Celeste's POV
I woke up to three men arguing over my unconscious body.
"Put her down. Now." That was Damien, his voice cold enough to freeze fire.
"Make me." Adrian. Calm. Deadly.
"Both of you shut up before you wake her!" Theo, trying to keep the peace like always.
I opened my eyes. My apartment ceiling came into focus—exposed beams, hanging herbs, the protection sigils I'd painted years ago. Adrian was laying me down on my couch, his movements careful, like I might shatter if he wasn't gentle enough.
His hand was still pressed against my chest, right over my heart.
And my magic... it wasn't screaming anymore. The fire that had been eating me alive downstairs was just a quiet burn now. Manageable. Almost peaceful.
How was that possible?
"She's awake," Theo said, relief flooding his voice. He pushed past Damien and dropped to his knees beside the couch. "Celeste, can you hear me? How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Three." My voice came out as a croak. "And I'm fine, Theo. Stop looking at me like I'm dying."
"You are dying!" He grabbed my wrist, checking my pulse with shaking fingers. "Your heart rate is through the roof, you're bleeding internally, and you just collapsed in front of forty witnesses—"
"Forty-three," Adrian corrected quietly. He still hadn't moved his hand from my chest.
I looked up at him. Really looked.
Adrian Blackwell was terrifying in the way wolves are terrifying—beautiful and dangerous and built to kill. Dark hair, gray eyes that saw everything, a face that showed no emotion except when he thought no one was watching. He wore all black, always, and moved like violence was a language he spoke fluently.
But right now, touching me, he looked almost... scared.
"You can move your hand," I said softly.
"If I do, your magic will spiral again."
"That's impossible. You're human. Humans can't affect witch magic."
His jaw tightened. "I know what I am. And I know what happens when I let go of you."
To prove his point, he lifted his hand an inch.
Immediately, fire roared back through my veins. Silver light exploded from my skin. I gasped, arching off the couch as pain ripped through every nerve.
Adrian's hand slammed back down.
The pain stopped. The light faded. My magic settled like a frightened animal being calmed.
"What the hell?" Damien stepped closer, his purple magic crackling around his fingers. "That's not possible. Hunters can't—"
"I'm not doing it on purpose." Adrian's voice was tight. Controlled. But I heard something underneath—confusion, maybe fear. "It just... happens."
Theo pulled out a stethoscope with shaking hands. "I need to examine her. That means you need to—"
"I'm not moving."
"She's going to die if we don't figure out what's wrong!"
"She'll die faster if her magic goes wild again." Adrian finally looked at Theo, and something passed between them. An understanding. "I've been watching her for three years, doctor. I know what her magic looks like when it's killing her."
The room went silent.
"Three years?" Damien's voice was ice. "You've been stalking her for three years?"
"Protecting her." Adrian turned those gray eyes on Damien, and the temperature in the room dropped. "From hunters my father sent. From dark covens wanting her power. From people like you who see her as a tool instead of a person."
"You don't know anything about me."
"I know your family killed her mother. That's enough."
Damien's magic exploded outward in a wave of fury. Purple light filled the room, slamming into Adrian's chest hard enough to throw him backward—
But Adrian didn't move his hand. He held onto me like letting go would kill me, and Damien's magic just crashed around him like water around a rock.
"Stop it!" I tried to sit up, but Adrian's hand kept me pinned. "Both of you, stop! I don't have time for this!"
Theo grabbed Damien's arm. "She's right. Fighting won't help."
Damien jerked away, but his magic faded. He stared at Adrian with pure hatred. "If you hurt her—"
"Then you can kill me yourself." Adrian's voice was flat. "Get in line. My father's already trying."
My brain was working too slowly. Nothing made sense. "Your father knows?"
"He suspects." Adrian's hand shifted slightly on my chest, and I felt his fingers trembling. Just barely. "I've been lying to him for three years, covering my tracks, killing other hunters he sent after you. But after last night..." He paused. "He knows I'm compromised."
"Compromised?" The word tasted bitter. "Is that what I am to you?"
"No." He finally looked down at me, and the emotion in his eyes made my breath catch. "You're the reason I learned everything I was taught was a lie."
