Ch-1.The First Cut

...Ch-1.The First Cut...

Skyler never cared for names. Names were flimsy things—temporary, forgettable. But Kael… Kael was different. That name had been rolling on his tongue for weeks, leaving a taste he couldn’t rid himself of. Sweet. Addictive. Rotten at the core.

Tonight, he would finally touch it.

Rain poured down in thick sheets, drowning the filthy streets in its roar, but Skyler barely noticed. He stood outside the small bookstore, watching through the cracked glass. Inside, Kael moved like a ghost, slow and deliberate, his pale hands skimming the surface of an old book. The dim candlelight made his eyes look golden, lips slightly parted. Too soft for a world this cruel. He didn’t belong here, in the filth and ruin of a city that ate people alive. Someone like him should have been hidden away in a world untouched by blood and grief.

So unaware. So helpless.

Skyler could slit his throat right now, and Kael wouldn’t even see it coming.

The thought made him grin.

Not because he wanted to hurt him. No, no—never him. But the idea of something as fragile as Kael existing in a world like this was … infuriating. He was like an unguarded secret, a delicate thing placed in the hands of people who wouldn’t know what to do with him. Who wouldn’t deserve him.

Skyler clenched his fists, his nails biting into his palms.

Kael was his.

He had known it from the first moment he saw him, standing in the rain, eyes full of something sad and distant. He had followed him ever since—watched him walk home, watched him sleep, traced the patterns of his life with an artist’s precision. It wasn’t enough. It would never be enough.

Skyler wanted him to see.

A soft hum rumbled in his throat as he stepped forward, boots splashing in the waterlogged street. His reflection wavered in the fogged window as he reached into his pocket, fingers wrapping around the cold steel of a knife.

One little scratch. One little mark. Something small, just enough to wake Kael up. To let him know he wasn’t alone.

Carefully, deliberately, Skyler pressed the tip of the blade against the glass, carving a single, jagged line. The sound was barely audible over the storm, but inside, Kael flinched. His gaze flicked toward the window, brows furrowing, lips pressing into a thin line.

For a second, just a second, their eyes met.

Lightning flashed.

Skyler smiled.

Kael stood abruptly, stepping back, his chest rising in shallow, uncertain breaths. His pulse was probably racing now, his mind searching for explanations. Just a trick of the light, just the storm playing games with his imagination.

Skyler turned away, slipping into the shadows, his heart pounding.

Tonight wasn’t the night.

But Kael had seen him now.

And that was the first cut.

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