The Human King's court was hosting its once in a century diplomacy summit, a rare gathering meant to keep peace between the territories. It was an uneasy meeting from the start. Every nation sent their leaders dressed in fine clothes and polite smiles, but everyone knew the truth: the peace was fragile, and each handshake hid a hidden threat.
Auren stood beneath the high arches of the human throne room.
He wore layered silks and embroidered armor pieces, His expression was calm, controlled.
Behind him stood his council trusted warriors and advisors dressed in the finest attire their territory could offer. They spoke nothing, but their presence alone was a reminder of the power Auren represented.
As foreign diplomats took their places and false compliments filled the room, Auren watched every face with careful focus. His heart was steady, but his instincts were sharp, prepared for anything. He did not trust the smiles. He did not trust the promises.
Auren hadn't been looking at the nobles.
Not for long.
Not once he saw her.
She was behind the wine table.
She had clear brown hair that fell simply around her shoulders, unstyled, untouched by vanity. Her brown eyes were warm but steady, observant rather than inviting. Her face was soft in its lines, her smile gentle when it appeared…but it never lingered too long. There was control in her posture, quiet strength beneath the calm, as if kindness and resolve existed side by side in her without conflict. She did not look fragile. She looked contained.
Auren saw Evryn for the first time, he felt something change inside him. He did not understand it at first. He was trained to stay calm and focused, but his thoughts stopped when his eyes met her. The sounds of the room faded, and for a short moment, nothing else mattered.
He felt confused, because she did not seem powerful or dangerous, yet his heart reacted strongly. His chest felt tight, and his breathing slowed. It was not fear. It was a feeling he had never felt before.
This surprised him, because he had never cared this deeply about a stranger. He was a man of duty and control, not emotion.
He kept his face calm so no one would notice. To others, he looked the same as always cold and distant. But inside, his heart was beating fast. In that moment, Auren knew his life had changed. Evryn had touched something deep inside him, and he could not ignore it anymore.
Auren had blinked.
It was the first time in over a century that someone had made him forget where he was.
She hadn't looked at him. Not once.
She hadn't even noticed him.
When Auren returned to his palace, he tried to forget Evryn. He told himself that what he felt was a mistake and that everything should return to normal. He focused on his duties, meetings, and training, hoping work would silence his thoughts.
But it did not work. No matter what he did, her face stayed in his mind. He thought of her when the halls were quiet and when the palace was full of people. The more he tried to push the feeling away, the stronger it became. He realized he wanted to see her again, to hear her voice, and to understand why she affected him so deeply.
He returned for the second negotiation three weeks later.
She was sweeping the edge of the hall.
He watched her again.
A third time She had laughed at the butcher. Mocked him, actually.
He told himself it would fade the fascination, the ache in his chest when she passed by without looking at him. But it didn't.
If anything, it grew.
Auren knew he could not approach her directly. His position made everything dangerous and complicated. So he chose a careful path. he arranged for Evryn to be transferred to another palace who no one knows him.
"You want me to what?" Asric asked, raising a brow.
Auren didn't look at him. "You heard me."
"Convince the Human King's head steward to reassign a handful of kitchen girls to a distant noble's estate for... what reason, exactly?"
"Does it matter?"
Asric smiled slow and sharp.
"Not to me."
Auren handed him the forged request: a transfer order stamped with the seal of an invented noble a vampire baron from the distant western hills, requesting a team of trained human staff for long-term service. Low risk. High pay. Quiet location.
Evryn's name was second on the list.
Not first. That would've drawn attention.
"You'll go too, then?" Asric asked, flicking the paper.
Auren nodded once. "As a servant."
"And leave the Court?" Asric's smile widened. "Step away from power, from history, from your name… for a human?"
Silence.
"Fascinating," Asric muttered. "And she doesn't even know what you are."
"She doesn't need to."
Asric's eyes narrowed. "Yet."
Two weeks later, the transfer went through.
The human king's steward didn't question it. Why would he? Gold speaks louder than suspicion. The girls packed quietly. They were told they'd be serving a noble family near the western border wealthy, and rarely in residence.
Evryn didn't protest.
She was excited.
A new place. Better pay. Less war talk.
They left at dusk, in a carriage flanked by two vampire guards in disguise. The road was long and winding, full of fog and rain.
Auren was already there when they arrived, dressed in grey linen.
No crest. No ring. No name.
Just "Corin."
That's what he told her his name was.
He remembered the first day they worked side by side in the new estate's scullery, she bumped his elbow by mistake, He dropped a candle tray,She looked at him sideways, brow lifted.
"You're new."
"So are you," he said.
"Yeah, but I'm better at it."
That was the first time she smiled at him.
Really smiled.
Asric visited from time to time always in the shadows. Never seen by Evryn.
He watched. Smiling.
And if Auren needed something forged signatures, missing staff records, covered trails Asric handled it.
With elegance.
With perfect loyalty.
no one knew that the vampire lord was scrubbing pots in a stone kitchen every morning before sunrise, just to be near a girl who wore her sleeves rolled and her sarcasm like armor, she was sharper than she looked.....and kinder than she let on.
Auren remembered the way she grumbled about the dust in the guest quarters, the way she always fixed the crooked frame in the back hallway, even though no one else noticed it.
She had a rhythm.
She liked her tea bitter. She cursed under her breath when the stairs creaked. She sang when she thought no one was listening badly, softly, usually while sweeping.
He never interrupted.
He only listened.
And tried to forget that his hands, which once signed declarations of war, were now scrubbing soot from silver for the chance to hear her laugh.
It wasn't instant.
It was slow.
The kind of slow that slips into the bones. The kind that grows so quietly you don't see it until it owns you.
By the time Evryn noticed how often Corin was beside her, it was already too late to pretend it bothered her.
It wasn't that he followed her everywhere….at least, not obviously. He simply adjusted to her pace, to her habits, to the unspoken rhythm of her day. When she stopped, he stopped. When she moved, he was there without crowding her, close enough to feel but never close enough to press. It should have felt intrusive. Instead, it felt steady. Familiar in a way she couldn't remember earning.
She caught herself talking to him without effort. Complaining about small things…..the heat, the noise, the endless repetition of work. He listened without interrupting, without correcting her, without trying to fix anything. He remembered what she said. That mattered more than advice ever could.
"You don't talk much," she said once, not accusing, just noticing.
"I talk when it matters," he replied.
She snorted. "You'd be unbearable if you talked all the time."
His mouth curved faintly. "I try not to disappoint you."
She rolled her eyes, but the smile slipped out anyway.