"How have you been? Are they treating you right?" he asked, eyes searching her face as though he could read the truth in the lines around her eyes.
"I’m fine," she said. "You?"
Luna turned to him fully now, and her stomach sank at what she saw. He looked thinner, his skin paler, his eyes a little too hollow, as if sleep had abandoned him weeks ago. Even his hair, usually wild and charming, looked tired.
"Surviving," Kyllian said with a shrug that carried the weight of a thousand sleepless nights.
Luna reached out and touched his face gently, her fingers brushing over his cheek. "Kyllian..."
"I’m okay," he said quickly. "I just... miss breathing without feeling like part of me’s gone." f\ree webn ovel(.)com
"How are my parents?" she asked softly, hoping to focus on anything else.
A shadow crossed Kyllian’s face. He looked away, lips tightening. "I’m sorry, Luna. I haven’t been to the castle since you left. I... I couldn’t."
Luna’s fingers dropped from his cheek, curling into her lap. f r\eew,eb novel.c(o)(m)
"Kyllian... please...You have to check on them. Father may have banished me, but I’m sure he didn’t have a choice. He’s still my father. I know him. I know this must be hurting him more than he lets on. He needs you."
He stared at her, torn between his own pain and the love he still felt for her. How could she ask him to walk back into the castle that helped keep her way from him? To look the King in the eye, knowing he’d chosen the enemy?
But then again... how could he say no to her?
She was still Luna. Still his Luna.
"Okay," he finally whispered. "I’ll go."
She smiled at him, tearful and grateful and beautiful.
And outside, Damien watched all of it. He hadn’t expected this part of the plan to hurt.
At least not this much.
Kyllian reached for her gently. His fingers grazed her cheek, warm and trembling, and when she leaned into his palm, he felt like he could breathe again. For the first time in what felt like forever, the crushing weight in his chest eased.
"I need you," he confessed.
Luna closed her eyes and kissed his palm, gently. It was tender.
"Well, isn’t this a touching reunion,"
Luna’s eyes snapped open as Damien’s presence swept in. She turned slowly, and there he stood.
Kyllian stiffened immediately, shoulders drawing back. "If it isn’t the thieving blood sucker," he said with a snarl that barely masked the pain underneath.
"So..." Damien said, ignoring the jab. "Have you told her?"
Kyllian blinked. "Told her what?"
Luna’s head bounced between the two of them. "Told me what?" she echoed, confused and already bracing for the emotional slap that was surely coming.
"Really?...All that time I spent brooding out there, and this is what you two have been doing? Moon-eyed flirting and coy hand-kissing? Not a single truth shared?"
Kyllian narrowed his gaze. .com
"How...?" Kyllian murmured. "How could you have known?"
Damien tilted his head, that maddening smirk playing on his lips. "Will you tell her," he asked, "or do you want me to?"
Kyllian looked at Luna, and in that moment, he saw everything he didn’t want to destroy. She was still his anchor, even if fate had tried to pull her away. He exhaled shakily, the weight of truth finally pressing against his spine.
"The... the bond isn’t broken, Luna," he admitted.
Luna’s eyes widened, lashes trembling as realization bled into shock. "No... How? You..." She turned sharply to Damien. "Why?"
Damien looked almost... tired. "I don’t know," he said softly. "But it seems we’re learning as we go. My mark on you—it saved your life, yes. But it didn’t sever your bond with Kyllian."
Luna was caught between them now, physically and emotionally. The bond she thought had been broken was still alive.
"Which is why," Damien added briskly, "we have to go now. To Morvakar. And sever it the proper way. Or the mutt here will become even more feral than he already is."
"I can handle it," Kyllian asserted. His hand tightened around Luna’s as if she might disappear if he let go. His eyes were stormy, betraying his desperation to stay near her.
Damien chuckled, a low, taunting sound that made Kyllian’s hackles rise. "Yeah, right," he muttered with a cocky smirk. "Because you’ve handled everything so well up until now, haven’t you?"
"You know he’s right," Luna said, looking into Kyllian’s face, her eyes soft but resolute. "Kyllian... please. You have to let me go. I can’t live with myself if anything happens to you because of me."
Kyllian closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. After a pause, he turned to Damien.
"Just so you know," he said, each word laced with the promise of vengeance, "you will pay for everything. Someday. I will make you pay."
Damien arched an amused brow. "I’d like to see you try," he said with a smirk, but the edge in his tone revealed he wasn’t as amused as he pretended to be.
"And the princess arrives," came Morvakar’s voice—echoing from nowhere and everywhere at once, smooth and oily.
There was no sign of him. Just the disembodied voice of a smug, sadistic sorcerer.
Luna arched a brow, her hand already inching toward the dagger hidden at her thigh. "Why don’t you show your face? I have my dagger handy here, Sugar," she called out.
"Here to stab me one more time?" Morvakar’s voice purred again, slinking between them.
"Depends..." Luna replied, the smirk tugging at her lips not quite hiding the edge in her eyes.
Damien sighed heavily, scrubbing a hand down his face. "Quit the drama, Morvakar. No one is here to stab you."
"Don’t make promises only you can keep," Kyllian said. "I still have a score to settle with the sorcerer."
"Don’t think I forgot how you knocked me out like a common pup last time. I’m itching to rip your throat out."
"Werewolves, they always have a bone to pick," Morvakar’s voice slithered into the air just before he stepped out from the shadows.
@Addicted2fantasy: I missed you