Kaelan's POV
I wake up screaming.
The corruption is gone. My body is whole. But Ember—I can't feel her anymore.
Our connection is silent.
"EMBER!" I roar, shadow magic exploding around me.
"My lord!" Dante rushes in, his face pale. "You're alive. The corruption—it's gone. How—"
"Where is she?" I grab his shoulders. "Where's Ember?"
"I don't know. After you collapsed, there was an explosion of silver light from the Moon Temple. We felt it across the entire realm. Then... nothing."
I close my eyes and search desperately for our connection. It was there moments ago—I felt her dying, felt her trying to say something important.
Now there's only silence.
"She can't be dead," I whisper. "If she dies, I die. That's how our bond works."
"Maybe the bond broke again?"
"No. It's different now. She changed it." I stand, my legs shaky. "We're connected permanently. Which means if I'm alive..."
Hope flares in my chest.
"She's alive too," Dante finishes. "But where?"
I focus on the bond, pouring everything I have into finding the other end of our connection. It's like searching for a thread in complete darkness.
Then I feel it—a flicker. Faint and far away, but there.
"Got you," I breathe.
I shadow-walk instantly, teleporting across the realm to where the bond leads me.
I land in the ruins of the Moon Temple. Lyra is there, cradling Ember's unconscious body. Selene stands guard, her moonlight magic forming a protective barrier.
"Kaelan!" Lyra looks up, tears streaming. "Thank god. She won't wake up. I've tried everything—"
I drop to my knees beside Ember. She's so still. Too still.
But through our bond, I feel her heartbeat. Slow and steady.
"She's not dying," I say, checking her pulse. "She's... dormant."
"Dormant?" Selene kneels beside us. "What does that mean?"
"We channeled too much power. Purified every corrupted bond in both realms." I brush hair from Ember's face. "Her body shut down to protect itself. She's healing."
"How long until she wakes?"
"I don't know." Through the bond, I can sense her dreams—fragmented images, memories, fears. "Could be hours. Could be days."
"We can't stay here," Lyra says urgently. "The Consortium will come back. And your father—" She looks at the body nearby. Lord Vespian, dead or unconscious, I can't tell.
"Is he alive?" I ask Selene.
She checks. "Barely. Ember burned away all his stolen magic. He's completely powerless now."
"Good." I gather Ember in my arms. She weighs almost nothing. "Lyra, can you cross back to the Ember Court?"
"Yes, but why would I—"
"Tell them what happened. Tell them the Consortium has been manipulating both realms for centuries. Tell them Lord Vespian tried to create a hivemind that would have killed thousands." I look at her steadily. "And tell them Ember Ravencrest saved them all."
Lyra's eyes widen. "You want me to clear her name."
"She deserves that much." I stand, cradling Ember. "Selene, what was that voice at the end? The one that said we played into their hands?"
Selene's face goes pale. "You heard that too?"
"Through Ember's connection. Who was it?"
"I don't know. But Kaelan..." She hesitates. "The Moon Temple's prophecy—the real one—it wasn't complete. There were pages missing. Stolen centuries ago."
Ice floods my veins. "Stolen by who?"
"We don't know. But whoever took them knew the full prophecy. They knew what would happen if Ember created a new type of bond." Selene looks at Ember's sleeping form. "What if freeing all those corrupted bonds wasn't the end goal? What if it was the setup for something bigger?"
Before I can respond, Ember's body jerks in my arms.
Her eyes snap open—but they're not her normal eyes. They're glowing pure silver.
"Kaelan," she says, but it's not her voice. It's layered, echoing, like multiple people speaking at once. "The real game is just beginning."
Then her eyes close again, and she goes limp.
"What was that?!" Lyra demands.
"I don't know." But through our bond, I feel something new. Something ancient waking up inside Ember.
We didn't just purify corrupted bonds. We awakened something that was supposed to stay asleep.
"We need to go. Now." I shadow-walk with Ember back to my castle.
I lay her in my bed—the safest place I know—and sit beside her, holding her hand.
Through our connection, I can feel her fighting whatever is trying to take control. She's strong. Stronger than anything I've ever known.
But whatever is inside her now is older than both our realms combined.
