Chapter Two
Sage
When we step inside, Kayden is already there, waiting, pacing, halfway through the first glass of scotch. Or maybe his second. He doesn't look drunk, just lit from within by something far more combustible.
The heavy door thuds closed behind me.
I move toward the couch, legs like lead, trying to gather my thoughts into something coherent.
"Sit," Asher says, nodding at the cushions like I'm a civilian being debriefed.
I sit.
This is familiar territory—two vampires, two different approaches, me caught in the middle. Only this time, they're not trying to decide whether I'm a threat.
This time, I've already hurt them both.
Asher stands in front of me, arms folded behind his back, spine like a steel rod, expression carved from frost. A soldier waiting for the intel drop. Or a confession.
Kayden, meanwhile, is draped against the drink counter, dangerous in his casual sprawl. His smirk isn't the playful one I've grown to expect. Instead, it's laced with venom, brittle and sharp.
"All right," he says, raising his glass in a mock toast. "Let's hear it. The fairytale romance of the runaway nymph and the demonic deer king."
"Kayden—"
He cuts me off. "To the bride-to-be," he adds, voice dripping with poison.
"Never got a chance to congratulate you.
Should I bring a gift? Bouquet? Maybe a diamond-studded blade, since stabbing people in the back seems to be your thing.
Are we invited to the wedding, or is it more of a bloodline-only affair? "
"Kayden, I—" I try.
But he continues, the words pouring out of him in a torrent of frustration and fury. "You know, I got to admit, I didn't see this coming—you being royal-engaged to a sadistic satyr kingpin? It's so Shakespearean." His voice carries a sarcastic edge but I can feel the hurt he's trying not to show.
My mouth opens, but nothing comes out at first. The words are there, they just can't get past the weight in my chest.
"I was going to tell you," I manage. "I didn't plan for any of this to happen. With you. With him showing up. I thought I had time. I didn't know how—"
"You didn't know how we'd react," Asher says, his voice cold enough to hurt. "That's what this comes down to, doesn't it? You didn't trust us to handle the truth. You let us fight for you. Bleed for you. But you never told us who we were protecting you from."
My heart twists. "It wasn't like that."
Kayden laughs. A single, dry, bitter bark.
"Wasn't it?" He paces closer, glass in hand, eyes gleaming with the same rage I saw outside.
"What are we, Sage? A detour? A distraction while you play rebel on the run?
We thought we mattered, while all this time, you were betrothed to the bastard you claimed to fear. "
Kayden drains the glass and pours another, hand steady, jaw clenched. He offers the bottle to Asher, who doesn't even glance at it.
Kayden snorts. "Right. Of course. Colonel's too focused for liquor. Got to plan the next strategy, right? Like how to keep the bride safe from her own damn wedding."
I close my eyes, swallowing hard.
"The way he held you," Asher says slowly, every word deliberate. "The way he looked at you, that was… familiarity. Intimacy. The engagement wasn't against your will."
It's not a question.
I inhale sharply, trying not to splinter under the weight of their judgment. My gaze drops to the floor. I can't meet his eyes. Not when I'm about to hand him the truth like a knife to the chest.
"I said yes to him willingly," I whisper.
"Darius was… my mentor first. At a time when I didn't know what I was, when I thought I was going mad.
He taught me about my nature, gave me a place, a role, something that felt like belonging.
He cared. At least, I thought he did. And over time, over a few years, it… grew into something more."
"Years," Asher echoes flatly.
His jaw tightens, his posture unchanging. But I see the flicker behind his eyes. The calculation. The comparison. We've had weeks. Darius had years.
There's a silence, stretched and fraying.
"A mentor turned lover. How charmingly cliché," Kayden bites out, his voice thick with acid. "Next thing you'll tell us is that he read you poetry by candlelight while training you to be his pretty little pawn."
His sarcasm is cruel, but underneath it, I hear the break, the crack in his foundation.
"I thought what we had was real, Sage," Kayden says, quieter now.
"What we were building here. You and me.
You and my brother. Us. It was messy, yeah.
But it was real. Raw. And now I feel like I've been cast in someone else's fucking fantasy.
Just the reckless side character you sleep with on your way back to the hero. "
"No," I say, my voice stronger this time. "It is real. What's between us. All of it."
He gives me a scornful look over the rim of his glass. "Really? 'Cause from where I'm standing, looks like I was just the local detour while you hid from your monster prince."
I press a hand to my chest, forcing breath into lungs that feel too tight. "It wasn't supposed to happen like this. I didn't plan any of this. I didn't plan for you. Hell, I thought you were going to kill me the first night, Kayden."
He doesn't flinch.
"I didn't know I'd care. I didn't know it would matter so much."
Asher steps closer, tone even colder. "Then why didn't you tell us? Were you planning to run again?"
The question lands like a blade through my center. It's what Darius said too—when things get real, I bolt.
"No," I say, my voice cracking with sincerity. "I wasn't going to run. I stayed. I chose to stay. I was hoping I had more time. That Darius wouldn't find me so soon. That I could tell you everything once it felt safe."
Asher's gaze is steel. "And what made you run in the first place? Was it really about their methods? Or was it about him?"
"It was both," I admit, rubbing the crystal on my neck. "I left because of what I discovered about the organization. They were doing things I couldn't be part of. And because of the satyr influence, I didn't know if what I felt for him was real or something he created."
