ELARA'S POV
"No."
The word came out stronger than I felt. My mother reached for me, and I stepped back, bumping into Kaelen.
"Elara, be reasonable—" Mother started.
"You don't get to call me that anymore." My voice shook with rage. "You don't get to pretend you care after stealing twenty-three years of my life."
"I was protecting you!"
"You were controlling me!" Shadow-fire crackled around my hands. The Seraphim raised their weapons. "Making sure I stayed weak. Invisible. Easy to ignore."
Mother's face hardened. "You're being dramatic. The suppression was necessary—"
"Was it necessary to let everyone treat me like garbage? Was it necessary to stand by while Marcus destroyed me? While Damien got everything and I got nothing?" Tears burned my eyes. "Was breaking me necessary?"
"Girls," Aurelia interrupted, sounding bored. "This family drama is touching, but I have a Shadow King to imprison. Cassandra, either restrain your daughter or step aside."
Mother looked between me and Aurelia. For one heartbeat, I thought she might choose me.
She stepped aside.
Something inside me shattered.
"So be it," I whispered.
Kaelen's hand found mine, squeezing gently. Through the bond, I felt his fury on my behalf—and underneath, understanding. He knew what family betrayal felt like.
"We're leaving," he said calmly.
Aurelia laughed. "You're dying from your curse and she's untrained. You can't fight thirty Seraphim warriors."
"Watch me."
Shadows exploded from Kaelen like a tsunami. The Seraphim scattered, their holy light clashing against his darkness. Aurelia's blade met his shadow-claws with a shriek of power.
"Run!" Kaelen shouted at me.
"I'm not leaving you!"
"I can't teleport us both in this state—I need you to trust me!" He threw two Seraphim across the cathedral. "When I say jump, you jump. Understand?"
I nodded, not understanding at all.
He fought with brutal efficiency, but I felt his exhaustion through the bond. The curse was eating him alive. Each movement cost him strength he didn't have.
We were going to die here.
Unless—
Power hummed under my skin. Raw. Untrained. Dangerous.
I could help him. I just needed to figure out how.
"Elara, now!" Kaelen grabbed me around the waist.
The world dissolved into shadow.
We materialized on a rooftop somewhere in Lunaris. The city spread below us, lights twinkling like captured stars. Kaelen collapsed immediately, coughing blood.
"Kaelen!" I dropped beside him, hands hovering uselessly. "What do I do?"
"Nothing," he gasped. "Just... give me a minute."
"You don't have a minute! The curse—"
"Is killing me. Yes. I'm aware." He laughed bitterly, then winced. "Painfully aware."
Through the bond, I felt it. The curse like poison in his veins, eating him from the inside. He had days. Maybe less.
"Tell me how to help," I demanded.
"You can't. Not without—" He stopped, jaw tightening.
"Without what?"
Long silence. Then: "The bonding ritual. Full soul fusion. It's the only thing that breaks the curse permanently."
My stomach dropped. "The ritual you mentioned before. The one that binds us forever."
"Yes."
"And if I refuse?"
"I die within a week. You lose access to shadow magic gradually as the incomplete bond deteriorates. The Seraphim will still hunt you for summoning me. Your mother will suppress you again. Marcus will use you as proof he was right about your 'instability.'" His amber eyes met mine. "You'll go back to being invisible. Powerless. Nothing."
Everything I'd been six months ago. Everything I never wanted to be again.
"But if I agree?" I whispered.
"We become permanently bonded. My memories become yours—six hundred years of torture, war, loss. Your memories become mine. Every secret, every wound, every darkness." He pushed himself up to sitting, wincing. "We'd be connected at the soul level. Forever. You'd be tied to the most hunted shadow-kin in existence. Every enemy I have becomes your enemy."
"That doesn't sound like much of a choice."
"It isn't." He looked away. "I'm asking you to bind yourself to a monster for survival. I know that. If there was another way—"
"Is there? Another way?"
