Chapter 4
Chapter
Four
"You're no God," Daniel said, forcing steel into his voice despite the way his pulse raced. "You're an egomaniac with a God complex."
He braced for Caelen's anger, but to his surprise, Caelen's expression didn't darken. Instead, his lips curved into that knowing smile that made Daniel's stomach flip. Like he saw right through Daniel's bravado to the uncertainty beneath.
"There's so much you don't know about me," he purred. "Wouldn't you like to find out how wrong you are?"
His fingers brushed Daniel's cheek—a touch light as snow, but burning all the same. Daniel's mind went blank. Every witty response, every defensive quip died in his throat. His skin tingled where Caelen touched him, and he couldn't tell if it was magic or just the effect this breathtaking, terrible creature had on him.
Before Daniel could gather his scattered thoughts, Caelen closed the last breath of space between them. His lips captured Daniel's in a kiss that tasted like midnight and magic, like everything Daniel tried so hard to resist.
Daniel's mind short-circuited and his knees grew weak. The kiss pulled at something deep inside him, like hooks in his soul, and he couldn't tell if it was Caelen's magic or his own desperate wanting.
A small sound escaped his throat, half protest, half need. Caelen took advantage, deepening the kiss. His tongue swept into Daniel's mouth, and heat bloomed across Daniel's skin. Magic crackled between them, raising goosebumps along his arms.
He couldn't be doing this.
This was the Shadow King. The man who'd kidnapped him, who'd tried to drain his energy. Who was probably manipulating him right now.
But god, he kissed like sin incarnate. Like he could devour Daniel's soul and Daniel might let him.
The thought snapped Daniel back to reality. He planted his hands on Caelen's chest and shoved, breaking the kiss. His breath came in ragged gasps as he pressed himself flat against the wall. "Stop," he pressed out. "We can't—I can't?—"
"Can't what?" Caelen's voice was rough, his eyes blazing. "Can't want this? Can't admit that you feel our connection?"
"You're the bad guy," Daniel reminded both Caelen and himself. "You're evil."
"Am I?" Caelen's thumb traced Daniel's lower lip. "Or am I exactly what you need?"
The touch sent sparks through Daniel's body. He squeezed his eyes shut, fighting the urge to suck Caelen's thumb into his mouth. "Stop it."
Daniel's frustration boiled over. How could Caelen stand there and act like Daniel's confusion was a mystery? He pushed off the wall, jabbing a finger into the Shadow King's chest. "You want to know what I don't understand? This! All of this! You kidnapped me! You stole my energy from me without consent. You tried to kill my friend! And now you're acting like we have some deep connection. You show up in my dreams acting like—like?—"
He ran his hands through his hair, pushing past Caelen to pace in tight circles. "Like you care about helping me? Please. You get off on this, don't you? Messing with my head, making me question everything. Playing the misunderstood villain when we both know exactly what you are."
Daniel spun to face him, chest heaving. "A monster. That's what you are. You hurt people because you enjoy it. You manipulate and destroy and then have the audacity to stand there looking like that —" He gestured wildly at Caelen's perfect hair. "Acting like you're not the bad guy in this story."
His voice cracked as the words tumbled out faster. "And the worst part? I saw inside you. I saw what's trapped in there, that part of you that's screaming. That's the real you, isn't it? The one you locked away?" Daniel stepped closer, searching Caelen's face. "What happened to you? What could have been so terrible that you're still screaming?"
Caelen's expression hardened, the temperature in the room dropping several degrees. But Daniel couldn't stop now.
"That's why you're really here, isn't it? Not because of some connection or because you want to help. It's because you really need someone to fix all the shit that's wrong with you, but I will not be that person." Daniel's voice held steady as he delivered the final blow. " No one can be that person. You cannot be fixed."
The temperature plummeted further. Daniel shivered as frost crept across the dream-walls, matching the cold fury in Caelen's eyes.
"Fix me?" Caelen asked. "You think I need fixing ?"
Daniel didn't respond. It was all he could do not to flinch away from Caelen's gaze.
