Raven Nox Margrave, head of a vampire margrave house, has spent eight years burying every emotion behind a mask of ice. To him, a fiancée is nothing more than a contract—a blood-sealed arrangement for the sake of the house, renewable every three years, dissolvable only by the council of the Seven Blood Covenant families. Love has no place in it.
But on the night he rides out to receive his bride-to-be, an ancient contract vanishes from the archive without a trace of tampering. A wolf howls from
Fiancé Before Dawn - Hands Before Dawn — Fingers That Won't Let Go, and a Whisper Asking Me Not to Leave
The night air had turned cold, down to every corner of the estate.
Yuu sat on the edge of the bed in his room, staring at the travel box on his knees. The wooden lid lay open as he folded clothes into it. Two white shirts, one light jacket, and a pair of soft socks that Seraphy had apparently prepared for him.
(I think that's everything.)
His fingertips trembled faintly.
Each time he pressed a folded garment into the bottom of the box, Raven's voice from that day echoed deep in his chest.
"A contract is a contract."
"Obey the house's law."
A flat voice, stripped of emotion. The words that had pushed Yuu away.
(I know. I know, but—)
Yuu gripped the edge of the box. The wooden corner bit into his palm. It hurt. But with that pain, he desperately held back what threatened to spill over.
Outside the window, the Nightward's servants were making preparations for departure. Footsteps carrying luggage. The scrape of carriage wheels against stone paving. And in the distance, the hinges of the Gate of Dawn creaked with a low groan.
(I have to leave before dawn.)
The departure of a pledged fiancé takes place before daybreak. That was the law of this house. Leave the estate before the gate opens, and walk away listening to the sound of it closing. That, Seraphy had told him, was the signal that the contract had ended.
(How much time do I have left?)
Yuu looked at the sky beyond the window.
Still dark. The stars twinkled as if frozen. The eastern sky remained black. Dawn was still far off.
But time was steadily being shaved away.
With every breath, every moment, the time he could spend in this estate was disappearing.
(Raven.)
He called the name in his heart.
That man's silent back. The trembling left hand he'd shown in the archive. The lonely figure standing by the moonlit window, never raising the Cup of Blood Dew to his lips.
(Isn't it all... different, really?)
(Isn't it that you really don't want me to go?)
But that was nothing more than Yuu's own wishful thinking. Raven had said it clearly. A contract is a contract. Obey the house's law.
Without denial, without explanation, without anything—Yuu had simply been sent back to his room.
(If only I could have said something then.)
(But I couldn't say anything.)
Yuu folded the last item—his nightclothes—and placed them in the box.
He closed the lid.
The click of the clasp catching echoed through the quiet room.
(It's over.)
Yuu rested his hand gently on top of the box.
The cold feel of the wood.
(This is it. All of it. Over.)
The back of his eyes grew hot.
But he didn't cry.
Because if he cried, everything might come apart.
---
Even past midnight, Yuu couldn't sleep.
Lying on the bed, closing his eyes—the sound of his heartbeat rang endlessly in the back of his ears. The chilled air crept in through the gaps in the blanket, cooling his body.
(My throat's dry.)
Yuu slowly sat up.
He'd get some water. That was the thought.
Slipping out of bed, he padded quietly out of the room. The corridor was sunk in the darkness of night. The gas lamps along the walls flickered with pale blue flames, but their light didn't reach the far corners.
Yuu walked barefoot over the cool stone floor.
One step, then another.
The cold crept up from the soles of his feet.
(Where was the water room again?)
The water room Seraphy had shown him was past the covered walkway, if he remembered right. Yuu turned the corner of the corridor.
That was when it happened.
Moonlight was spilling silver light across the covered walkway.
A roofless passage lined with evenly spaced stone pillars. And in the middle of it—a single black shadow.
Yuu stopped.
(Raven.)
He knew who it was at once.
Short, near-black dark brown hair. Red-tinged eyes. A tall man with a broad chest and shoulders.
Raven stood in the center of the walkway.
The moonlight cast his profile in cold relief.
His left hand was raised to chest height. His fingers touched the old family crest carved into the back of it.
(He must have come back from the archive.)
Yuu thought.
Raven's fingertips traced slowly over the crest, as if confirming something. The gesture looked like prayer—or like a curse.
(I've never seen him like that before.)
Yuu couldn't call out.
No—he felt he shouldn't.
This was surely something he wasn't meant to see.
But his feet wouldn't move.
He couldn't look away.
Beneath the expressionless surface, Yuu saw Raven's exhaustion for the first time.
A deep, deep weariness.
The fatigue of someone who had carried something alone for days, for years.
(Raven...)
Something tightened in his chest.
Then Raven raised his head.
His red-tinged eyes caught Yuu directly.
Yuu felt his heart leap.
(He saw me.)
(I have to run.)
But his body wouldn't move.
Between them, the cold air and a brief silence filled the space.
The Nightward's lights were far away.
On this walkway, there was only the moonlight and their two shadows.
Raven said nothing.
Yuu couldn't say anything either.
The silence piled up—one second, two, three.
(I have to say something.)
(But what?)
(The contract? The departure? I don't want to talk about that.)
(I don't want to, but—at this rate—)
Yuu's lips trembled.
Words threatened to spill from the back of his throat on their own.
(No. I can't say it.)
(If I say something like that, it'll only cause trouble.)
(I know. I know, and yet—)
"...Don't send me away."
His voice was so small and frail it surprised even himself.
He'd said it.
He'd actually said it, Yuu thought.