"No."
Silence stretched between us. Below, sirens wailed. Searching for us.
"I need time," I said finally. "To think. To—"
"We don't have time." Kaelen's hand pressed against his chest, over the curse-wound. "Days, Elara. Maybe less before the curse kills me. And when I die, the incomplete bond will backlash. It could destroy you too."
Fear iced my veins. "You didn't mention that part."
"Would it have changed anything?"
Probably not. I was trapped either way.
"There is one option," Kaelen said slowly. "A compromise."
"I'm listening."
"Help me with something first. Before the bonding ritual." His eyes gleamed with dark promise. "You want revenge on Marcus. On everyone who wronged you. I can give you that. We use what's left of my power to destroy them. Prove you're not worthless. Make them sorry." He extended his hand. "Then, once you've had your revenge, we complete the bond. Deal?"
I stared at his offered hand. A deal with a dying Shadow King. What could possibly go wrong?
Everything. Absolutely everything.
But the alternative was going back to being nothing. And I'd rather die than be invisible again.
"Deal," I said, taking his hand.
Power crackled between us. The soul mark pulsed with dark light, accepting our agreement.
"Good." Kaelen smiled, sharp and dangerous. "Then let's start with Marcus. I believe he's getting married next week?"
"To my former best friend. Yes."
"Perfect. Nothing says revenge like ruining a wedding." He stood, pulling me up with him. "But first, we need to train you. Your power is wild and uncontrolled. You need to learn precision. Control."
"How long will that take?"
"For most mages? Years." His grin was wicked. "For you? We'll make it work in days. Welcome to intensive shadow magic training, little forsaken one. It's going to hurt."
A sound echoed below us. Wings. Many wings.
The Seraphim had found us again.
"How are they tracking us so fast?" I demanded.
Kaelen's face went grim. "Your mother. She has your blood from childhood. She's using it to lead them straight to us."
Betrayal after betrayal. Would it ever stop?
"Then we run," I said.
"We can't run forever."
"So what do we do?"
Before he could answer, a figure landed on the rooftop behind us. Not Aurelia. Someone worse.
My brother, Damien, his Seraphim blade drawn.
"Hello, sister," he said coldly. "Mother sent me to bring you home. Dead or alive."
Through the bond, I felt Kaelen's rage spike.
"That's your brother?" he asked quietly.
"Unfortunately."
"The one who got everything while you got nothing?"
"Yes."
Kaelen's smile was absolutely terrifying.
"Mind if I kill him?"
I should say no. Say family matters, blood ties, something noble.
Instead: "Make it hurt."
Damien raised his blade. "You're both under arrest. Surrender now or—"
His words cut off as shadow-spears erupted from the rooftop, impaling his wings.
He screamed.
Kaelen stepped forward, shadows writhing around him like living things. "Your sister and I have a deal, boy. And harming what's mine violates that deal rather spectacularly."
More Seraphim landed around us. Ten. Twenty. Thirty.
We were surrounded.
And Kaelen could barely stand.
"This is bad," I whispered.
"Very bad," he agreed.
Then Aurelia descended, her starlight blade pointed at my heart.
"Last chance, girl. Renounce the Shadow King. Accept your mother's protection. Or die with him."
I looked at Kaelen. Dying. Desperate. Dangerous.
Then at my mother, standing with the Seraphim. Choosing them over me. Again.
The choice was suddenly very clear.
I stepped closer to Kaelen, our hands linking. The soul mark blazed between us.
"I choose him," I said clearly.
Aurelia's face twisted with fury. "So be it."
She raised her blade for the killing strike.
The rooftop beneath us exploded.
We fell through fire and chaos, shadows and light colliding.
And in Kaelen's arms, falling through darkness, I heard him whisper:
"Hold on tight, little forsaken one. Th
is is going to hurt."
Then we hit something that felt like glass shattering—
And reality broke apart completely.