Hours pass. I don't move. Don't eat. Just watch her and wait.
Then, as night falls, she opens her eyes again. This time, they're her own.
"Kaelan?" Her voice is weak but real.
"I'm here." I squeeze her hand. "How do you feel?"
"Like I swallowed the sun and it's trying to burn its way out." She tries to sit up, and I help her. "What happened? The last thing I remember is—"
She stops. Her eyes go distant.
"Ember?"
"Someone else spoke through me." Her hand goes to her throat. "I felt it. Something ancient. Something that's been waiting inside me."
"Waiting for what?"
"For me to create the new bond type." She looks at me, fear in her eyes for the first time since I've known her. "Kaelan, when I changed our connection, when I refused to merge... I think I opened a door I wasn't supposed to open."
"What kind of door?"
Before she can answer, every window in my castle shatters simultaneously.
We run to look outside.
The sky is changing. Not just the twilight of the Dark Realm—something else. Reality is literally tearing apart, showing glimpses of other places. Other realms. Other dimensions.
"Oh no," Ember whispers. "No, no, no."
"What? What is it?"
"The prophecy. The REAL real prophecy." Her face is white. "When the Consortium split us apart six hundred years ago, they didn't just separate two people. They separated two halves of a lock. And when I created our new bond..."
Understanding crashes over me like ice water. "We turned the key."
"We opened the Veil. Not between the Ember Court and Dark Realm." She points at the fragmenting sky. "Between our reality and every other reality in existence. Infinite realms. Infinite worlds. All converging on this single point."
"Can we close it?"
"I don't know!" She grabs my arms. "The knowledge is in my head, but it's fragmented. Pieces of memories that aren't mine. I see... gods. Ancient beings. A war that destroyed the original realm and created all the others."
Through our bond, I feel her panic rising. And something else—the ancient presence stirring again, wanting to take control.
"Fight it," I tell her. "Stay with me."
"I'm trying!" Silver light starts leaking from her eyes. "But it's so strong, Kaelan. It wants to use my body to—"
She screams.
The ancient presence surges forward, and this time, it doesn't just speak through her.
It takes complete control.
Ember's body lifts off the ground, silver fire wreathing her like wings. When she opens her eyes, they're not silver anymore.
They're every color at once.
"Finally," the presence says through her mouth. "After six hundred years of imprisonment in fragments, I am whole again."
"Who are you?" I demand.
"I am what you were before you were split. I am the original being." She—it—smiles with Ember's face. "I am the god you should have become."
Horror fills me. "You're the merged form. You've been hiding inside both of us."
"Not hiding. Sleeping. Waiting for the pieces to reunite." It looks at its hands—Ember's hands. "This body will do. It's strong enough to hold my power."
"Let her go!" Shadow explodes from my body.
"I can't. She unlocked me when she created your bond. And now..." It spreads its arms, and the fracturing sky responds. "Now I will reunite all realms. All dimensions. All of existence. Just as it was before the Shattering."
"You'll destroy everything!"
"I'll remake everything." It looks at me with something like pity. "Don't you understand, shadow child? You and the fire girl were never separate people. You were always me, split and scattered. And now I'm taking back what's mine."
Ember's consciousness screams inside, and I hear it through our bond.
"Kaelan! Kill me! It's the only way to stop—"
The presence cuts her off, silencing her completely.
"What a sweet thought," it purrs. "But killing this body won't work. I exist in both of you now. You'd have to kill yourself too."
It's right. Through our bond, I can feel it spreading into me like poison.
I have seconds to act.
Kill us both and stop this thing. Or find another way.
"Ember," I think desperately toward her trapped consciousness. "If you can hear me, fight. I'll find a way to free you."
"There is no freedom," the god says, reading my thoughts. "There is only reunion. Only perfection. Only—"
A dagger of pure moonlight pierces through Ember's chest from behind.
Selene stands there, tears streaming down her face. "I'm sorry. But this is the only way."
The god looks down at the blade in shock.
"Moonstone," it whispers. "Forged from the same crystal that split us apart."
"It won't kill you," Selene says. "But it will put you back to sleep. For another six hundred years."
The god screams—a sound that shakes both realms.
Then Ember's body collapses.
And our bond goes completely silent.