The academy slept.
But the shadows did not.
Under the oldest courtyard—the one students avoided without knowing why—the darkness pulsed like a heartbeat.
Slow.
Hungry.
Awake.
Something moved within it.
Not a creature.
Not a spirit.
Something worse.
A presence shaped like a man… but wrong.
Too quiet.
Too aware.
Too intent.
He stepped out of the shadows like he was born from them, the darkness clinging to his body as if begging him not to leave.
His voice slid through the abandoned courtyard—low, decadent, poisonous.
"They touched him again."
The shadows tightened.
"They stood too close to him."
The stone under his boots cracked.
His head tilted back, sensing Elior's faint magical warmth from the distant elite dormitory towers.
His smile was soft.
Beautiful.
Terrifying.
"My little light…"
His words were a murmur wrapped in devotion and threat.
He breathed in, slow and dangerous, like inhaling Elior's magic from miles away.
"And someone—"
a pause, voice dropping deeper,
"—someone thinks they have the right to reach for what belongs to me."
The shadows trembled like frightened animals.
He laughed—quiet, elegant, unhinged.
"How greedy."
Another soft laugh.
"How stupid."
His fingers dragged along the stone pillar beside him, and the stone burned black beneath his touch.
"Kael."
He spoke the name gently—
too gently.
The kind of gentle that meant violence.
"You think you can keep him?"
The shadows around him hissed and coiled, reacting to his mood like loyal beasts ready to kill.
"No."
His voice dropped to a whisper that could cut through bone.
"No one keeps him."
Another pause.
Slow.
Possessive.
Certain.
"Elior is mine."
he wind stilled.
Even the night held its breath.
He stepped forward, the shadows moving with him like a cape of living darkness.
"I waited years."
His tone was a confession wrapped in mania.
"Watched him grow. Watched him laugh. Watched him walk away from me every year I came to see him."
His eyes glowed like dying stars.
"I was patient…"
A sigh—sad, aching, obsessive.
"…until patience became impossible."
His smile widened, soft and cruel, like a lover imagining a kidnapping.
"Because someone else found him."
A hum of annoyance.
"Someone powerful enough to touch what I marked as mine long before he ever did."
He shook his head once, shadows swirling.
"I can't let that continue."
He stepped into the moonlight—
revealing nothing and everything.
Tall.
Graceful.
Elegant.
A nightmare carved into the shape of a prince.
"I'll enter the academy soon."
His voice was a promise and a threat.
"Before he gets any closer. Before he ruins something that belongs only to me."
The shadows pressed closer, eager, ready.
His final whisper curled like a blade dipped in honey:
"Elior…
wait for me."
And then he disappeared—
melting into darkness so deep it swallowed the moonlight whole.
The predator had chosen his prey.
The academy simply didn't know yet.
Morning light spilled through the academy halls like gold threads trying to stitch warmth into the air.
But Elior felt none of it.
His sleep had been restless—
voices he didn't recognize,
shadows humming his name,
a cold breath ghosting down his spine—
But he brushed it off.
Just tired.
Just imagining things.
He walked toward Class , rubbing his eyes—
And then the air broke.
Kael turned the corner.
Not rushing.
Not storming.
Just appearing—
like gravity had bent around him and pulled him into existence.
The hallway reacted instantly:
Lanterns flickered.
Rune panels dimmed.
Conversations died mid-sentence.
Students instinctively stepped back, creating a path without being told.
Kael didn't even look at them.
His eyes were locked on Elior.
And Elior noticed immediately:
Kael wasn't calm.
He was fractured.
His pupils blown wide, like his darkness was swallowing the color from his eyes.
His jaw tight, holding back something feral.
His magic leaking in sharp pulses—quiet, violent thuds—like a beast kicking from under his skin.
Elior froze.
"K-Kael…?"
The sound of his name made Kael exhale—
slow, trembling—
as if Elior's voice forced air into lungs that refused to breathe.
Kael stepped closer.
Not in threat.
Not in haste.
Just in inevitability.
Every other student took another three steps back.
Elior didn't move.
Kael stopped right in front of him.
Not touching.
But close enough that Elior felt heat rolling off him in waves.
Kael's voice was low, rough, shredded at the edges.
"Did anyone come near you this morning?"
Elior blinked.
"Uh—no?"
Kael leaned in a fraction more.
He wasn't breathing right.
"Did anyone touch you?"
"What—? No, Kael, what's wro—"
Kael's hand shot up—
—then froze.
Suspended in the air between them, fingers trembling violently.
He wasn't stopping himself from touching Elior.
He was stopping himself from grabbing him.
His voice dropped to a dangerous whisper.
"You're scared of something."
Elior stiffened.
"What? Kael, I—"
"Not me."
Kael's eyes softened—dark, unbearably intense.
