The King feared his name; the Church condemned his existence; the entire, glittering machinery of Atheria pretended he did not exist. Yet, high in the ancient observatory tower that pierced the heart of Veridia, Lord Valerian Selwyn merely watched.
He was a man who contained multitudes—a forbidden composite. The blood of the Fae gave him eternal patience; the soul of the Demon gave him absolute command; the inherited gifts of Witch-kind granted him mastery of the elements; and the chill of the Vampire ran cold through his veins. He was an Abomination to every pure-blood society, and his resulting power—the precise extent of which was an enigma even to the oldest creatures—had earned him the silent title of The Prime Nexus.
He stood before a massive, polished obsidian scrying mirror, his silhouette tall and unnervingly still. Tonight, the focus of his terrifying, composite will was on a single, unremarkable villa in the Rosewood Lane quarter.
He had never met the girl, yet she was destined for him.
Valerian raised a hand—a signet ring of intricately carved iron catching the faint light—and traced a swift, silent gesture. The elements obeyed, instantly sharpening the air. The surface of the obsidian mirror dissolved into a vision, settling with perfect clarity upon Ezra Finch.
She was asleep, lost in the heavy, restless sleep of the dutiful daughter. She was, objectively, beautiful, but his interest was purely elemental. A faint, silver thread of raw, untapped magical energy—the kind that sang only to the Nexus—pulsed around her. She was a convergence point, and she was his.
"They hasten the ceremony," Valerian murmured, his voice a low, gravelly sound that seemed a composite of whispering Air and grinding Earth. "The solicitor, Finch, is panicked. He believes his petty Duke can provide cover against a threat he cannot even comprehend."
The Duke of Atherton was set to arrive by carriage tomorrow, intending to claim what was Valerian's by right of nature. The audacity was due to the King of Atheria himself, who had given Mr. Finch assurances of safety, making this marriage a political act of defiance against the very hierarchy of the supernatural world.
Valerian's eyes, the colour of molten earth, glowed momentarily. He had tolerated the King's games. He would not tolerate the theft of his destined vessel. With a barely perceptible shift in his will, a current of intense elemental Fire—invisible and untraceable—traveled instantly from Veridia. It subtly infused the gaslight outside the Finch residence, causing the streetlamp to flare unnaturally bright for a second, marking the house for his inner circle.
They will not marry, he thought, letting the vision dissolve back into cold, black stone.
"The Duke will find his journey unexpectedly terminated," The Prime Nexus decreed to the silent room. "And Miss Ezra Finch will find that the highest rank is not found in a noble title, but in the destiny reserved only for the Abomination."
Then he whisper few word to butler before he vanished
Standing at the road linking the main city and rosewood lane he saw the duke carriage coming"