicking uselessly as they struggled for oxygen.
And right behind them, Castel was laughing a mad, completely unstable sound that echoed off the high walls. His eyes were the last thing visible through the narrowing gap of the heavy iron doors before they slammed shut with a deafening crash.
The muffled screams began immediately. Deep, terrifying sounds of grown men breaking under the weight of a king's displeasure.