Page 12 of Fallen Nocturne

I close my eyes and try not to think of the dozen ways this could all fall apart. Sleep comes slowly, dragging me down into dreams of fire, wings, and chaos.

Chapter 2 Landon

The north valley stretches before me in the dying light, my squadron’s wyverns settling into their new roosts among the cliff faces. I should be with them, ensuring the caves are defensible, checking the hunting grounds, establishing perimeter watches. Instead, I stand alone on an outcropping, watching the distant lights of Völundr flicker to life like earthbound stars.

Somewhere in that city is my mate.

The thought sends a strange hum through my chest, a warm pull that grows stronger every time I allow myself to think of her.

Rhianelle Wiolant.

The Elven Queen. My enemy who gave us sanctuary when my own king ordered our deaths.

I close my eyes, trying to reconcile the impossible contradiction of my existence. For seven hundred and thirty years, I’ve served Eirik Bloodhound with absolute loyalty. I’ve led his hunts, commanded his aerial forces, burned entire cities at his word. That loyalty is more than just duty. It’s the very foundation of who I am.

Eirik saved me when no one else would.

The memory surfaces vividly as if it happened yesterday instead of centuries ago.

I was seven years old, a street child in the outer districts of Avalon, trying to steal bread from a baker’s window. The baker caught me easily because my hair was like a beacon even then, red as fresh blood in sunlight.

“Devil spawn!” he had screamed, and the crowd had gathered quickly. Everyone knew red-haired children were cursed. They were said to be born from unions between fae and demons, marked by the underworld and destined to bring misfortune wherever they went. The mob had dragged me to the town square, piling wood for the pyre.

I can still smell the smoke starting, feel the heat beginning to build, hear my own voice as a child screaming for someone, anyone, to help.

The crowd’s faces had been twisted with righteous fury. They were doing good work, removing a curse from their midst.

Then he appeared.

Eirik Bloodhound had ridden into that square on his great black wyvern. The crowd had parted before him, falling to their knees, but he’d only had eyes for the pyre where I stood tied to a stake, flames beginning to lick at the wood beneath my bare feet.

“What crime has this child committed?” His voice made the ground tremble.

“He’s devil-marked, my lord,” the baker had stammered. “The red hair—”

“Is hair.” Eirik dismounted and walked through the crowd. “Release him.”

No one had moved. The fear of a curse ran deep.

That’s when Eirik had done something that changed my life forever. He’d reached into the flames with his bare hands, snapping the ropes that bound me, and lifted me out of the pyre himself. His skin had blistered from the heat, though it healed within moments.

“This child is under my protection,” he’d declared. “Anyone who harms him will answer to me personally.”

Eirik could have simply ordered my release and left. Instead, he’d taken me with him, brought me into his household, trained me himself when no one else would dare touch the devil-marked boy. The Fae King gave me purpose, status, power. He made me Commander of his aerial forces when others said red-haired fae could never be trusted with such responsibility.

I owe him everything.

My mate is everything he is fighting to destroy.

Our bond pulses again and I can almost feel Rhianelle’s presence across the distance. She’s thinking of me. It should be disturbing but instead it sends warmth flooding through my chest. When I saw her in that healing house, everything I thought I knew about myself shattered.

How can I be loyal to my king while I’m bound to his enemy?

The attack on the western borders feels like a lifetime ago, though it’s been mere days. I can still see the flames consuming the elven capital, hear the screams of their people.

“You’re welcome in Aelfheim as long as you need shelter.”

She could have demanded our swords or forced our cooperation. Instead, she gave freely and asked for only basic courtesy in return.