The sound of her name, that sound, sent a cold shiver slicing down her spine. It wasn't Kael's voice alone. It was layered, distorted, wrong. Deep and gravel edged, carrying a dry echo like something ancient was speaking through the hollow of his chest. The tone dragged over her skin like iron nails drawing sparks.
She took a step toward him.
Then another.
The stalkers reacted instantly.
Their limbs snapped at sharp angles, bodies jerking in sudden, unnatural motion. A chorus of shrill, metallic shrieks tore from their throats, rising so high the air trembled with it. The noise was a warning, not a threat yet, but a clear command: do not interfere.
Leira ignored the way her pulse stuttered.
The shadows had wanted her here. They had lured her through the realm. They had dragged her to the Circle. They wanted to finish whatever they had begun with Kael, to turn him into something he was never meant to be, and perhaps make him end her with his own hands.
But now?
Now the air around her shifted. She felt it in her bones, in the tightening of the darkness, in the uneasy twitch of every creature watching her.
The more she had pushed through the Circle's boundary, the more the shadows recoiled from her.
Not because she was weak. But because she wasn't.
A silence, heavy and hostile, fell over the cavern as the Circle changed its intent. The force that had once lured her inward now braced itself against her. It surged like an invisible tide, shoving her back with a strength that made her boots scrape across the fractured ground.
It wanted her gone.
Her presence was a threat. A disruption. A form of danger.
She refused to move.
Another wave of pressure slammed into her, thick, crushing, like a wall of air turned to stone. Her eyes burned with light. Her palms burned brighter. She planted her feet, bending her knees and pushing forward with a grit so fierce it made her teeth ache.
The Circle tried to fling her out.
She pushed back.
Every impact made her bones rattle. The next one made her stumble a half step, but she caught herself, exhaling hard through her nose. The stalkers scrambled along the perimeter, pacing the perimeter with jittery energy. They couldn't enter, but they wanted her thrown out, so they could rip her apart the moment she crossed their reach.
Leira didn't spare them a single glance.
Her gaze never left Kael.
She moved with agonizing slowness, each inch a battle. The pressure thickened, tightening around her chest as though the air itself was clawing inward, trying to crush her lungs. Her ears rang. Her vision flickered at the edges.
Still, she walked.
When she was close enough to reach him, she lifted a shaking hand, fingers trembling, heart pounding.
The moment her skin entered his aura, pain snapped across her palm.
A searing, blistering heat lashed her, sharp enough that she jerked back instinctively. But it wasn't just heat. It felt like the Circle itself was striking at her, a deliberate, precise pain meant to drive her away. It was protective, territorial, brutal.
She sucked in a breath, throat tight, and tried again.
The air cracked sharply around Kael, as though invisible glass had split in thin, spiderweb wounds. One of those jagged lines sliced across her forearm, biting deep enough to make her gasp. Warm blood slipped down her skin in a single bright line.
She hissed, but didn't back away.
The Circle roared with a new wave of force.
It slammed her chest first, lifting her with its strength and hurling her back a full step. Dust exploded under her boots, scattering across the floor. The entire space around Kael pulsed, rippling like a heartbeat out of rhythm.
The shadows tightened around him, dragging him deeper, dragging him further away.
Leira steadied herself, breath sharp and unsteady.
"No…" she whispered. "No. You don't get to take him."
She leaned forward and pushed.
The ground trembled as she fought the invisible current. Her muscles strained. Her teeth ground together. Her eyes brightened, glowing like coals catching flame.
The Circle shoved again, harder than before.
She stumbled, knees buckling for a heartbeat. But she didn't fall.
She caught herself with one hand on the ground, hair wild around her, shoulders shaking.
Enough.
She reached inward…deep, deeper…into the part of herself she barely understood. Into the pulsing thread inside her chest that had always responded to the Veil before she could name it.
She commanded it.
The response was immediate.
