Chapter 17

The King Never Sleeps

After the shared dream, things between Evelynn and Kael became significantly stranger.

Which was honestly impressive considering the situation was already deeply unreasonable.

Neither of them mentioned Lyriana the next morning.

Or the spear.

Or the overwhelming grief that nearly drowned Evelynn through the bond.

Instead, Kael disappeared into council meetings while Evelynn spent most of the day pretending she wasn’t emotionally haunted by a dead woman from three centuries ago.

Very healthy coping strategy.

By evening, Black Citadel had settled beneath another quiet snowfall. The palace corridors glowed softly with golden dragonfire lanterns while distant wind rattled the massive windows overlooking the cliffs.

Evelynn couldn’t sleep.

Again.

Partly because every time she closed her eyes, she remembered the look on Kael’s face when Lyriana appeared in the dream.

Not rage.

Not power.

Love.

The kind that destroys people when it dies.

That part unsettled her most.

Eventually frustration dragged her out of bed. Wrapped in a heavy cloak, she wandered quietly through the upper palace corridors while most of Black Citadel slept.

Or at least pretended to.

Dragons apparently operated on terrifyingly little rest.

The deeper into the palace she walked, the quieter everything became. No servants. No guards talking. Just wind outside and the distant crackling of dragonfire through enormous empty halls.

Then she felt it.

Not physically.

Through the bond.

Exhaustion.

Sharp. Heavy. Endless.

Kael.

Evelynn stopped walking immediately.

The feeling rolled through her chest like cold water. Not ordinary tiredness either. This felt older. Worn down. Like someone carrying too many years without ever setting them down.

Without really thinking about it, she followed the sensation.

The bond guided her through several silent corridors before finally leading toward an upper balcony overlooking the western cliffs.

Kael stood alone near the stone railing.

Of course he did.

Snow drifted slowly around him beneath pale moonlight while dragonfire burned low in massive iron braziers nearby. He wasn’t wearing royal armor tonight. Just dark clothes and a long black coat moving softly in the wind.

From behind, he looked strangely still.

Not relaxed.

Never relaxed.

Just… tired.

Evelynn stepped onto the balcony quietly. “You know normal people sleep at night.”

Kael didn’t turn around.

“I am not normal people.”

Fair.

She moved beside him at the railing and immediately regretted it because the wind up here was aggressive enough to qualify as assault.

“How long have you been awake?”

Silence.

That alone answered too much.

Evelynn frowned. “Kael.”

His jaw tightened slightly.

“A few days.”

She stared at him. “A few—”

“Dragons require less sleep.”

“That is not less sleep. That is a medical emergency.”

A faint shadow of amusement flickered across his face before disappearing again.

But the exhaustion remained.

Now that she stood close enough, Evelynn noticed details she’d missed before. The faint darkness beneath his eyes. The tension constantly held in his shoulders. The way his fingers occasionally flexed like he was fighting something beneath his skin.

The dragonfire in the nearby braziers suddenly flickered higher.

Unstable.

Reacting to him again.

Evelynn looked toward the flames. “The fire gets worse when you’re tired.”

Kael finally glanced sideways at her.

“Observant.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

“No,” he agreed quietly. “It rarely is.”

Snow continued drifting silently beyond the balcony while Black Citadel glowed far below them beneath scattered gold lights.

Evelynn studied him more carefully now.

“You haven’t slept since the dream.”

This time Kael didn’t answer at all.

Which was basically confirmation.

Her chest tightened slightly through the bond.

Not because she pitied him.

Because she could feel what the exhaustion was doing to him.

The dragon beneath his control was getting restless.

Hungry.

Agitated.

Like a storm pressing constantly against a locked door.

Evelynn leaned both elbows against the freezing railing. “You know, humans usually become unbearable after missing sleep for this long.”

Kael’s gaze remained on the mountains. “And dragons become dangerous.”

The honesty in his voice settled heavily between them.

A long silence followed before Evelynn asked quietly:

“What are you afraid will happen?”

Kael went completely still.

Then finally:

“You saw part of it already.”

The war.

The fire.

The bodies.

Evelynn swallowed slowly.

“That wasn’t your fault.”

The words left before she fully thought about them.

Kael looked at her sharply.

Not angry.

Worse.

Like he genuinely didn’t believe her.

“The bond lets you feel my emotions now,” he said quietly. “You know exactly what I became.”

Evelynn held his gaze. “I know you’re terrified of becoming it again.”

Something flickered across his expression then.

Pain maybe.

Or exhaustion too deep to hide anymore.

The dragonfire nearby pulsed suddenly brighter.

Kael closed his eyes briefly.

The flames calmed.

Evelynn watched the movement carefully.

“You’re doing that constantly, aren’t you?”

His eyes opened again slowly.

“Doing what?”

“Controlling it.”

Silence.

Then a quiet answer.

“Yes.”

Evelynn suddenly understood something that made her stomach twist.

The dragonfire wasn’t merely reacting to emotion.

Kael was actively suppressing it every second of every day.

No wonder he looked exhausted.

No wonder the palace feared his moods.

No wonder he never slept.

“How long?” she asked softly.

Kael’s voice came almost absent beneath the wind.

“Since the war.”

Three hundred years.

The realization hit hard enough to hurt.

Evelynn stared at him in disbelief. “You’ve been holding this together for three hundred years?”

Kael looked away toward the mountains again.

“There were periods where I failed.”

The words sounded simple.

But the grief beneath them through the bond felt unbearable.

Evelynn suddenly remembered the burning city from the dream.

The screams.

The destruction.

Oh.

Those were the failures.

For several long moments neither of them spoke.

Then quietly, without fully thinking it through, Evelynn reached toward him.

Her fingers brushed lightly against the back of his hand resting on the railing.

Warm immediately.

The bond reacted instantly too. Not violently this time. Just… softer. Like tension slowly easing beneath skin.

Kael froze.

So did the dragonfire.

Every flame on the balcony lowered at once.

Still.

Silent.

Kael looked down slowly at her hand touching his.

The exhaustion inside the bond eased slightly.

Not gone.

But quieter.

And for the first time since meeting him, Evelynn realized something terrifying:

The Dragon King didn’t stay awake because he couldn’t sleep.

He stayed awake because he was afraid of what the world might suffer if he finally let go.