Chapter 2 2. Chapter

Aurora

The distant, siren-like screams wiped the Sovereign’s cold composure off Elijah’s face in an instant. The icy blue in his eyes shifted into a darker shade of pure predator alertness. I could feel the air vibrating with the speed of his thoughts: he had failed at mind control—and now he had to flee from an unknown threat.

“You planned this, Sovereign?” I snapped, launching myself at him in fury. I still held the dagger in my hand. “Did you lure me here over some petty issue just so I’d become prey for your own kind?”

Elijah met my eyes for a heartbeat.

“Do not accuse me, Hunter. One thing is certain: they want you. For some reason. Because they definitely did not come for me. It seems that, for some unfathomable reason, I have become your only chance at escaping alive. I expect no gratitude, but I do expect silence.”

“Gratitude? Like hell I’ll ever thank you for anything. This is a damned obligation,” I shot back. But I was already moving toward the warehouse’s back exit. The dagger slammed against my thigh; I could feel how far I would—or wouldn’t—get without any elemental power to propel me.

Elijah caught up within seconds. The escape turned chaotic immediately, but his movements remained lethally efficient. He dragged me with him at a blistering speed, his hand gripping my arm with the force of a steel shackle. Sparks flickered where our skin met—not from friction, but from some forbidden, raw elemental chemistry that had pulsed between us since the moment I laid eyes on him. Hate and desire formed a compound so toxic it burned.

“Hurry, you foolish girl! Or do you plan to slow down the fanatics with your incomplete abilities?” he roared as he kicked open a metal door that shrieked under the force.

“At least I can run on my own damn legs—I’m not fused to some gilded throne!” I yanked my arm free, but he seized me again instantly, this time wrapping his hold around my waist. The sudden, possessive closeness of his body stole the breath from my lungs. His frame was granite-hard—and burning hot beneath that dark suit.

A sharp image flashed into my mind: Aurora the Outcast. My hair—my pride—the red cascade that had never blended into the Hunter Clan’s brown-black palette, now whipped wildly behind me. My green eyes cut through the darkness. I might have been magically weak, but my body was a monument carved by years of fighting. My flaws had shaped me into who I was.

“Why are they even after a nobody with no elemental power?” I pressed on, the questions helping distract me from the feel of his fingers digging into my back.

Elijah hesitated—briefly surprised.

“I don’t know. But if my own kind wants you, then for some mysterious reason, you’re of high importance. Perhaps your bloodline… perhaps your immunity. I can only assume this is blood-related, but that too is speculation.”

“And you’re just a well-dressed useless prop who failed the moment things got difficult,” I sneered, referencing his failed mind control. “Don’t forget—if it were up to you, I’d already be ash at your feet. My pointless human side is what keeps me alive, Sovereign.”

Elijah stopped, nearly pinning me against the wall. His icy gaze burned.

“Mention the failure again, and I swear I will strangle you with my bare hands before the fanatics ever reach us.” His voice was a low, dangerous thunder.

We reached a back loading area where Elijah had left a black, inconspicuous car hidden in the shadows. He flung the door open and barked:

“Get in. Now. Otherwise the fanatics will find us. Whoever they are, they do not want you alive. What they want, and what you want, does not matter right now. You’re getting in.”

I stared into his eyes. I saw no attempt at control there—only raw, ruthless necessity and something else beneath it—a predatory pull I didn’t yet understand. I climbed into the car. I kept my weapon against my thigh, a clear message that our alliance would last only as long as survival demanded.

Elijah slid into the driver’s seat. The air inside the cabin stretched tight like a drawn bow.

“Listen to me, hunter,” he said, and the word hunter sounded strange and suffocating on his tongue. “Whatever is inside you that grants this immunity—that might keep you alive. But alone, you won’t survive the night. My name is Elijah. And from this moment, this is our…” He hesitated, as though the words pained him. “…forced alliance. What is your name?”

“Aurora. But call me Rory,” I answered quietly, though the defiance still laced my voice. “But I won’t stay alive because you want me to. I decide that.”

As we drove into the dark maze of warehouses, I knew that the most dangerous battle of my life would not be against the fanatics.

It would be against this Sovereign whose body called to me even as his power repelled me—and whose hatred and attraction burned with the same intensity as the weapon I held in my hand.

Our fates had suddenly intertwined, but neither of us knew why.