Blinding light rushed down her arms, filling her palms until they pulsed like suns. A heavy force layered itself through her bones, rooting itself in her spine. Her breath came sharp, her pulse rapid.
The shadows screamed.
The Circle tightened, resisting. The air thickened to a suffocating weight. The ground below her cracked, lightning-like fractures spreading across the stone in fast, jagged lines. Dust rained down from the high cavern ceiling as massive slabs of rock shifted overhead.
The realm trembled. It wasn't built for this power.
She knew it but she didn't care.
Leira pushed forward.
Each step felt like dragging herself through fire and water and wind all at once. Her body tilted against the crushing pressure, her boots skidding over stone. Her hair whipped violently around her face, caught in the crackling charge of the air.
Light expanded from her hand, forming a trembling arc that sliced through the shadows clinging to him. They recoiled with shrill cries, but they held on, refusing to release him.
Kael convulsed violently, his back arching. The chains rattled wildly against the floor, metal scraping stone.
"Kael," she whispered, voice raw, "Just hold on… please…"
Another crack split the ceiling. A chunk of the cavern wall tore loose, crashing behind her in a thunderous boom that shook her bones. Debris scattered like shattered teeth across the ground.
She didn't look back. She just kept moving forward.
Step by brutal step, until she stood close enough to feel the heat of his corruption against her skin. It rolled off him in waves, it was scorching…suffocating…hungry.
The pressure around him was a storm: heat, cold, claws, teeth, all at once, all tearing at her as she leaned into it. Her light hit his aura and sizzled.
She didn't stop.
She reached out.
Her hand trembled as she pressed it to his cheek.
For a breath, only a breath, the entire Circle stopped.
Kael lifted his head. Slowly. Unnaturally.
His eyes, once warm, once alive, were drowned in endless shadow. No color. No light. No recognition.
A violent shudder ran through him. Before she could move, his hand shot upward with bone snapping speed, clamping around her wrist. The grip was iron hard, bruising instantly.
The voice that came from his throat was not his.
"You're next."
The words sank into her bones like venom. A cold shock shot down her spine, freezing her lungs. Her breath hitched.
Kael lurched upright, dragging his chains so hard the metal cut sparks against stone. The shadows crawled over his skin like living tar, pulling, writhing, feeding.
He snarled.
A feral sound that did not belong to anything human.
"Kael!" she cried.
He froze.
Just for a second.
His body trembled. His eyes flickered, black, then almost-clear, then swallowed again. His breath hitched, caught between a gasp and a sob.
Then, barely audible…
In a voice that was entirely, beautifully, painfully his…
"Leira… please… I don't want to hurt you…"
Her chest tightened sharply. She stepped closer, the Circle's warning pulsing around her like a heartbeat. She ignored it.
Slowly, carefully, she placed her free hand over his heart.
Warmth pulsed beneath her palm.
Kael gasped. His head jerked. The shadows recoiled violently from the point where she touched him, screaming as if burned. His eyes flashed clear for that single, fragile heartbeat, and Leira felt her breath snag in her throat. She pressed her hand harder against his chest, desperate for that flicker to stay, to stretch into something real. Beneath her palm, his heartbeat stuttered, fast, uneven, like something inside him fought to find its rhythm again.
The shadows recoiled from her touch. They twisted violently, shrieking like steam hitting cold metal, their shapes warping and folding over themselves as if her light burned through every inch of them. The entire Circle twisted with them, its rim quivering with sharp, unstable light.
"Kael," she whispered, leaning in, "I know you're in there. I know you can hear me."
His lips parted, trembling faintly, the tension in his jaw loosening as though he was fighting something she couldn't see, something pulling him backward. His fingers twitched at his side, slow and struggling, as if he wanted to reach for her but didn't remember how.
Another pulse of shadows surged up his spine and his body jerked violently, snapping his head back. A raw, guttural sound tore out of him, half pain, half something darker, and the shadows slammed back into his eyes.
The cavern reacted instantly.
