The sun was unrelenting.
Kael stumbled through the morning streets of the city with a hood pulled low and sunglasses masking the red around his eyes. He hadn't slept. Not really. His mind wouldn't let him. Every time his eyes shut, Elias's voice haunted his ears—deep, commanding, sinful. Every ache in his body whispered about the night they'd shared. Every pulse of heat beneath his skin reminded him of the sigil still glowing faintly on his chest, hidden beneath layers of clothes.
His stomach twisted.
He paused at the corner of a boutique, pressing a palm to his gut. It wasn't pain. Not exactly. It was more like a… throb. A deep, insistent awareness of something new. Something wrong. Or right. He didn't know anymore.
He forced himself onward.
His apartment was several blocks away, tucked between an abandoned bookshop and a broken neon sign that hadn't worked since he moved in. The walk, usually tolerable, felt eternal now. By the time he reached the lobby, sweat clung to his shirt and his hands were shaking.
Inside, the silence of home greeted him like a memory of safety. He locked the door, stripped out of his clothes, and staggered toward the bathroom.
When he peeled back the bandage he'd taped over the sigil, he gasped.
It had spread.
Fine lines branched from the original mark, curling up his collarbone like vines etched in flame. The shimmer was fainter, but the warmth stronger. His skin looked kissed by gold and blood.
Kael collapsed to his knees beside the tub, vomiting bile and fire.
The floor felt like it was spinning.
---
"Kael! Holy shit!"
A panicked voice echoed through the apartment, followed by rapid footsteps. In a blur, a hand gripped his shoulder.
"You look like death. What the fuck happened to you?" Robin's voice trembled as he crouched beside Kael.
Kael tried to speak, but the words died on his tongue. Robin helped him sit against the wall, shoving a water bottle into his hands.
"You're burning up. We're going to the hospital."
"No hospitals," Kael rasped.
Robin blinked. "You're glowing. Your chest is glowing, Kael. The fuck do you mean no hospitals?"
Kael pulled open his shirt to reveal the sigil.
Robin went still.
"...That's not a tattoo."
Kael laughed hoarsely. "You think?"
"Tell me everything."
Kael told him. Every heated, sinful, terrifying detail.
---
Two hours later, Robin paced the living room like a caged lion. "You had sex with a man you don't know, and now you're... you're fucking marked. Like some ancient magical brand. And you're sick. And glowing."
Kael, pale and curled beneath a blanket, nodded.
Robin narrowed his eyes. "You haven't been with anyone else recently, right?"
Kael flinched. "No. Just... him."
Robin disappeared into the bathroom. Minutes later, he returned with a test in hand.
Kael blinked. "What is that?"
"A pregnancy test."
Kael stared at him. "Robin, I'm a guy."
Robin shoved it at him. "Yeah, well, your glowing sex-sorcerer might not care about your biology. Do it."
Kael did it.
Five minutes later, he emerged from the bathroom, white-faced.
Robin looked at the test.
"Two lines. Positive."
Silence. Then Kael whispered, "I'm pregnant."
Robin exhaled slowly. "Kael. You have to run. Now."
Kael blinked at him. "Why?"
"Because I know that sigil. My grandmother had one. She said it only appeared when magic awakened... or when a powerful bloodline was triggered by conception. And if this Elias guy marked you during sex, it means he claimed you."
Kael swallowed.
Robin continued, "That sigil? It's not just a bond. It's a beacon."
---
Elsewhere
Elias knelt in a room of shadows, blood dripping from his palm into a circle of silver and ash. The Elders watched, unmoved.
"You defied the pact," one of them said. "You bedded a mortal. Marked him. Planted your seed."
Elias looked up, eyes glowing. "He's not just a mortal."
"He was never meant to survive it," another spat.
"He did. And he carries my child."
Silence. Then a murmur of concern.
"You endangered everything. Our world. Our secrecy."
"Then let them come for him," Elias growled, rising. "I dare them."
---
Back in the apartment, Kael was packing.
Robin handed him a burner phone and a wad of cash. "Head north. Use fake names. Don't trust anyone. I'll cover your trail."
Kael paused, fingers trembling.
He looked down at his stomach, then at the mirror.
The sigil pulsed again.
His child.
Elias's child.
Something in his chest shifted. Not fear. Not love. Something else. Something ancient.
He whispered to the mirror: "I'm coming for answers. And when I find you, Elias… you'll give me the truth. Or bleed for it."