KAEL'S POV
Elara collapsed the moment she touched my father's skeleton.
Her body went completely still. Eyes open but unseeing. Not breathing.
Dead.
"No!" I caught her before she hit the ground. "Elara! Elara, wake up!"
Nothing. Her heart had stopped. Her skin turned ice cold.
"What did she do?" I screamed at Lyra. "What did she do?!"
Lyra ran up the stairs, her face white with terror. "She crossed over. Her soul left her body and entered the death realm. Kael, she's—"
"Don't say it." I pressed my ear to Elara's chest, desperate for a heartbeat. "Don't you dare say she's dead."
"Her body is still here. That means we have a chance." Lyra knelt beside us. "But if we can't pull her back within minutes, her soul will be trapped there forever. And her body will die."
"Then pull her back!"
"I can't! Only she can choose to return. Or..." Lyra hesitated. "Or someone could go in after her."
"Then I'll go."
"Kael, no—"
"She went in there to save my father. To save all of them." I looked at the skeletal dragons still frozen in the sky, their trapped souls screaming silently. "I won't let her die alone."
"If you both get trapped, the kingdom falls. Malachar wins everything."
"I don't care." I pulled Elara closer. "I won't lose her. Not like this. Not after—"
After what? After three months of watching her try so hard? After seeing her heal dragons and stand up to dragon lords and risk everything for people who'd lied to her?
After falling for her without meaning to?
"Tell me how to cross over," I demanded.
Lyra closed her eyes. "You need an anchor. Something to tie your soul to your body so you can find your way back. Something that matters more than anything."
"Like what?"
"Love." She looked at me seriously. "True love. The kind that transcends death. Do you love her, Kael?"
Did I?
I'd spent eight hundred years alone. Spent five hundred years hating humans. Spent three months telling myself Elara was just a political tool, just a possible mate, just a—
"Yes," I whispered. "I love her."
The words felt like breaking chains. Like breathing after drowning.
"Then that's your anchor." Lyra placed her hands on both of us. "But Kael, listen carefully. The death realm is where the cursed princess has been hiding all these years. She's powerful there. More powerful than you. If she realizes you're there—"
"I'll deal with it."
"And if you can't find Elara? If you get lost? Time moves differently there. Minutes here could be hours there. Days. You might forget who you are. Forget why you came."
"I won't forget her." I held Elara's cold hand. "Never."
Lyra nodded slowly. "Then hold onto her. And whatever you do, don't let go until you're both back."
She began chanting in the old language. Magic swirled around us—green and gold and silver.
The world started to fade.
The last thing I saw was Theron's horrified face as he ran toward us, shouting something I couldn't hear.
Then everything went gray.
---
I opened my eyes in the death realm.
It looked like the Northern Kingdom, but wrong. Twisted. The sky was permanently dusk. The buildings were made of bones instead of stone. And everywhere, everywhere, were shadows.
Trapped souls, wandering endlessly.
"Elara!" I shouted. "Elara, where are you?!"
My voice echoed strangely, like it was traveling through water.
A shadow drifted close—my father's soul, I realized with horror. Separated from his skeleton but still trapped here.
"Father," I breathed. "I'm so sorry. I'll fix this. I promise—"
But he couldn't respond. Just drifted past, his face frozen in eternal pain.
How many souls were here? How many had been suffering for five centuries?
"Looking for someone?" A voice like poison honey spoke behind me.
I spun around.
The cursed princess stood there, looking exactly as she had five hundred years ago. Beautiful and terrible. But now I could see the wrongness—the way shadows clung to her, the way her smile was too wide, too sharp.
"You're not really her," I said. "The real Arianna died. You're something else. Something that wore her face."
"Smart dragon." She laughed. "I am what's left when love turns to hate. When betrayal festers. When rage refuses to die. Arianna's body died, yes. But her fury? Her desire for revenge? That lived on. That became me."
"Where's Elara?"
"The little tamer? Oh, she's here somewhere. Probably trying to 'save' all these pathetic souls." She gestured at the wandering shadows. "So noble. So stupid. Doesn't she know this is my kingdom? Everyone who enters becomes mine."
"Not her. Not while I'm here."
"You?" The dead princess laughed harder. "You can barely stand. This realm drains dragons, dear Kael. Your magic, your strength—it all feeds me here. Another hour and you'll be just another shadow wandering my wasteland."
She was right. I could feel it. My power draining away like water through cracks.
But I didn't care.
"Elara!" I shouted again. "If you can hear me, follow my voice! I'm here! I came for you!"