"I am exactly what I chose to become," Caelen insisted. "What I had to become. Your presumption that I need salvation is both insulting and ignorant."
Daniel wrapped his arms around himself, trying to ward off the supernatural chill. "Then why are you here?"
"Because you have a choice to make." Caelen's voice softened, though the ice didn't leave his eyes. "Accept my help, or run to your precious keepers. But before you decide..."
He gestured to the frost-covered dreamscape around them. "Consider this—I've never been able to share your dreams like this before. Why do you think it is that I can reach you so easily now?"
Daniel opened his mouth to respond, but the words died in his throat. The dream was already dissolving around them, Caelen's question lingering in the fading darkness like smoke.
Why could they share dreams so clearly now? What had changed?
The thought followed Daniel as consciousness pulled him under, dragging him back toward waking.
Opening his eyes, he pressed his fingers to his mouth, trying to ground himself in reality.
A dream. Just a dream.
Except it hadn't been, had it? He'd really kissed Caelen. He'd really…
Trying to shake the thought, he scrambled out of bed. The clock on his nightstand showed 4:33 AM. Outside his window, the street lights cast odd shadows across his room.
Daniel switched on every light he could reach. The shadows retreated, but his unease remained. He paced the length of his bedroom, trying to calm his mind.
"Get it together," he muttered to himself. "He's still a whole world away."
But Caelen's words echoed in his mind. The barriers were failing. People were disappearing. And the keepers… were they really as dangerous as Caelen claimed?
That was what he needed to be thinking about.
Not the fact that kissing Caelen had felt like falling into starlight.
Enough of this.
Daniel padded into the kitchen, his bare feet silent against the cold tile. He needed coffee, needed normal.
The soft glow of a phone screen caught his attention. Jamie sprawled across their couch, still in yesterday's clothes, his face lit by the blue light.
"Daniel?" Jamie looked up, surprised. "What are you doing up so early?"
"What are you doing up so late?" Daniel fired back.
Jamie glanced down at his phone again, shifting on the couch. "I figured I could just take a look at your webnovel. You know, to better understand your situation."
Something warm spread in Daniel's chest, pushing back against the lingering chill of his dream. His brother—his screen-hating brother who complained that a book was not a book if it didn't smell of ink and paper—had stayed up all night reading "Monsters of Veridia" just to understand what Daniel was going through.
A grin spread across Daniel's face. "You got sucked into the story, didn't you?"
Jamie's cheeks flushed. "No! I mean... the characters are kind of cool, I guess. And the world-building's not bad."
Daniel maintained his grin, and as soon as he'd made himself coffee, he sat on the couch next to his brother. "Admit it. You're hooked."
"Fine." Jamie locked his phone screen. "But that's not the point. The point is that this Caelen guy who kidnapped you, he seems like a real asshole."
Daniel's stomach clenched at the name. The phantom sensation of warm lips against his tingled through his body. He took a long sip of too-hot coffee, trying to wash away the memory.
"He really is," Daniel said. "Trust me, I know better than anyone."
He glanced at Jamie's phone, momentarily lost in thought. How often had he read 'Monsters of Veridia?' So many times. And how often had he obsessed over the hot villain? An equal amount of times—if not more. He still had a ton of fanfiction and fan art saved on his own phone.
None of it captured the reality of Caelen, though.
None of it had ever mentioned his ice magic either, but Daniel had certainly felt it in his dream just now. Where was that coming from? Was it just something the author had missed?
Who was the author, anyway?
Another mystery that left them puzzled.
"Caelen is half-fae," Daniel mused, more to himself. "I think his mother might have been part of the Winter Court?"
"Uh, maybe?" Jamie said. "That hasn't come up so far."
"What chapter are you on, anyway?"
"Chapter forty-seven," Jamie said, scrolling through his phone. "The part where Knox confronts Caelen in the Forest of Memories."
Daniel remembered reading that chapter often. Back when Caelen was just words on a screen, a deliciously dark character Daniel could crush on without consequences.
He'd sometimes imagined Knox and Caelen doing it too, though they never would in real life.
God, when had this become real life?