"You're scared of something else. Something that doesn't get to have you."
His gaze drifted across the hallway—
sharp, searching, hunting—
as if sensing a presence only he could feel.
His jaw locked so tight Elior heard the click of teeth.
Magic crackled around Kael's wrist, thin black sparks snapping like they wanted to ignite.
Elior stepped back, worried.
"Kael… breathe."
"I can't," Kael whispered.
The honesty hit like a blade.
"I couldn't last night. Or this morning. Or now."
His breath shook.
"Every time I imagine you walking somewhere without me, I—"
He cut himself off.
His hand dropped from the air, fingers curling into a fist so tight it shook.
Elior's voice softened.
"Kael… what is happening to you?"
Kael swallowed hard.
He didn't answer the question.
Instead, he said something far worse, far more honest:
"Your absence hurts."
The hallway froze again.
Elior felt warmth crawl up his throat, confused and shaken.
"K-Kael—"
For a split second, Kael's eyes flashed with faint golden rings—
not supernatural, not awakened—
just instinctive, possessive, primal focus.
He was fighting something—
Not a creature.
Not another entity.
Just himself.
His restraint.
His craving.
His need.
All of it reacting to one person—
Elior.
Kael stepped back abruptly—like distance was the only thing keeping him sane.
"Come," he rasped.
"I'm taking you to class."
"You always do—"
"Today," Kael cut in, voice soft but terrifyingly final,
"you're not walking alone."
The gentleness in his words
was sharper than any threat.
Elior opened his mouth to argue—
But then Kael looked at him.
Really looked.
With hunger.
With fear.
With devotion sharpened into obsession.
Elior's breath stilled.
He nodded.
Kael's shoulders loosened—barely.
He kept a careful distance as they walked, every step slow, controlled, like he was wrestling something inside him.
But the moment someone stood too close to Elior—
even by accident—
Kael's aura flared like a blade unsheathed.
Cold.
Deadly.
Claiming.
Stay away.
He's mine.
Elior tried not to notice.
But everyone else did.
Because Kael wasn't just protective.
He was unraveling.
And the unraveling was accelerating.
Classroom buzzed faintly as students settled in.
Papers shifted.
Chairs scraped.
Murmurs filled the air.
But Elior sat quietly, Kael in the seat beside him—close, tense, vibrating with a barely contained instinct that made everyone else sit two rows away.
Kael hadn't spoken since they entered.
He didn't need to.
His presence alone kept the room frozen.
Then—
The door opened.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
Just a simple click of the handle.
But it changed the temperature of the entire room.
A ripple went through the students—
like someone had walked in carrying a storm.
Instructor Vellin straightened immediately.
"Class," he said, voice uncharacteristically formal,
"We have a new student joining today."
The students exchanged glances.
Kael didn't move.
He simply lifted his eyes—slowly—like a predator acknowledging another presence in his territory.
Then Aevrin walked in.
And the world… shifted.
He didn't enter like a student.
He entered like a heir walking through his own coronation.
Tall.
Elegant.
Beautiful in a way that felt crafted, not born.
Hair a soft silver-gold that caught every shard of light.
Eyes a cold, calculating jade that missed nothing.
His posture—relaxed, confident, effortless—carried an aura that made the room straighten without knowing why.
Some girls gasped.
Some boys stared.
Everyone felt something tighten in their chest.
This boy didn't walk.
He arrived.
For a moment, silence stretched.
Aevrin scanned the class—
Uninterested.
Bored.
Detached.
Until his eyes landed on Elior.
The effect was instant.
His entire expression softened—just a fraction, just enough to be terrifying.
Like he'd found something he'd been waiting for.
Students whispered.
Kael didn't whisper.
He stared.
The air between Kael and Aevrin thickened instantly—
sharp, silent, deadly.
Two storms colliding with one fragile boy in the middle.
Instructor Vellin continued, oblivious:
"Aevrin comes from the Northern Dominion. He has achieved the highest ranking in—"
Aevrin cut him off with a quiet, gentle voice:
"Where should I sit?"
His gaze didn't leave Elior.
Not for a second.
Instructor Vellin followed his eye line.
"Oh—there's an empty seat beside Elior—"
Before he finished, Kael's chair scraped violently against the floor.
The entire class jumped.
Kael didn't stand.
He didn't speak.
He simply placed a hand on the back of the empty chair beside Elior—
claiming it with nothing more than touch.
A quiet threat.
Aevrin paused.
Then he smiled.
It wasn't a friendly smile.
It was the kind a prince gives a general before war.
Polite.
Deadly.
Promising victory.
He stepped forward.
"Ah," Aevrin said softly, eyes landing on Kael's hand,
"So this seat is taken."
Kael's voice came out cold, soft, lethal.
"No."
Aevrin arched a brow.
