Page 29 of Ravaging Red (Monsters of the Hollow Realm #1)

“And if we deny you your place among us? If we strip your name from these walls?”

“Then I will make a new name,” he said. “With blood. With vengeance. With her beside me.”

I had never loved him more than I did at that moment, yet my heart ached. Because they were still looking at me like I was a disease. I understood it though, I was a fracture in their order. And deep down, I knew they feared what I might become.

He turned to me and slid his hand into mine, reassuringly. In that moment, I had never felt safer than with him.

Still holding his hand, I stepped forward.

“I love him,” I said. The words echoed louder than I meant them to, bouncing off the dark stone.

Verrian laughed. It was a beautiful sound, but full of cruelty. “Love,” she said, rolling the word in her tongue as if she found it bitter. “How sweet. Such a soft, human word. And a weakness more than a strength.”

My fingers tightened around Rael’s.

“No,” I said, lifting my chin. “Love is strength. It’s what brought me here. It’s what has held him back when he could have torn this place apart. And I would do anything for him.”

Rael’s thumb brushed over my knuckles. “She is not wrong, I’ve come to realize that” he said, his voice low. “It’s not a weakness. It’s devotion. And that can be more dangerous than you realize.”

An uneasy shift moved through the council. Then Drayx spoke, his voice held a deep raspiness to it. “What if she’s right? What if love is not the weakness we assumed, but something older? Something that survived while the rest of us turned to power and fear?”

“No,” Verrian snapped, her gaze hardening. “That’s foolishness. Romanticism. If you start to believe in it, we will fail. This human has already brought death to our door.”

A chill skated down my spine and I knew what she meant. The creature. The thing that had chased me through the woods. She knew about it.

Verrian’s eyes narrowed. “There is darkness that hovers around you both. It stirs. It hungers. Are you prepared to face what you’ve unleashed?”

Rael stepped forward, pulling me slightly behind him, as he growled in threat. “We didn’t unleash anything. It was already here. Festering under your perfect order. My bond to her didn’t create that monster."

Rael’s voice deepened as he stepped forward again, his hand flexing protectively around mine.

“Without my mark, that creature would have killed her. I felt its intent, the way it reached for her heart, attempting to tear apart our bond and steal her for himself. It feeds on broken connections and it is here to cause havoc.”

Verrian’s lips curled, disdain darkening her face. “And yet, by claiming her, you’ve tied something cold and bitter to stay in our realm. This human didn’t just come through the Veil, she brought darkness with her. I can still feel remnants of its envy on you both.”

Drayx stirred in his shadowed seat, his voice curling through the chamber.

“You say it was envy. But envy cannot exist without desire, without the fire of love to contrast it. I have walked among humans. I’ve watched them love, grieve, cling to one another like flame to a wick.

Love is a weakness, yes...but it is also a kind of power. One I have to say we’ve forgotten.”

Lysira’s laughter rang sharp. “Now you decide to be poetic?”

But Drayx ignored her. He sat forward, folding his long fingers together. “Perhaps mixing blood isn’t the greatest threat. Perhaps love itself, and the madness that comes with it, is what shakes this chamber.”

Verrian turned on him, fire flaring in her eyes. “You would defend this?”

“I would question it,” Drayx replied, unshaken. “And for once, I find myself aligned with something unfamiliar. Maybe it is time we remembered what it meant to feel .”

The chamber fell into silence. The Council whispered amongst themselves, some in agreement, others voicing their disdain.

Verrian stepped back to the center. “It is reckless. Blasphemy! We will bring it to a vote. All those in favor of this connection…”

Verrian stayed standing, followed by Lysiria, the Drayx took a seat and slowly, one by one, the others followed. Varek, Ma’het, Krinn, all voted.

“The majority has spoken,” Drayx declared. “Rael may keep his bond. The human stays... for now.”

Verrian's eyes, once distant and calculated, now sharpened like blades. She stepped forward slowly, the hem of her violet robes whispering over the stone floor.

"The Council may have voted for you," she said, her voice low and seething, "but there will be a price."

Her gaze locked on Rael, not me. "You are mine now, son of Thoryn Mavryn. The Hollow Woods must have a voice again. And you will sit in your father's place whether you wish to or not."

Rael didn’t flinch. "You want to chain me to this throne? Make me into a pet for your politics?"

"We want your presence. Your name. Your obedience," Verrian snapped. "The realm demands it."

He looked ready to protest, but I squeezed his hand and stepped closer to him. He leaned down as I whispered for only him to hear. "Take it."

"No," he growled under his breath.

"Take it Rael, if you do you can protect us," I tugged on his hand. "You can speak for the ones who don't have a voice. For us."

Rael’s brow furrowed. His jaw clenched. I could tell he hated the idea. I could feel it in every taut muscle of his arm. But when his eyes met mine, I saw the conflict give way to something steadier. Resignation.

He turned back to the Council. "If I do this, I will not live by your rules. If you want me in that seat, then you’ll deal with me as I am. I do not follow the Old Ways. I won’t pretend to."

A quiet ripple passed over the Council, then Drayx stood again, his smoky form shifting faintly. "Perhaps we don’t need the Old Ways. Perhaps we need something new and I am willing to accept that. Will you stay, Rael?"

Rael looked at me ad I nodded.

He took a breath and let it out slowly. "Then I will stay."

Verrian smiled, not with warmth, but with a knowing satisfaction that she got what she wanted.

"You dared to defy me and the High Council. For this I issue punishment, one I know you will abhor. The Hollow Woods are yours, Wolf. And the burden of them will follow you for the rest of your cursed life on that throne."

She pointed to the empty seat, and I could feel Rael’s entire being grow dark.

What did I just do to my love?