A deep rumble tore through the ground, rippling under her boots. Dust fell in sheets from the broken ceiling, coating her shoulders and hair. A heavy crack split through one of the stone pillars holding up the far wall, the sound slicing through the air like thunder rolling through a hollow mountain.
Leira staggered but kept her hand on him, fingers curled against his skin, refusing to let go.
His chains rattled harder this time. One link snapped clean in half, metal sparking against the floor. The last shackle holding his left wrist glowed bright red as the shadows tried to tear it apart from the inside.
He pulled again…and the metal bent.
"Kael, stop," she pleaded, stepping closer, "you don't want to do this, I know you don't."
He looked at her again.
Black. Then clear. Then black swallowing everything.
His breath shook violently, his chest rising and falling like he couldn't pull air into his lungs. The shadows crawled along his cheek, slipping over her fingers as if trying to pry her hand away. They hissed when her light burned through their edges.
The Circle pulsed under them, its glow flickering in erratic bursts.
Something deep in the cavern let out a groaning crack, loud and sharp enough to make the stalkers flinch backward. Loose stones rolled across the floor, bouncing off Kael's chains and skittering across the glowing lines carved into the ritual ground.
Leira didn't move.
She brought her other hand to his jaw, holding his face steady, guiding his eyes toward hers even as they rolled and shook with shadow. Her thumb brushed the corner of his mouth, shaking with how hard she fought the force pressing against her from all sides.
"Kael, look at me," she breathed, voice tight, "please… look at me."
For a moment he went still. Completely still. The chains stopped rattling. The shadows paused in the air, suspended like smoke trapped in glass. Even the rumbling stones quieted, leaving only the sound of her own breathing and the faint tremor of his heart.
His eyes softened.
His shoulders lowered.
His jaw unclenched.
Then…
A violent tremor ripped through him.
He snarled, a harsh, broken sound that scraped out of his throat like something tearing. His hand shot toward her again, faster this time, fingers curling like claws, and only the remaining shackle on his wrist stopped him from grabbing her throat. The chain yanked him back, the metal screaming as it stretched.
He fought it…hard.
The stone around the bolt cracked. Dust exploded outward.
Leira stumbled a step, heart pounding against her ribs.
"Kael, please…"
Her words cut short when the shadows surged upward, swallowing his expression. They wrapped around his neck, his jaw, his shoulders, moving like a living thing claiming him inch by inch. His back arched violently and another deep, unearthly growl rattled the cavern walls.
The Circle pulsed again, brighter and brighter, the lines on the stone now glowing so fiercely it hurt to look directly at them. The force inside it shoved against her harder than before, trying to rip her backward, trying to throw her out before she could reach for him again.
The ground buckled. One of the far walls split open with a deafening crack. Cold air rushed through the new opening, sweeping across the cavern in a sharp, icy gust.
The stalkers shrieked in panic. The shadows shrieked even louder.
Kael's breath hitched. His eyes flickered wildly; shadow, light, shadow. Then clear again.
He looked at her with so much fear. So much pain. So much of him.
"Leira…" he whispered, his voice thin and trembling, "run… please… you have to run…"
She shook her head instantly, her breath breaking.
"I'm not leaving you."
"You don't understand…" His voice strained, his fingers clawing at the air, "I can't hold them… I can't… not for long…"
Another tremor ravaged him, pulling him upright. His body convulsed, the shadows gripping him tighter, trying to wrench him completely out of himself. He gasped like he was drowning, fighting something she couldn't see but felt in the air, dense and suffocating.
Leira cupped his face again, her thumb brushing the shadowed edge of his cheek as if trying to erase the darkness with touch alone.
"I'm right here," she whispered, voice shaking but steady, "I'm right here, Kael."
The shadows screamed.
But Leira didn't move…because she had seen it:
Kael was still in there.
Overpowered, but not gone.
Not yet.
And she would tear the whole realm apart piece by piece if that's what it took to pull him back.