The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 126

Chapter 126: Fear-Jacked, Fae-Cracked, & Fucking Four AM

Serena’s eyes opened to blood.

Not hers. Maelor Vantheos was standing over her, and a thin line of red tracked from his left nostril to his upper lip. His mismatched eyes were glowing, the green one bright as foxfire, the gold one burning like a coin held over a flame.

She looked down. Her hands, her arms, the skin visible above her collar, all of it was glowing a soft, steady pink. Not gold. Pink.

Her pulse spiked.

Dex’s hands were on her before she could do anything. One cupped the back of her head, the other pressed flat against her spine, and he pulled her into him with the kind of force that said he’d been standing on the edge of something terrible for however long she’d been out.

His mouth found her temple. Her forehead. The crown of her hair. Not kisses, exactly. More like confirmation. Like he was checking that she was still here.

His breathing was fast.

"I’m okay," Serena murmured against his chest.

He didn’t answer. His hand tightened in her hair.

"Welcome back," Gav said. "You missed Dex threatening a Master Mage, Alaric pretending he wasn’t worried, and me being the only emotionally stable person in the room. Rough night for everyone."

He was standing by the far wall with his arms crossed, and the look on his face was the one he wore when he was pretending something hadn’t scared him.

When Dex finally released her enough that she could turn her head, she looked at Maelor. The blood was still there, drying now. She studied his face, trying to determine which was more likely: that Dex had hit him while she was unconscious, or that whatever Maelor had done to her had cost him something physical.

"Magic," Maelor said. "The Dragon Prince’s restraint was ... adequate."

"Barely," Alaric muttered from his desk.

Dex said nothing. His hand was still on the back of Serena’s neck, his thumb tracing a slow line below her ear. Grounding himself more than her.

Maelor pulled a cloth from his robes and pressed it to his nose with the casual indifference of a man who’d bled for his work before. He stayed in common tongue when he spoke next, and Serena noted the choice.

"You are Shadow-Tethered," he said. "To the High Emperor of Orosia."

"Shadow-Tethering is a form of Dark Fae magic. It creates a parasitic link between two souls, anchored through the shadow plane. The tethered party becomes visible to the anchor. If it progresses audible to the anchor. And in advanced stages, legible."

He paused, letting that land.

"He can hear your thoughts, Your Highness. Not all of them yet. But the ones that carry strong emotion, fear, anger, grief, those bleed through the tether like light through a crack."

Serena felt Dex’s hand go rigid against her neck.

"The less the Emperor knows," Maelor continued, "the better. For now, I’ve placed a temporary cloak over the tether. He cannot hear you at this moment. But cloaking is not severing. It is a curtain, not a wall."

"Can you sever it?" Dex asked, forcing his voice calm.

Maelor held his gaze. "Possibly. But not alone. And not tonight. Every shadow-tethering is unique and is a puzzle. I will need to research."

Gav shifted against the wall. "So the ghost emperor who stabbed me with a fireplace tool has been reading her mind."

"Selectively," Maelor said. "But yes. She was afraid, and he fed on that."

"Great. That’s great. I feel very safe."

Maelor ignored him and turned back to Serena. His expression changed to more focused. The way a craftsman looks at material he didn’t expect to find.

"The tether binds to you as deeply as it does because of what you carry underneath your dominant magical signature. You have Fae magic in you. I sensed it when I drew it forward earlier."

He gestured at her hands, where the pink glow had faded.

"Your gold isn’t Mage, but it does operate as such. The pink is Fae."

Serena stared at him.

"Fae magic operates differently than Mage magic," Maelor continued. "Mage magic is structured and logical. Fae magic is emotion-driven and seeks out other Fae magic instinctively. Like calls to like. The Shadow Tether exploited that. It found the Fae in you and latched on."

"I don’t know how to use Fae magic," Serena said.

"No. You don’t. Which is part of the problem and, eventually, part of the solution." He studied her for a moment. "I am part Fae and part Mage. It is why Alaric called me, and it is why I could see what I saw tonight. Hyran Thornfell trusts me, if that matters to you."

"It does," Serena said.

Something crossed Maelor’s face. Surprise, maybe. Or the faint recognition of someone who understood that trust, in their world, was currency that couldn’t be counterfeited.

Serena looked at the spines. Cognitive Sealing & Operculum: Magical Disciplines. And beside it, Neural Cryptography: Advanced Operculum Theory.

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