Beneath the Ashen Moon

ASHES IN THE RAIN

✨ CHAPTER ONE ✨

The rain wouldn’t stop. It slid off the rooftops in crooked lines, pooling in the broken cobblestones like silver blood. Kael tugged the hood of his cloak lower, scowling at the sky as if he could curse it into silence.

He’d passed through towns like this before—muddy, grey, tight with suspicion. The kind of place where old men spat at strangers and children stared too long. Where the word mage was spoken like a death sentence.

He walked fast, shoulders tight, boots splashing in the filthy puddles. His hands were buried deep in his cloak, hidden from view—not out of cold, but caution. If anyone saw the scars on his palms, the runes burned into flesh, they’d scream witch and drag him to the pyre before dusk.

So naturally, this was the moment someone slammed into him.

Hard.

Kael staggered back, already muttering a curse under his breath—but stopped short when he saw the man in front of him.

Tall. Rain-slick. Smiling like he’d just bumped into an old friend instead of nearly knocking someone over.

“Ah—sorry,” the man said, voice deep and maddeningly warm. “Didn’t see you there. Bit hard in all this divine piss coming from the sky.”

Kael blinked. Once. Twice. “Get out of my way.”

The man cocked his head, a golden strand of hair stuck to his cheek. “You always this friendly, or just with strangers?”

Kael stepped around him with the grace of someone trained to disappear. “Only with idiots.”

“Good. We’ll get along splendidly.”

Kael paused mid-step. Turned. The man hadn’t moved. That smile—infuriating—still tugged at the corners of his mouth like he was enjoying this.

Kael narrowed his eyes. “Are you following me?”

The man shrugged. “Wasn’t planning to. But now that you’ve made it weird, I might.”

“Don’t.”

Another shrug. “Well, in that case, let’s pretend I’m not. Name’s Ron, by the way.”

Kael didn’t answer. He walked.

Ron followed.

---

And just like that, Fate began to weave its thread—one damp footstep at a time.

Kael didn’t know his name would be written alongside Ron’s in blood and fire before the moon waned. Didn’t know that the knight with the irritating grin would be the one to break the silence he’d buried himself in for years.

Didn’t know that love—real, raw, dangerous—was stalking them both like a shadow in the mist.

But he would.

Oh, he would.

Kael turned a corner, faster now, hoping the knight would take the hint and vanish into the drizzle like every other mistake in his life.

No such luck.

Boots echoed behind him. Steady. Relentless.

“I’m starting to think you like me,” Ron called, tone light but laced with something else—curiosity, maybe. Or danger.

Kael spun, rain dripping from his hood like tears. “I don’t. And if you keep following me, you’ll find out just how much.”

Ron only grinned wider. “Careful. You’re starting to sound interesting.”

Kael scowled.

The kind of scowl that meant he might kill him.

Or kiss him.