Yue-Senn POV

The freezing mountain wind cut like shattered glass as I dismounted my horse. We had ridden hard into the visual nightmare known as the Hollow—a frozen, desolate region where the town is mostly filled with soldiers and villagers of the dead. Higher up on the peaks, the twisted figures of the undead were already crawling down from the frost, eagerly seeking flesh meat to devour.

I ignored them, my eyes tracking upward toward the massive structure looming over the frozen lake.

It was the towering castle. Its spires pierced the snowy sky, entirely isolated by the brutal winter wilderness. The fortress was supposed to be completely dormant. It was meant to be a tomb for a man who knew too much, my uncle.

As I breached the heavy iron door, a sharp, echoes of high-pitched moaning and desperate screaming bounced off the frozen stone walls.

I stopped dead in my tracks, my jaw tightening as I slowly turned an irritated, glare toward Ki-ri.

"What the hell is this? Did you seriously bring in maids just to make him comfortable?"

Ki-ri’s expression didn’t even flicker. He stood perfectly straight. "I did no such thing, Master."

I let out a heavy, sigh, the frustration burning hot in my chest. I kept walking, the soles of my boots clicking rhythmically against the stone floors until I finally reached the high-arched chambers where the sounds were originating. I swung the door open, the sight before me instantly triggering a wave of pure disgust.

My uncle was sitting back lazily in a plush chair, getting his cock sucked by a breathless woman. Right beside them on a pile of silks, two other women were passionately having sex with each other, completely unbothered, while he watched them and casually smoked from a silver pipe.

"My, my... look who we have here," my uncle sneered, slowly blowing a thick cloud of smoke into the chilly air. He didn’t even bother to cover himself.

"I didn’t think the newlywed king would find the time to come visit."

"You disgust me," I growled, my voice dropping into a dangerous tone. I didn’t look at him, keeping my eyes fixed on the ceiling.

"Ki-ri. Get them out."

Ki-ri stepped forward, his voice sharp and entirely void of emotion.

"All of you, stand up immediately and follow me."

The ladies let out a chorus of high-pitched giggles, slowly gathering their scattered, sheer clothes from the floor before scurrying past me out into the corridor, following closely behind Ki-ri’s form.

I leaned heavily against the stone doorframe, crossing my arms over my chest as I watched the door click shut.

"You are rapidly becoming an annoyance, Uncle."

"Oh, please," he mocked, casually standing up from his chair and adjusting his loose robes.

"I help you secure your little empire, and you decide to repay my loyalty by trying to have me slaughtered with that little dog you have following you around?"

"Me, Uncle?" I raised both of my hands up into the air, my tone dripping with a deeply sarcastic, biting innocence.

"I would do no such thing to my own flesh and blood."

His eyes narrowed. "You think you are so incredibly smart, boy. But what do you think is going to happen when your little wife finds out that everything... was all a fabricated lie?"

He didn’t even have the chance to finish the sentence. Moving with a blinding, speed that his eyes couldn’t even track, I vanished from the doorway. Before he could even register the shift in the air, he was dangling a few full foot off the stone floor, his legs kicking wildly as my large, hand clamped around his throat like a vice.

"She won’t," I whispered right into his face, my voice an absolute promise of death as my grip tightened, crushing his windpipe.

"Because you won’t be alive to tell her a single thing."

I violently threw his body across the chamber. He crashed hard into the solid stone wall, before he crumpled to the floor, coughing and clutching his bruised throat.

"Don’t... don’t you think..." he wheezed out, gasping desperately for air as he looked up at me with a pathetic, fearful glare.

"Don’t you think your precious wife might wonder where her dear father-in-law is?"

Before I could unleash another blow, the shadows in the corner of the room shifted. Ki-ri appeared seamlessly out of the darkness, his eyes scanning.

"He has a valid point, Master," Ki-ri interjected smoothly. I snapped my head toward him.

"Whose side are you on exactly, Ki-ri?"

"Yours, always," he replied without a hint of fear. "But he is correct. At some point, the queen will begin to ask questions, and she will wonder where he is."

I took a deep, centering breath, deliberately flattening the lapels of my tailored black suit jacket to regain my composure. I looked down at my uncle, who was still groveling on the floor like a dog, but the sheer arrogance radiating from his eyes made my blood boil all over again.

Suddenly, my uncle’s eyes glowed with a sharp, cutting green light. He unleashed a vvortex of wind magic, shattering the glass windows and sending deadly shards flying straight at my face.

I didn’t even flinch. My own power awakened instantly. I manipulated the dark matter in the room, the shadows violently rising from the floor rugs like living tendrils to form a solid, pitch-black shield that completely swallowed his wind attack whole.

Before his wind could reset, I lunged forward, I drove my fist directly into his jaw, the solid, sickening crack echoing through the room. I followed with a brutal knee straight to his gut, sending him crashing back down to the floor, coughing up fresh, dark blood onto the stone. I stepped heavily onto his chest, pinning him down as the darkness wrapped around his limbs, rendering his magic completely useless.

"Listen to me very carefully," I hissed, looking down at his broken form.

"You stay alive only because it suits my goal. Do not test me again."

I wrenched my boot off his chest, turning my back on him as I walked toward the door. I looked at Ki-ri, my voice flat.

"Find someone to guard him that he can’t actively fuck. Or give him enough heavy drugs to keep him completely subdued. I want eyes on him at all times."

"Understood, Master," he bowed.

I walked out of the freezing castle, the suffocating secrets of this world pressing down on my chest like a ton of bricks. My hands were still tingling from the violence, the dark, monstrous side of my nature threatening to take complete control.

I need my wife, the desperate, possessive thought echoed through my mind.

I mounted my horse, digging my spurs into its sides as we broke into a frantic, unhinged gallop away from the Hollow. I was rushing, pushing the horse to its absolute limits to head straight back to her side. I was completely craving her. I needed the sweet, calming scent of her skin, the breathtaking beauty of her smile, and the gentle, grounding touch of her hands to wash away the blood on mine.