Noctyrr Valmorae
Title: High King of the Abyssal Crown
Vibe: Cold dominance, restraint, terrifying depth
Role: Power, destiny, inevitability — the one who waits
Caelum Thalassar
Title: Tide Prince of the Eastern Reaches
Vibe: Passionate, impulsive, fiercely protective
Role: Emotional anchor, physical desire, the one who feels first
Aerin POV
The scream ripped out of Aerin before she knew she was awake.
She jolted upright in bed, lungs burning, fingers digging into the thin cotton sheets as though they were water crushing down on her chest. Salt stung her tongue. Her ears rang—not with sound, but with pressure. With depth.
Something inside her was calling out.
No—answering.
Moonlight spilled through the narrow window of her childhood room, pale and harmless, illuminating familiar walls, the faded dresser, the faint crack in the ceiling she had stared at since she was a girl. Land. Solid. Safe.
Separate.
Her skin burned anyway.
Aerin gasped, pressing her palm against her sternum. Beneath it, the delicate spiral markings she had hidden all her life pulsed faintly, glowing through her skin in soft bioluminescent light.
Pain flared—sharp, sudden, intimate.
She cried out, folding over herself as something snapped tight inside her, like a cord drawn too far.
Images slammed into her mind.
The sea—roaring, fractured, wrong.
Two figures standing in the surf.
Caelum, eyes blazing, calling her name like it was the only word he knew.
Noctyrr, silent and terrible, watching her with a gaze that promised both salvation and ruin.
Between them, the water split.
Something ancient shifted beneath the waves.
Aerin screamed again, collapsing onto the floor as the vision shattered. Her hands struck wood—but when she looked down, it was wet sand clinging to her fingers.
She wasn't dreaming.
This was the Echo.
Her mother's voice surfaced in her memory, tight and fearful.
Never go too far from the sea.
Never let it awaken.
"You knew," Aerin whispered, tears spilling freely. "You knew this would happen."
Caelum Thalassar POV
The pain hit Caelum like a harpoon through the heart.
One moment he was standing before the Sea Council, enduring their endless warnings and veiled threats—the next, he was on his knees, a roar tearing from his throat as agony detonated in his chest.
Stone cracked beneath his claws.
The water around the chamber surged violently, slamming councilors back against the walls as Caelum gasped for breath that wouldn't come.
Blood streamed from where his fingers had torn into obsidian.
"Aerin," he rasped.
The bond burned—wild, frantic, screaming separation.
This wasn't longing.
This was wrong.
"The Echo," one of the elders whispered in horror.
Caelum dragged himself upright, eyes blazing silver-blue. "She's hurting."
He could feel it. Her fear clawed through him, raw and desperate, echoing through the bond until it made him feral.
"She's on land," he snarled. "Too far. Alone."
Across the chamber, the temperature dropped sharply.
Caelum turned just in time to see Noctyrr go utterly still.
Noctyrr Valmorae POV
Noctyrr did not cry out.
Pain coiled through him in cold, precise lines—controlled, devastating. His breath slowed by force of will even as frost veined across the chamber walls.
But beneath the pain was something far worse.
Fear.
Ancient. Rare. Unwelcome.
"She is in danger," Noctyrr said quietly.
The council froze.
"The Echo has awakened," he continued, voice deadly calm. "And it only does so when the Chosen is being torn apart."
Caelum was already moving, fury radiating from him like a storm. "I'm going to her."
"You won't survive long on land," a councilor protested.
Noctyrr turned, golden eyes darkening into something abyssal.
"Then neither will it," he said.
He felt it then—a presence stirring beyond the bond. Watching. Waiting.
Whatever followed Aerin onto land was not coincidence.
It was hunting.
Aerin POV
She didn't remember leaving the house.
Only the pull.
The sea drew her like gravity as Aerin stumbled through the trees, night air cold against her burning skin. The markings along her ribs and collarbone glowed brighter with every step, pulsing in rhythm with her heart.
She reached the shoreline just as the waves began to surge unnaturally high.
The water exploded.
Caelum broke the surface first, blood splashing into the surf as his transformation tore through him. He collapsed onto the sand, panting, agony wracking his body—then forced himself upright.
"No," Aerin breathed. "You can't—"
Noctyrr emerged moments later, controlled despite the cost, his presence bending the night around him. His gaze locked onto her instantly, unblinking.
Two kings.
On land.
For her.
Emotion crashed through Aerin so hard her knees buckled.
"You shouldn't be here," she whispered.
Caelum crossed the distance in seconds, grabbing her wrists, pulling her flush against him as though he could anchor her with touch alone.
"You're tearing us apart," he said fiercely. "The Echo nearly killed me."
Noctyrr stopped just short of them, towering, dominant, his restraint palpable. His hand rose, hesitated—then cupped her cheek with reverent precision.
"Your mother broke the vow to save you," he said softly. "But the cost has come due."
Aerin's breath hitched. "What vow?"
The air shifted.
Too late.
Converging POV
The attack came from the shadows—fast, distorted, wrong.
Caelum shoved Aerin behind him as claws tore into his side. Blood hit the sand, dark and shocking.
Aerin screamed.
Noctyrr unleashed the abyss.
Magic tore through the creature, its shriek cutting off abruptly—but more presences stirred beyond the treeline. The land itself felt poisoned, hostile.
"They'll keep coming," Caelum rasped. "She can't stay here."
"I don't want to choose," Aerin sobbed, clutching him. "I don't even understand what I am."
Noctyrr stepped closer, his voice low and absolute.
"You are the Echo-born," he said. "And whether you accept it or not—"
The sea surged violently behind them.
"You have already chosen."
Noctyrr wrapped an arm around Aerin as the bond flared brilliantly. Caelum took her other side, gripping her like he would never let go.
Together, they plunged into the water.
The moment the sea closed over her, relief flooded Aerin's body—power, warmth, belonging.
Far below, something ancient stirred.
The Chosen had returned.
And the depths remembered her.