Ashes of Love by Amavi Serin

Serenya

The knock was soft.

I blinked awake slowly, sunlight curling across the floor in long golden bands. My limbs felt heavy, like I'd been underwater all night, but I wasn't dizzy anymore. My heart wasn't racing.

Something was different.

The knock came again, gentler this time.

I got up slowly, crossed the floor barefoot, and opened the door.

No one was there.

Only a small package on the threshold.

A vial. Pale silver, sealed tight. Beside it, a folded square of matte black paper. My name wasn't written, but I didn't need ink to know.

I opened the note.

"For the next time you think collapsing alone is a good idea. — K."

My breath caught.

I looked up and down the hallway, half-expecting him to still be watching from a corner or behind one of those mirrored security panels. But it was empty.

I held the note to my chest and stepped back inside.

Kael.

He'd stayed. Watched. Cared, in his way.

And I hated how much it meant to me.

I didn't drink the tonic right away.

Instead, I tucked it into the drawer where I kept my pendant, under the loose board Maerys had taught me to use whenever I needed to hide anything that mattered.

It wasn't that I didn't trust him.

It was that I didn't trust how much I wanted to.

Later that morning, I stepped into the dining room to find Elion already halfway through a mountain of syrup-drenched waffles. Leira sat beside him, pouring herself coffee, smiling as I entered.

"You look better," she said lightly.

"I feel—" I hesitated. "More stable."

"Good." She patted the chair beside her. "Because Kael's in a mood today. You might need that stability."

"Is he always like this?"

Leira smirked. "You get used to the stormclouds. Just don't mistake silence for absence. He sees everything. And sometimes, he feels things before he knows what they are."

"What kind of things?"

She didn't answer at first.

Then, very softly, she said, "Sometimes, wolves sense their mates long before the bond awakens. Especially if they're Alpha."

I froze.

Leira glanced at me sideways.

"Don't panic," she added gently. "He doesn't know. You're safe. But if something stirs in him… you need to understand what it could mean."

"Even if I don't feel it?"

"Especially then."

I looked down.

Felt a slow, cold ripple through my chest.

Because no matter how hard I tried to bury it — I was starting to feel something.

And I didn't know if it was magic, fate, or just… him.

Kael

"She doesn't know," Leira said, calmly sipping her coffee like she wasn't detonating truth in the middle of my war zone.

I stared at her across the library table. "Know what?"

"That you're starting to feel the bond."

I scoffed. "There is no bond."

She raised an eyebrow. "You're scenting her."

"I'm watching her."

"You're checking her room's security logs."

"I do that with every—"

"You left medicine at her door."

I paused.

She gave me a pointed look. "Kael. Be honest. Are you drawn to her because you think she's a threat? Or because you know she isn't?"

"I don't know what she is."

"Exactly."

She leaned forward.

"She's already inside the house. Inside Elion's world. And now she's inside your walls. If you don't understand what that means… someone else will."

Later that day, I passed her in the hall — just a few steps, just a glance.

And still…

My body reacted before I gave it permission.

My breath slowed.

My skin warmed.

And my wolf stirred again.

Not in warning.

But in recognition.