"How romantic." The dead princess circled me like a predator. "Tell me, do you love her? Really love her? Or is she just a replacement for what you lost with me?"
"I never loved you."
"Liar." Her eyes flashed. "You loved me desperately. Completely. And when I betrayed you, it broke something inside you. Something that never healed."
"You're right," I said quietly. "It did break me. For five hundred years, I've been broken. Unable to trust. Unable to feel. Until—"
"Until the fake princess?" She sneered. "Please. She's nothing. A commoner playing dress-up. When she dies here, you'll forget her in a decade."
"No." I smiled. "Because she taught me something. She taught me that love isn't about fate or destiny or perfect matches. It's about choice. And I choose her. Every single day, I choose her."
"Then you choose death."
She raised her hand and shadows swarmed me. Hundreds of trapped souls, controlled by her will, grabbing and pulling and dragging me down.
I fought, but there were too many. My strength was fading too fast.
"Kael!"
Elara's voice. Distant but clear.
I looked up and saw her running through the gray wasteland, her marked hand blazing with golden light. Behind her ran dozens of souls—not controlled, but following voluntarily.
"Let him go!" she screamed at the dead princess.
"Make me, little tamer."
Elara didn't hesitate. She pressed her glowing hands together and the light exploded outward.
The shadows binding me scattered. I could breathe again.
"How?" The dead princess stared at Elara in shock. "How are you using tamer magic here? This is the death realm. That magic shouldn't work!"
"Maybe not," Elara said. "But love does. And these souls love their families. They want to protect them. They're choosing to help me."
The souls she'd freed formed a barrier between us and the cursed princess.
Elara ran to me and grabbed my hand. "We have to go. Now. I found the anchor point—the place where she's tethering all the souls. If we destroy it, everyone goes free."
"Where is it?"
"The throne." She pointed at a massive chair made of bones in the distance. "That's where her original body is buried. That's the source of all this."
"Then let's end this."
We ran together, the freed souls protecting us from the cursed princess's attacks.
But as we got closer to the throne, I felt something wrong. The air grew colder. Darker. More powerful.
"Elara, wait—"
Too late.
We reached the throne and I saw what she'd missed.
The cursed princess's body wasn't just buried there.
It was still alive.
Barely alive, twisted and corrupted, but alive. Her real body had been here for five hundred years, feeding the curse, growing stronger.
And sitting beside her body was someone I recognized.
Cassian.
"Hello, Elara," he said calmly. "Took you long enough to find us."
Elara stopped dead. "Cassian? But you—you're alive? You're here?"
"Of course I'm here." He smiled. "I've been helping her the whole time. Helping plan your death. Helping bring Seraphine. Helping prepare for this perfect moment."
"Why?" Elara's voice broke. "You were my friend. My only friend."
"I loved you." His expression twisted with bitterness. "But you never saw me that way. You were too busy playing princess. Too busy dreaming about adventure. And when they sent you here to marry a monster, I knew—the only way to save you was to destroy him first."
"By trapping souls?" I snarled. "By helping a dead woman torture thousands?"
"By doing what needed to be done." Cassian stood. "And now Elara's here, exactly where we wanted her. Because there's one thing we haven't told you yet, dear friend."
The cursed princess's body stirred. Her eyes opened—black as night.
"The curse can't be broken by destroying me," she whispered. "It can only be broken by replacing me. Someone has to take my place. Someone has to become the new anchor for all these souls."
Horror filled Elara's face. "No."
"Yes." Cassian grabbed her arm. "And you volunteered when you crossed over. The death realm accepted you. And now you can't leave unless someone takes your place."
"Then I'll stay," I said immediately. "Take me instead."
"Dragons can't anchor death magic." The cursed princess laughed weakly. "Only tamers can. Only humans with dragon blood. And there's only one here."
Elara.
She looked at me, tears streaming down her face. "I'm sorry, Kael. I didn't know. I swear I didn't—"
"It's not your fault."
"But now you have to choose." Cassian's voice was cruel. "Let Elara become the new anchor—trapped here forever, holding all these souls—and you go free. Or refuse, and everyone stays trapped. The curse continues. Your kingdom dies. Everyone suffers."
"Kael." Elara touched my face. "Go back. Please. Save your people. I'll be okay—"
"You won't be okay. You'll be tortured here for centuries like she was."
"Then that's my choice." She smiled through tears. "I love you. That's enough."
My heart shattered.
Because I loved her too. Desperately. Completely.
And I had no idea how to save her.
The cursed princess's laughter echoed through the death realm: "Tick tock, Dragon King. Choose quickly. Her body up there is dying. Soon there won't be anything left to save."