The night of my birth was unlike any other.
My mother told me that even though it was midnight, the sky burned gold as if the sun had risen ahead of its time. Flowers bloomed under the eerie glow, their petals unfurling to greet a phantom dawn. The wind carried the songs of the forest animals, their howls and chirps harmonizing in a haunting melody. It was as if the world itself rejoiced at the arrival of two new lives.
One was my brother, Cassian.
The other was me.
The midwife gasped when she saw the marks etched into our newborn skin. A curling vine on Cassian's right forearm, a mark of the Earth Elemental. A swirling tide on my left shoulder, unmistakably Water. My father, General Cassius Valeria—the very man tasked with eliminating female elementals—stood frozen as the midwife's hands trembled. She opened her mouth to announce the impossible truth, but before a single word could escape, a dagger buried itself in her throat.
My father had always been decisive.
My mother's strangled sob was muffled by the thick blankets wrapped around me. Cassian wailed in his crib, but I was silent, staring with wide, unknowing eyes at the life that had just been taken. Blood dripped onto the wooden floors of our chambers, mingling with the fragrant oils of my birth.
No one else could know.
"She was a traitor," my father declared when the guards stormed in moments later. "She tried to kill my son."
A convincing lie, delivered with the cold detachment of a man who had slaughtered countless enemies on the battlefield. No one questioned him. No one dared.
From that moment on, my existence was a carefully constructed deception.
For the first year of my life, I was hidden, my mother keeping me nestled in the darkness of our estate while my brother was paraded before the court as the next great warrior of Eldoria. The kingdom revered male Elementals, seeing them as gifts from the gods. They were protectors, conquerors. Women like me? We weren't supposed to exist.
When I turned one, my parents unveiled me as the orphaned daughter of a distant relative, taken in by the Valeria family out of mercy. I was given a place, a name, a purpose that would never be my own.
Selene Valeria, the quiet shadow of my brother.
A girl with no magic.
A girl who was nothing.
But my father made sure that was never true.
Cassian and I trained together from the moment we could stand. He was stronger, heavier, built for war, but I was faster. My mother taught me alchemy, my father combat, and my own stolen moments in the underground lake hidden beneath our home taught me control over my forbidden power. I learned how to summon water from the very air, how to wield it like a blade, how to hide the marks that branded me an abomination.
I was a secret, but I was not weak.
And one boy in particular had always known it.
Ronan Everhart, heir to the throne, was a force of destruction even as a child. Fire and Earth burned through his veins, making him a warrior unmatched by anyone his age. He trained with Cassian, sparring with brutal efficiency, but he always knew when I was near.
He would look at me from the corner of his eye, his lips curling in amusement when I tried to hide in the shadows. When he was feeling cruel, he would call me out in front of the other trainees.
"Selene, what's the point of watching if you're never going to fight?"
I would glare at him. "Maybe I don't find you worth my time."
He would grin. "Liar."
He wasn't wrong.
I hated Ronan Everhart.
I hated his arrogance, the way he never seemed to struggle the way I did. I hated that he could wield his power freely while I had to live in fear of my own.
But more than anything, I hated that he fascinated me.
He was reckless, always pushing too hard, too fast, testing the limits of what his body could endure. He thrived in chaos, where fire and fury reigned supreme. And yet, whenever he got too close, whenever he towered over me with those burning golden eyes, I felt like I was the one losing control.
I was fifteen when I realized the worst of it—I wanted him.
It was stupid. Reckless. I had spent my life avoiding attention, making myself small, unnoticeable. But he noticed me anyway. He always did.
And then, one day, everything changed.
Ronan was eighteen, on the verge of stepping into his role as Crown Prince, when I saw the way he looked at me shift. It wasn't just amusement or curiosity anymore. It was hunger.
"Selene," he murmured one night when he found me alone in the gardens. The way he said my name sent a shiver down my spine.
I turned, keeping my distance. "You shouldn't be here."
He took a step closer. "Neither should you."
I clenched my fists, forcing myself to remember why I had to stay away from him. "You don't know anything about me, Ronan."
His golden eyes burned through me. "I know enough."
My breath caught. Because I realized then—he knew.
He had always known.
The thought terrified me. If he ever revealed my secret, it wouldn't just be my life at stake. My family had killed to protect me. If the truth ever got out, they would all burn alongside me.
But Ronan never said a word.
For years, he let me pretend I was nothing.
Until the day he decided to remind me exactly what I was.
And that was the beginning of the end.
Because Ronan Everhart always got what he wanted.
And for some twisted reason, he wanted me.