Daniel pulled his feet up onto the couch, wrapped his hands around his coffee mug and made himself refocus on the conversation. "You've got a ways to go, then. Though honestly, I'm not sure how much the story will help. Reality turned out... different."
Jamie lowered his phone. "Different how?"
"Well, for one thing, Caelen never showed any ice powers in the story." Daniel blew on his coffee absentmindedly. "But in my dreams just now…" He caught himself, but too late.
"Your dreams?" Jamie sat up straighter. "You're dreaming about this guy?"
"It's nothing." Daniel waved him off. "Probably just processing trauma or whatever."
Jamie gave him a long look, then got up from the couch to walk into Daniel's room.
"Where are you going?" Daniel rushed after him. "What are you…?" The question stuck in his throat when he noticed that Jamie was looking at the poster of Caelen on the wall above Daniel's desk.
It had been there for so long Daniel had kind of forgotten about it.
Jamie turned around to face Daniel. "You have always had terrible taste in men."
Daniel felt his face flush hot. Busted. "This isn't… No, Jamie! That's not what's happening here."
"I really, really hope it isn't."
"I do not have a crush on him!" Daniel's voice came out higher than intended. He took a breath, trying to steady himself. "And I do not have terrible taste in men."
Jamie raised an eyebrow at him and then started ticking off names on his fingers.
"Let's see. There was Mark the barista who 'just needed time to figure himself out' while dating three other people. Travis who borrowed all the money you'd saved up and ghosted. That guy Ryan who kept trying to 'cure' your ADHD." Jamie's eyes narrowed. "Oh, and let's not forget Derek who?—"
"Okay, stop!" Daniel cut in. "I get it. I was young and stupid."
"You dated Derek two months ago."
"Okay, but in my defense, he was hot."
"He punched you."
"I flushed his drugs down the toilet."
"That's still no reason?—"
"I know!" Daniel held his hands up. "I promise, I know. I'm done trying to fix bad boyfriends." He stepped up to his desk and tore the poster off the wall. "That's from before! When he was just a character in a story. You can't hold my fictional crushes against me."
"So long as they stay fictional."
"Promise," Daniel said again.
"I only wish I knew what attracted you to these assholes in the first place."
Daniel stared at the crumpled poster in his hands, his throat tight. Jamie's question hit closer than he wanted to admit. Why did he always fall for the dangerous ones? The broken ones?
"I don't know," he claimed. "Maybe I just think everyone deserves a second chance."
"That's assuming people are willing to change in the first place." Jamie's voice softened. "The guys you go for typically aren't."
Daniel wanted to agree, but the image of Caelen's trapped soul flashed through his mind; that screaming, suffering part of him locked away behind walls of shadow magic. He pushed the thought aside. No. He wasn't going to do this again. Wasn't going to let himself believe he could fix someone who didn't want fixing.
"You're right." Daniel tossed the crumpled poster in his trash bin.
When he turned back to his brother, though, his heart stopped. For a split second—less than a blink—Jamie wasn't there. The space where his brother stood flickered empty, like a TV losing signal, before Jamie popped back into focus.
Cold sweat broke out across Daniel's skin.
"Something wrong?" Jamie asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
Daniel's mouth went dry. "I'm fine," he said, because surely, he was making things up. "Just tired."
His sleep-deprived brain must be playing tricks on him.
But Caelen's words from the dream echoed through his thoughts: I've never been able to share your dreams so vividly before. Why do you think it is that I can reach you so easily now?
He couldn't have meant…
Daniel's gaze darted around the room, searching for other signs. Everything looked normal, solid. But what if it wasn't? What if reality itself was growing thin here, wearing down like an old sweater? It would explain why Caelen could invade his dreams.
They were so close to the park where people had disappeared. The keepers had tried to slap a band-aid over the hole in reality, but what if it wasn't holding? What if the zone of overlap was growing because Daniel refused to help them?
His stomach twisted. How long before the walls between worlds wore completely through? How long before people started falling through the gaps, how long before Jamie…
No. He couldn't think about that. He wouldn't let Jamie vanish into nothing.
