Page 19 of Blood Marked

NINETEEN

SELENE

S elene hadn’t seen Kael since the woods.

She didn’t chase him afterward. Didn’t question the way his hand lingered too long on her cloak or the way he’d stared at the trees like he was still halfway between beast and man.

He needed time. She knew it the moment she helped him stand—naked, bruised, hollowed out by whatever he'd let take hold of him.

And she didn’t fear him for it.

She should have. What she saw in that forest wasn’t Kael the heir. It was Kael the wolf . All teeth and bloodlust and fire in his eyes. But she hadn’t flinched. Not even when his mouth had dripped with another man’s blood.

Because something inside her knew .

Knew it had to be her. That no one else could’ve reached through that haze and dragged him back from it.

Maybe that made her reckless. Maybe it made her a fool.

But she had felt him.

And something about that terrified her more than the claws ever could.

She wandered the halls that morning, trying to outpace the thoughts swarming in her chest. Her boots echoed against the cold stone, a rhythmic tap she used to keep herself grounded.

The citadel felt different now. Not just in the way the guards nodded at her—warily, with some twisted mix of fear and reverence—but in how she saw it.

The towering arches and dimly lit corridors were no longer just symbols of power. They were walls closing in. And every step toward the ritual made the place feel more like a cage dressed in stone.

Kael had come to her the evening after the incident. Not as a ruler. Not as a lover. But as something broken trying to make sense of the pieces left behind.

“You should’ve told me,” she had said, arms crossed, jaw tight.

“I know,” he’d murmured, not meeting her eyes.

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because if I said it out loud, it would make it real.” He paused. “And I didn’t want you to think the kiss was about that. ”

She’d hated him for the silence. For keeping something so important secret. But she hadn’t hated the truth in his voice when he said that.

“I still don’t know what to believe,” she had whispered.

“Then believe this—I’m not trying to claim you like some title. I’m just trying to survive what this bond is turning me into.”

Hadn’t she felt that too?

Now, a full day later, the ache in her chest hadn’t faded, but it had changed shape. It wasn’t anger anymore. It was a dull, echoing ache of something deeper. Something not yet said.

She took a left she hadn’t before, her fingers trailing the grooves carved into the wall—ancient symbols worn by time. She didn’t know what led her down that particular hallway, but the air felt different there. Thicker. Still.

A tapestry hung crooked over the end of the hall, faded and threadbare. She tilted her head and noticed the edge of a seam behind it.

A door. Hidden.

Typical shifter subtlety, if you could tear it down, it counted as secret.

She ducked behind the tapestry and nudged the door open.

Dust and silence greeted her.

And then books. Hundreds of them.

A hidden library. Not the formal one she’d been paraded through once with Kael during a court session. This was different. Smaller. Older. Shelves of hand-bound tomes and scrolls with brittle edges.

Selene stepped inside, the air thick with parchment and the promise of secrets long buried.

Her fingers skimmed the spines. Most were unlabeled. Some had titles in languages she didn’t recognize. But one—one caught her eye.

The Veilborn Chronicles.

The leather binding was cracked, the silver script faded but still legible.

She pulled it free and opened to the first page.

They were never meant to rule.

Her brows furrowed.

The Veilwalkers were chosen not for conquest, but for connection. Bridging realms, not severing them. Their blood carries the echo of two worlds, and it is through them that balance may be maintained.

She flipped pages faster, heart pounding.

In ancient days, when the Veil thinned, a child was born to both lines—a seer from the mortal court and a warrior from the Old Blood. That line birthed the first Veilwalker. And through her, the treaty of balance was born.

A diagram followed, circular symbols radiating from a central sigil.

She traced it with her fingertip.

This wasn’t legend. This was her .

This was her bloodline.

She flipped further, scanning until the words blurred.

They weren’t just keeping her for show. They weren’t marrying her off for political unity.,They were binding her because she was power .

Not just Kael’s mate. Not just her father’s daughter. But something sacred. Something dangerous. And none of them had told her.

Not Kael or Elias.

Not even the council who’d drafted her into this charade with a smile and a signature.

She sat back against a stack of books, breathing shallow, heart hammering.

So this was the truth.

She was descended from Veilwalkers, those meant to connect worlds, not be used as leverage in a war neither side fully understood.

She closed the book and stared at the ceiling her father’s vague warnings before he left her on her own, ringing in her ear.

“I’m a damn key,” she whispered. “And they’ve all been trying to turn me.”

The door creaked open behind her.

Nyra leaned against the frame, arms crossed, one silver brow arched.

“Took you long enough to find this place,” she said.

Selene gave her a look. “You knew?”

Nyra shrugged. “Not about your family, no. Though I assumed. But this room? It’s one of the few places they haven’t gutted for court records. My mother used to hide here when she didn’t want to be seen crying.”

That surprised her.

Nyra didn’t seem the type to talk about mothers. Or crying.

“Kael still out in the northern ridge?” Selene asked.

“He came back late last night,” Nyra said. “Didn’t say much. Looked... better. A little less like he was two seconds from tearing out someone’s throat.”

Selene nodded slowly.

She had done that.,And now she needed to decide if she could keep doing it. If she wanted to.

“What’re you going to do?” Nyra asked after a beat, nodding toward the book in Selene’s lap.

“I’m going to finish reading,” she said. “Then I’m going to figure out how to survive being the only damn bridge in a world built on fire.”

Nyra smiled.

Not cruel. Not sarcastic. Just proud.

Selene turned the page.