"No?"
"It's not taken."
Kael tilted his head slightly.
"It's reserved."
"For whom?" Aevrin asked, though his eyes already knew.
Kael didn't blink.
"For someone who isn't you."
Aevrin's smile widened—slow, deliciously dangerous.
"Mm. Possessive."
Kael's jaw twitched, a vein ticking in his neck.
Elior whispered, "Kael, please—"
Both boys turned to him.
At the same time.
Elior froze.
Aevrin's voice was honey-smooth.
"I didn't know Elior had someone to guard him."
Kael's answer was a blade.
"He doesn't."
Aevrin's eyes glimmered.
"Then why are you standing like a wall?"
Kael leaned closer, but his eyes never left Aevrin.
"Because walls keep things out."
"And what if," Aevrin murmured, stepping closer too, "I intend to come in anyway?"
Their faces were inches apart.
Magic pressed against magic—
silent, suffocating, territorial.
Two storms circling one fragile center—
Elior.
Students held their breath.
The instructor slowly backed away.
Aevrin finally stepped toward another seat—
not because he lost,
but because he was choosing patience over confrontation.
He sat down across the room—
in a place where he had a perfect, unobstructed view of Elior.
Kael noticed.
Aevrin met his eyes.
Smiled again.
And Kael's fingers curled into fists under the desk.
Elior's heartbeat stuttered.
Because he understood something terrifying:
Kael was already losing control.
And Aevrin…
Aevrin had every intention of taking full advantage of that.
The room buzzed with break‑time chatter, but around Kael and Elior's desk, the air was unnervingly still… like even sound refused to step close to Kael's aura.
Elior sat frozen beside him, still shaken from earlier.
Kael hadn't moved an inch—like a shadow carved into stone—eyes fixed forward, but every breath he took guarded Elior.
Then—
Aevrin stood.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
Just rose… and walked straight toward them with a steadiness that felt like a challenge.
He stopped directly in front of their desk.
Close.
Too close.
"Greetings, Elior," Aevrin said softly, his voice warm but laced with something sharp. "It's been a long time since I visited your home."
Elior blinked. He forced a polite, nervous smile.
"H‑hi… Aevrin."
Kael's jaw flexed.
Aevrin noticed.
Elior quickly added, trembling a little,
"H‑he's my cousin… please don't misunderstand…"
Aevrin's eyes glimmered.
"Oh, I know," he murmured. "I am his family."
Then, with a sharp pivot, he looked at Kael.
"And you are…?"
Kael answered without hesitation, voice calm, cold, unblinking:
"I am his—"
He paused.
Not searching for a word… but choosing one deliberately.
"…his Keeper."
A word that sounded ancient, possessive, unbreakable.
Aevrin's smile faltered for a heartbeat—surprise flickering like a spark.
Then he laughed under his breath.
"Keeper? How devoted."
Kael didn't blink.
"How unfortunate for anyone who tries to get close."
Aevrin leaned slightly forward, eyes narrowing.
"So protective… but tell me—why build such a tall wall around him?"
Kael finally turned his head, slowly, dangerously.
"Because wolves roam this world.
Wolves who hunt anything soft."
His hand curled subtly closer to Elior's sleeve.
"And so… I built a wall strong enough that no one can climb it…
see through it…
or get even a breath near him."
Aevrin's smile sharpened.
"Oh? A wall? How troublesome."
He tilted his head, voice velvety and vicious.
"Then I'll break it.
If not break it, I'll climb it.
If not climb it, I'll dig under it…"
His eyes slid to Elior.
"…until I reach the little rabbit hiding behind it."
Elior froze.
Kael's aura flared—dark, crushing, near-violent.
"The walls," Kael said quietly,
"aren't normal stone.
They're built with my entire strength…
and something far darker than strength."
He leaned in, breath cold.
"And I am the Black Tiger guarding that rabbit."
Aevrin didn't back away.
Instead, he whispered:
"Then perhaps…"
His smile widened, slow and wicked.
"…I'll take the Black Tiger and the little rabbit."
Both Elior and Kael stiffened.
A shock slicing through the air.
Aevrin straightened calmly.
"Oh, right. Elior—your parents asked me to visit home with you today."
His voice was honey-sweet.
"Shall we go together after class?"
Elior shook his head immediately.
"I… I'll go on my own—"
Kael cut in, eyes blazing.
"He won't go alone."
His voice dropped to a feral whisper.
"Not even a fly will follow him unless I permit it."
Aevrin's expression softened into something terrifyingly pleased.
"Oh, Kael…"
he murmured,
"You're making this very, very interesting."
And Elior…
sat there, innocent and unaware that two predators were slowly tearing the world open for him.
— by Aurea;"Desire doesn't knock—it claws, devours, and lingers in the throat like a secret bite."