Kayden stares at me like he's trying to solve a puzzle that keeps rewriting itself. "So you had feelings for him. You loved him. Maybe still do."
I drag a hand over my face, exhausted and raw.
"It's not that simple. I thought I loved him.
But I think he manipulated me. Because he didn't just want me.
He wanted my power. Nymph magic is amplified when bound to a satyr, and he can tap into it.
Use it. I think that's what Darius was after all along—the power of a nymph that wasn't born into this world, but was made. "
"How did you find out?" Asher asks, voice sharp. "Was that in the files you hacked?"
I shake my head. "No. Another nymph told me. One I trusted. She said Darius had a wife before me. Also a nymph. She died under mysterious circumstances."
Their silence is deafening.
I push off the couch, standing before them, desperate, trembling at the edge of everything breaking.
"I know I should've told you. I'm sorry.
I was going to. I was... scared. Everything between us happened so fast. So much, all at once.
And I didn't know how you'd see me after that.
After him." I inhale shakily. "And now it's all just—"
"A fairytale fucked up mess," Kayden interrupts.
"Yeah. We're the vampire prince saviors, huh?
The getaway drivers. The distraction. Are we supposed to be grateful for the privilege?
" His smirk is venom. "Do you even want to be saved?
Or is this just a tragic love story where you're torn between the bad guys and the worse guy? "
The words sting. I step forward, standing my ground.
"No, Kayden. That's not it. And I'll remind you that I tried to escape you first. I didn't want to stay here.
I didn't want to drag you all into this hell.
I was trying to protect you. But I will make it right," I continue, breath trembling.
"If I go to him, he'll leave all of you alone. "
There's a sharp crack. The glass in Kayden's hand explodes. Crimson drips from his palm. He doesn't flinch. Neither does Asher, though his jaw is locked so tight I swear I hear the sound of grinding teeth.
They speak in unison, raw, guttural, final: "No way."
Kayden's laugh is humorless. "So what's the plan, sweetheart?
" he says, stepping closer, glass crunching beneath his boots.
"You go back to him in your white dress, bow your head like a good little bride, and pretend none of this happened?
That you didn't matter to us? That we didn't happen?
" He's close enough that I can smell the blood trickling down his hand.
"You might not have noticed, but I don't do sidelines.
I don't stand back while someone I care about walks into fire thinking it's some kind of savior act. "
Asher cuts in, measured, cold, but just as fierce. "You're trying to protect us. I get it. But we're not the ones who need saving right now. You are." His gaze sharpens, drilling into mine. "Unless... you want to go back to him. Fix things."
"No," I say immediately. "But I can't let you or anyone else get hurt because of me.
And now… now that you know the whole truth, I'm not sure you'll trust me anymore.
I broke something. I'm aware of that. And I don't know if you can forgive me.
" My voice catches. "So if going with him means he leaves you alone, then maybe that's the only way. "
I mean it. I see Eira's pale face, hear the echo of her scream. Death, she said. I can't let that prophecy unfold if I can stop it.
Kayden snarls at that. "Trust isn't something I give away, Sage. You're right about that. And yeah, you screwed up. But you think throwing yourself at him like some noble martyr is going to make it better? That's not redemption. That's stupidity."
I press a hand over my chest. "You can't fight him. You saw what he did out there. He made you all burn. You couldn't even touch him."
I look between them, begging them to understand, but what I see in Kayden's eyes is wildfire, and in Asher's is all steel and cold, an immovable resolution.
"I promised you protection," Asher says, his voice low and clear. "And I will keep my word, Sage. We protect our own here. We'll figure it out. Even men like him have weaknesses." His gaze sharpens. "Unless you don't want that."
His question twists something deep inside me.
Do I want Darius dead?
No.
I meet Asher's eyes anyway. "I don't want to be with him. But going back might be the most sensible option for everyone's safety."
The moment the words leave my mouth, Kayden hurls his new glass across the room. It explodes against the wall in a rain of amber and shards.
"The hell it is."
He strides toward me, furious and feral, every step radiating that dangerous, obsessive edge I've come to know too well.
"You're not going back to that manipulative bastard. Not to his power games, not to his gang of enchanted forest freaks, not to some fucked up silver-platter ritual where you hand yourself over and help him grow stronger."
He's close, his eyes flicking to my lips, then back to my face. I feel the pull between us, wild and visceral. The kiss he wants to give. The one I want. But he doesn't.
Instead, he steps back, like it physically hurts to do it, and storms out, slamming the door so hard the frame trembles.
Silence falls, loud and ringing.
I turn to Asher, who's standing in the same position. The cold to Kayden's fire, but just as dangerous in his stillness.
"You're angry," I say softly. Not a question.
His eyes don't leave mine. "I asked you not to lie to me," he says. "You did anyway."
"I didn't lie. I just..." I falter. "I didn't tell you everything."
"Half-truths," he says, voice clipped. "You asked Darius not to twist things. I expect the same courtesy."
That one lands. Shame surges like a tidal wave, dragging me under.
Asher exhales slowly and steps toward the door.
"We will protect you, Sage. But if we're going to have any chance, you need to tell us everything—what you know about Darius, his team, their powers, their weaknesses.
No more secrets. No more excuses. Once the others regroup, it's your turn to show us that you're on our side. "
He opens the door. No slammed exit. Just silence and a deeper kind of hurt.
I'm left standing there, alone in a room filled with broken glass and broken trust.