Kira's POV
My shadows are out of control.
They blast through the alley like a storm, smashing crates and shattering windows. I try to pull them back, but they won't listen. The curse has turned my magic into a wild animal that wants to destroy everything—including me.
"Nightshade, stop!" Lucian shouts over the chaos.
"I can't!" The words rip from my throat as another wave of shadows explodes outward.
Through the darkness, I see them coming. Light Court soldiers in silver armor, their weapons glowing with magic that will burn me to ash. And they're not alone.
Five figures drop from the rooftops, landing in perfect formation.
Shadow Guild assassins.
My heart stops. I recognize their movements, their stances. These aren't random killers. These are my former brothers and sisters. People I trained with. People I ate dinner with. People who once swore to protect me.
Now they're here to end me.
"Well, well," says a familiar voice. Maven steps forward, pulling back her hood. She was my best friend once. We were thirteen when we both joined the Guild. We shared secrets, dreams, fears. "The great Wraith, finally cornered."
"Maven, please—" I start, but she cuts me off.
"Don't. You killed the Shadow King. You betrayed everything we stand for." Her eyes are cold. Dead. "You don't get to beg."
"I didn't kill him! I was trying to save him!"
"Liar." She draws two curved blades, their edges coated with purple poison. I know that poison. It paralyzes first, then stops your heart. We used it together on dozens of missions. "You were found covered in his blood."
"Because I was trying to help him!" My voice cracks with desperation. "Someone framed me, Maven. Please, you have to believe—"
"Enough talking," growls Razor, the scarred man who taught me knife-fighting. "The Guild wants her dead. Let's finish this."
They attack.
Five assassins moving as one, their blades flashing in the darkness. And behind them, the Light Court soldiers advance too, surrounding us completely.
I'm trapped between two enemies who both want me dead.
Lucian moves to stand beside me, his sword drawn. "Get behind me."
"I don't need your protection," I snap, even though we both know that's a lie.
"Too bad. You're getting it anyway."
Maven lunges first, her blades aimed at my throat. I dodge, barely. My body is so weak from the curse attack. My reflexes are slower. But years of training take over, and I fight back.
My shadow magic responds—barely under control—making me faster. I duck under Razor's strike, spin away from Maven's blade, block another assassin's attack. For a moment, I remember what it felt like to be the Wraith. The deadliest killer in the Shadow Court.
But that was before. When I was strong. When my magic obeyed me.
Now, I'm just trying to survive.
A blade slices across my arm. Pain flares hot and sharp. Another cuts my side. I'm bleeding, getting slower, and they know it.
Beside me, Lucian battles the Light Court soldiers. His light magic blazes like a star, forcing them back. But there are too many. Even he can't hold them all off forever.
"Why are your own people attacking you?" I gasp between strikes.
"They think I've betrayed them!" He blocks a soldier's sword, then blasts the man backward with light. "They think you've corrupted me with shadow magic!"
"Have I?"
"Focus on not dying first. We'll discuss it later."
Maven comes at me again, and this time I'm too slow. Her blade cuts deep into my shoulder. I cry out, stumbling backward.
"You're weak, Kira," she says, using my real name for the first time. It sounds wrong in her mouth now. "The curse is eating you alive. Why keep fighting? Just let it end."
"Because I'm innocent!" I scream at her. At all of them. "I didn't kill the Shadow King! Someone set me up!"
"Then who?" Maven demands. "Who would frame the Guild's best assassin?"
I open my mouth to answer, but I don't know. I've spent three months running, hiding, dying. I never had time to investigate. Never had time to find the truth.
Razor moves in for a killing blow. His blade—coated in that terrible poison—aims straight for my heart.
I try to dodge. Try to use my shadow magic to disappear.
But the curse chooses that moment to attack again.
Pain explodes through my chest. My legs collapse. I fall to my knees, gasping, as black veins pulse up my neck. My own magic is killing me faster than any assassin could.
Razor's blade gets closer. I can see my death in its poisoned edge.
Then Lucian is there.
He moves faster than light, throwing himself between me and the blade. His sword blocks Razor's strike with a clash of metal that rings through the alley.
"If you want her," Lucian says, his voice like ice, "you go through me first."
"Gladly," Razor growls.
They clash in a blur of shadow and light. Lucian's magic burns bright, forcing Razor back. But the other assassins circle closer, and the Light Court soldiers are closing in too.
We're going to die here. Both of us.
I try to stand, but my body won't cooperate. The curse has drained everything. I can barely breathe past the pain.
Maven stands over me, her blade raised. "I'm sorry, Kira. I really am. But orders are orders."
She strikes downward.
I close my eyes, waiting for the end.
But the blade never reaches me.
Instead, something impossible happens.
Light explodes from my chest—not Lucian's light, but something that comes from inside me. Golden-white brightness that shouldn't exist in someone cursed with shadow magic.
Maven flies backward, crashing into the wall. The other assassins stumble away, shielding their eyes.
Even Lucian stops fighting, staring at me in shock.
"What—" I gasp. "What's happening to me?"
The light grows brighter, and through it, I see something that makes my blood run cold.
A golden thread extends from my chest to Lucian's. It glows with power that feels ancient, sacred, impossible.
We're connected. Bound together by something I don't understand.
"No," Lucian whispers, his face going pale. "That's not possible. That's—"
"A soulbond," Maven finishes, her voice filled with horror. "Shadow and light, bound together." She looks between us, and for the first time, I see fear in her eyes. "What have you done?"
The ground beneath us starts to crack. Reality itself seems to shudder.
And in the distance, I hear something that sounds like the world screaming.