Before I could respond, my apartment door slammed open again.
A woman walked in like she owned the place. Beautiful in a sharp, dangerous way, with dark hair and eyes that glittered with malice. She smiled at me, and it was like looking at a snake.
"Hello, cousin."
Vivienne.
My magic surged with fury, but Adrian's hand held it down. Silver light tried to explode outward, tried to destroy her, but his touch kept me calm enough to think.
"Get out," I snarled.
"Now, is that any way to greet family?" Vivienne's smile widened. She looked at Adrian, then Damien, then Theo. "My, my. Three men already. You work fast."
"What do you want?" Damien moved to block her view of me, his magic crackling to life.
"Just checking on my dear cousin." Vivienne pulled an envelope from her pocket and tossed it onto the coffee table. "The Arcane Council sent this. Thought you'd want to read it right away."
She turned to leave, then paused at the door.
"Oh, and Celeste?" Her voice dripped with false sweetness. "You might want to ask your new friends about their little secrets. Like why Adrian's blood is the only thing that can calm your magic. Or what Damien's father really did the night your mother died. Or why Theo's medical records don't exist before ten years ago."
My heart stopped.
"Sweet dreams, cousin. You've got—what? One hundred seventy-eight days left?" She laughed. "Better choose fast. The trials are going to be so much fun."
She left.
The silence was deafening.
I looked at Adrian. At his hand still pressed against my heart. At the way my magic responded to him like it knew him, like it had been waiting for him.
"What did she mean?" My voice shook. "Why does your touch calm my magic?"
Adrian's face was stone. But his hand trembled harder.
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"I'm not—"
"Then let go of me and prove it!"
He stared at me for a long moment. Then, slowly, he lifted his hand.
The fire came back instantly. My magic exploded. Silver light filled the room like a supernova, wild and deadly and completely out of control. I screamed as it burned through me, as it tried to tear me apart—
Three things happened at once.
Adrian's hand slammed back down, and my magic calmed.
Theo's fingers closed around my wrist, and somehow—impossibly—the burning dimmed even more.
And Damien whispered a spell that wrapped around all of us in purple light, creating a shield that held my magic inside my body instead of letting it destroy everything.
I stared at all three of them, breathing hard.
Their touches. All three of them. Working together to keep me alive.
With shaking hands, I reached for the envelope Vivienne had left.
The Arcane Council's seal was broken. Inside was a single piece of paper with a single sentence written in blood-red ink:
CHOOSE YOUR SOULMATE IN 30 DAYS OR WE CHOOSE FOR YOU.
The date at the bottom was stamped with official magic.
"Thirty days?" Theo's voice cracked. "But you said six months—"
"The Council changed the timeline." Damien's face was pale. "They're forcing her hand."
Adrian's grip on me tightened. "Why?"
I read the rest of the letter, and my blood turned to ice.
"Because someone bid for my magic at the Council auction." My hands were shaking so hard I almost dropped the paper. "If I don't choose in thirty days, my power goes to the highest bidder. And whoever wins..."
I couldn't finish.
Damien took the letter from me and read it. His face went white. "No. They can't do this."
"What?" Theo demanded. "What does it say?"
Adrian read over Damien's shoulder. When he spoke, his voice was dead. "It says whoever wins the auction gets Celeste's magic. But the transfer ritual requires..."
He couldn't say it.
I said it for him.
"It requires my death. Immediate. Permanent. They're going to kill me and harvest my magic like I'm some kind of crop."
The room exploded into chaos. Damien swearing in languages I didn't know. Theo arguing that it was illegal, impossible, murder. Adrian so still and quiet he looked like a statue carved from rage.
My phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number. But I knew who it was.
The auction starts in three days. Current bid: 50 million. Better find your soulmate fast, cousin. Or I'll make sure I win. —V
Followed by another message:
P.S. Your three boys are hiding something. Ask them about the prophecy. :)
I looked at Adrian. At Damien. At Theo.
All three of them staring at me with guilt written across their faces.
"What prophecy?" My voice was deadly quiet.
No one answered.
"WHAT PROPHECY?"
Damien closed his eyes. "There's something we need to tell you. About why we're really here."