Caelen had been right; he had a choice to make.
Caelen or the keepers.
Daniel pulled out the business card Elysia had given him. It had a number on it. One call and they'd come. One call and he'd be choosing a side.
He didn't think they'd been entirely truthful with him, but Caelen…
Caelen was more dangerous.
If he helped Caelen cross over, if he gave in... Daniel knew exactly what would happen. The Shadow King would walk into his world with all his power and darkness. And Daniel would fall. Hard. Despite every promise he'd just made to Jamie, despite knowing better, despite everything.
He couldn't control himself around a hot villain, and Caelen was the hottest of them all.
He blew out a breath, coming to a decision. "I think I need to call the keepers."
"Are you sure about that? Those people weirded me out."
"That depends. Are you willing to close down the store and run away with me?"
Jamie only looked at him as if he was wondering what Daniel was smoking.
"That's what I thought," Daniel said with a half-smile. This store was everything to Jamie. Daniel would protect it, and him, the best way he could. "I'll be careful."
"As long as you know what you're doing."
"I do," Daniel said, hoping that he wasn't lying.
Daniel paced the bookstore's cramped backroom, running his fingers through his multi-colored hair, his thoughts blessedly undisturbed.
If Caelen knew what decision Daniel had made, he wasn't offering his opinion. He hadn't spoken to Daniel at all since that dream.
Daniel wasn't sure how he felt about that, but he had no time to be thinking about it either. He'd called the Barrier Keepers here, and now they stood before him. Elysia, Tarian, and Galen. Creatures who seemed out of place in the book store's break room.
"Before I help you, I need guarantees." Daniel planted his feet, crossed his arms. "My friends from Veridia—they stay where they are. No deportations, no barriers between us."
Elysia licked her lips. "We have to maintain the natural order."
"That's not a yes. I need a yes. I'm not jeopardizing my friend's relationship."
"Our duty is to protect both realms." Tarian stepped forward. "We'll help your friends fit in, not send them back."
"Is that a promise?" Daniel asked.
"Yes," Elysia said.
Daniel studied her for a moment. How could he tell if her promise was worth anything? The truth was that he couldn't, but he didn't have much of a choice.
You always have a choice.
Caelen speaking so unexpectedly startled him, but it was the only thing the Shadow King said, and it didn't change Daniel's mind.
If anything, it made him move forward faster.
"Fine," he said to the keepers, spite creeping into his tone. "There's one more thing I need from you." He gestured around the store. "Sweep this place. Every inch. I need to know Jamie's safe while I'm gone."
Galen raised an eyebrow. "You think there's something off with this store?"
"It's for my peace of mind," Daniel said. "Just check for thin spots, tears, whatever you call them. Make sure nothing can slip through."
The keepers exchanged glances. Elysia traced a symbol in the air, her fingers leaving trails of blue light. The glow spread outward, seeping into the walls.
"The building's foundations are solid," she said. "No weaknesses in the barrier here."
"And Jamie?"
"We'll ward the premises," Tarian touched the doorframe, embedding a shimmering sigil. "Nothing will cross without our knowledge."
Daniel watched them work, wondering if this would be enough. "If anything happens to my brother while I'm helping you-"
"Your brother will be safe," Elysia said, her voice softer than before.
"Now," Galen stepped closer, "about Knox…"
Daniel's chest tightened. Knox had come to help save him from Caelen. Leading the Barrier Keepers to him felt like a betrayal.
But people were disappearing. And Jamie...
"Yes," he made himself say. "But don't forget what you promised."
"Of course not," Elysia reassured him.
"Right." Daniel looked at the three weirdos in turn. "I guess you can ride in my car."
The keepers exchanged glances. Tarian turned to Daniel. "We have no need for cars."
Daniel raised an eyebrow at him, then decided not to ask. "Suit yourselves." He didn't know if these people were going to follow him by magical means, and he didn't want to think about how creepy that was either.
For now, he was just happy that he wouldn't have to spend three hours in a car with them. Playing 'I spy' with supernatural gate keepers would have gotten awkward really quick.