A regret like ice spread through the back of his throat.
(What have I done.)
(Now, at a time like this, something like that—)
(It'll only cause trouble for Raven.)
Yuu hung his head.
His face burned.
Tears welled at the corners of his eyes.
(I'm sorry.)
(I'm sorry, Raven.)
He apologized over and over in his heart.
Apologizing was all he could do.
The next moment—
A strong force closed around Yuu's right wrist.
"Wha—?"
Yuu raised his head.
Raven was gripping his wrist.
Those fingers—so strong the bones stood out—clenched Yuu's slender wrist, hard, hard.
(Ow—!)
It hurt.
His bones creaked.
A grip strong enough to leave red marks on his wrist.
And yet.
And yet, Yuu didn't feel the pain as pain.
Before the pain, warmth reached him.
The heat of Raven's hand.
Raven's hand, touching him for the first time.
That warmth spread from his wrist, up his arm, seeping deep into his chest.
(Warm.)
(Raven's hand is warm.)
And then—a pulse.
From Raven's fingertips into Yuu's wrist, a steady pulse passed.
Thump, thump, thump.
(He's alive.)
(Raven is alive, too.)
The tears spilled over.
He tried to stop them, but they wouldn't stop.
Hot drops traced his cheeks and fell from his chin.
"...nh, ...hff, ...ah..."
A voiceless sound escaped him.
Raven said nothing.
He didn't speak of the contract.
He didn't speak of his grandmother's law.
He explained nothing.
He simply stood there, holding Yuu's wrist.
In the cold corridor before dawn.
Beneath the moonlight.
The two of them stood there, casting shadows.
Raven's fingers did not let go of Yuu's wrist.
---
Far down the walkway, a single figure came to a stop.
A small girl with pale violet-tinged silver hair cut evenly at the shoulder.
It was Seraphy.
On her way to the water room, she caught sight of the scene on the walkway from the corner of the corridor.
Two figures facing each other under the moonlight.
Her master, Raven, gripping Yuu's wrist.
(Lord Raven...)
Seraphy's green eyes went wide.
Her master reaching out to someone of his own accord.
She had never seen him do that before.
Raven was always alone.
He kept his distance from everyone.
He neither touched nor allowed himself to be touched.
And that Raven was now holding Yuu's wrist.
(Ah...)
Something warm welled up in Seraphy's chest.
(Finally.)
(Lord Raven, finally, your own feelings—)
Seraphy didn't call out.
She felt she shouldn't.
This was a time for just the two of them.
No one should be allowed to interfere.
Seraphy quietly left the spot.
And then, one by one, she silently extinguished the gas lamps in the corridor.
Click.
The pale blue flames went out, one after another.
Darkness slowly filled the corridor.
But the moonlight on the walkway did not vanish.
Rather, the darker it grew around them, the more clearly that silver light brought the two figures into relief.
Having put out the last gas lamp, Seraphy turned back.
In the darkness, only the moonlit walkway floated white.
And in its center, two shadows leaned close, overlapping as one.
(Please, let this time last just a little longer.)
Seraphy prayed silently in her heart.
Then she quietly headed off to prepare the gate.
---
How much time had passed?
Yuu didn't know.
A strange span that felt like both an instant and an eternity.
The tears had stopped before he knew it.
The warmth of Raven's hand still wrapped around his wrist, unchanged.
The strength of those fingers, still strong.
(He's not letting go.)
Yuu thought.
The simple fact that he wasn't letting go—that was everything to Yuu right now.
(I wish morning would never come.)
(I want to stay like this forever.)
But dawn was steadily approaching.
The eastern sky was beginning to change color, faintly.
From black to deep indigo.
From indigo to a faint purple.
The color of the sky shifted, slowly.
Raven felt that change too.
To a vampire with the eyes of the night watch, the signs of dawn came sooner than to humans.
Raven looked up at the sky.
Then, slowly, he opened his mouth.
"...Before the Gate of Dawn opens, there's something I need to settle."
A low, quiet voice.
Yuu looked up at Raven's face.
Expressionless.
But those red-tinged eyes were fixed straight ahead, toward the Gate of Dawn.
(Something to settle?)
Yuu didn't understand what that meant.
But he didn't ask.
He felt there was no need to ask.
Right now, he simply didn't want to let go of this hand.
That was all.
Still gripping Yuu's wrist, Raven began to walk.
Yuu followed that step, letting himself be led.
So as not to lose the warmth of the wrist held in that grip.
The two of them passed through the moonlit walkway and began to walk together toward the Gate of Dawn.
Over the cold stone floor, barefoot Yuu and black-clad Raven walked side by side.
The moonlight quietly illuminated their retreating figures.
Before the gate, a single figure was already waiting.
An old woman in black, her silver-white hair pulled up tightly.
In her hand, a staff whose ferrule was shaped like the family crest.
Olga Vesper stood before the Gate of Dawn.
Raven did not stop.
He did not release Yuu's wrist.
He walked on, straight toward Olga.
Olga fixed her gray eyes on the two of them, unblinking.
Her gaze was cold as ice, and sharp.
But Raven did not flinch.
The hand gripping Yuu's wrist tightened further.
(Raven...)
In the strength of that grip, Yuu felt Raven's resolve.
The dim light before dawn.
Before the gate, three shadows stretched long.
Raven opened his mouth.
To declare the breaking of the contract.
To declare that he chose Yuu.
To take the final step in casting aside the house's law.
The eastern sky was beginning to shift from purple to a pale crimson.
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