Kaelen's POV
What have you done? I stare at the glowing marks on our arms identical symbols spiraling from wrist to shoulder. The binding marks of a mating bond.
Permanent. Unbreakable. Eternal.
Elara's eyes are wide with shock. I was trying to help! You were in pain!
Help? I pull my hand from hers, but the connection remains. I can feel her emotions fear, confusion, determination. You've sentenced yourself to death! The curse will consume you through the bond, and I'll be forced to watch it happen while feeling every second of your suffering!
Maybe it won't. Her chin lifts in that stubborn way I'm already learning to recognize. I'm still alive. Maybe I can survive this too.
No one survives proximity to me! My control shatters. My parents died in my arms. My younger sister lasted six hours after the curse took hold before her heart stopped. My closest friend made it two days. Everyone I touch dies, and now you've bound yourself to me FOREVER!
The curse marks on my skin flare with my anger. But they don't hurt anymore. For the first time in five hundred years, they're calm. Still.
And it's because of her.
Elara's POV
Kaelen's pain hits me through the bond not physical pain, but emotional agony so deep it takes my breath away.
Five hundred years of watching everyone he loves die. Five hundred years of isolation and guilt and hopelessness.
He's not a monster. He's a broken man who's suffered more than anyone should have to suffer.
I'm not going to die, I tell him firmly. I don't know why, but your curse doesn't affect me the same way. Maybe because of my light magic. Maybe because of the binding. But I'm getting stronger, not weaker.
For now. Kaelen's voice drops to a whisper. But the curse is patient. It waits. It builds. And when it finally takes you, it'll be worse than anything you can imagine because we're bound. Your death will destroy us both.
Then we find a way to break the curse before that happens.
He laughs a horrible, bitter sound. I've spent five centuries searching for a way to break it. There isn't one. The light priestesses who created it made sure of that.
The light priestesses, I repeat. My ancestors.
Kaelen's eyes snap to mine. Seris told you.
He said I'm the last light-blood. That my family created your curse. I step closer, even though Kaelen tries to back away. That means there has to be a connection. A reason I survived when others didn't.
The reason is you're going to complete the curse. His face hardens. The prophecy says the last light-blood will either break the curse or complete it. Breaking it means I die and return to mortality. Completing it means we both die and our power feeds the curse for another five hundred years.
Those can't be the only options.
They are. Kaelen moves toward me suddenly, and I see something terrifying in his silver eyes. Which means I need to end this now, before you suffer.
He raises his hand, shadows coalescing into a blade of pure darkness.
He's going to kill me.
Kaelen's POV
I have to do this. Better a quick death than watching her wither over days or weeks, feeling her pain through our bond the entire time.
I've failed to save twelve tributes. I won't fail Elara by letting her suffer.
The shadow blade forms in my hand, sharp enough to cut through anything. One strike. She won't feel pain. It'll be mercy.
I raise the blade.
Elara doesn't run. Doesn't beg. She just looks at me with those fierce eyes.
Do it, she says quietly. If you really think that's the answer, do it.
My hand shakes. I can feel her through the bonds he's terrified, but she's also... trusting me. She believes I'll make the right choice.
I bring the blade down.
And the binding magic EXPLODES.
Pain unlike anything I've felt even during the curse's creation slams into me. It's not my pain. It's Elara's. The bond is punishing me for trying to harm her.
We both scream, collapsing to our knees as magic tears through us.
The shadow blade dissolves. I can't maintain it through the agony.
Elara's POV
Pain rips through every nerve in my body. It feels like I'm being torn apart from the inside.
Through the haze of suffering, I understand what's happening.
The bond won't let us hurt each other. We're connected now two halves of a whole. If one dies, both die. If one suffers, both suffer.
The magic finally releases us, and I collapse forward, gasping.
Kaelen is on his hands and knees across from me, breathing hard.
We're bound, I manage to say through the pain. You can't hurt me. And I can't leave.
He looks up, and I see despair written across his face. Then I've trapped you. Bound you to a cursed king who can't save you. You'll die slowly while I'm forced to watch, feeling everything you feel. His voice breaks. I'm sorry, Elara. I'm so sorry. You've been sentenced to watch me fail to save you, just like all the others.
No. I force myself to sit up, even though my body screams in protest. I refuse to accept that.
It's not a choice
Everything is a choice! I crawl toward him, and he doesn't pull away this time. You chose to accept the curse to save your kingdom. I choose to fight it with you. Maybe I'll fail. Maybe we'll both die. But at least we'll die trying instead of giving up.
Kaelen stares at me like I'm speaking a foreign language. Why? Why would you fight for someone you don't even know?
Because no one fought for me. The words come from somewhere deep and honest. My kingdom threw me away. My sister betrayed me. Everyone I loved is dead or gone. But you I reach out and touch his face gently. The curse marks under my fingers are warm but calm. You tried to give me mercy even though it would hurt you. You care, even after five hundred years of pain. That's worth fighting for.
Kaelen's POV
No one has touched me with gentleness in five centuries.
No one has looked at me with anything but fear or hatred or pity.
But Elara touches my face like I'm worth saving. Like I'm not a monster.
Something inside me something I thought died long ago cracks open.
You're insane, I whisper.
Probably. She smiles, and it transforms her face. But I'm also bound to you now, so you're stuck with my insanity.
I should push her away. Should lock her in the tower and never see her again, minimizing the time we spend together.
But I can't.
The bond won't let me. And honestly, I don't want to.
For the first time in five hundred years, I don't feel alone.
What do we do now? Elara asks.
I don't know. I help her stand, our hands clasped together. The binding marks glow softly where our skin touches. But first, we need to understand what this bond actually means. What it changed. Why you're still alive.
Seris might know.
Seris knows everything. I start toward the door, then stop. Are you sure about this? Once we start searching for answers, there's no going back. You'll be fully committed to this cursed existence with me.
Elara doesn't hesitate. I'm already committed. The magic made sure of that.
We step into the corridor together, our binding marks pulsing in rhythm with each other.
That's when we hear the scream.
It echoes through the citadel high, terrified, and definitely human.
That's impossible, I breathe. There's no one else here except
Another scream cuts me off. Closer this time.
Elara and I run toward the sound, following it down corridor after corridor until we burst into the main entrance hall.
And freeze.
Standing in the center of the hall, surrounded by my shadows that writhe and hiss at her presence, is a young woman in traveling clothes.
She looks exactly like Elara.
Thalia? Elara's voice is barely a whisper.
Her sister the one who betrayed her has crossed into the Shadowlands.
And she's not alone.
Behind her, armed men pour through the veil. Twenty at least, carrying weapons that glow with light magic.
Leading them is a man in expensive robes, his face twisted with cruel satisfaction.
Lord Cassian, I growl.
He smiles. Hello, Dark King. We've come to kill you and harvest your power. And look we brought you a gift. He gestures to Thalia. The sister who sold out our dear Elara. Thought she might make good leverage.
Thalia's eyes meet Elara's, and I feel my mate's shock and pain through the bond.
I'm sorry, Thalia sobs. I'm so sorry. They made me come. They said they'd kill me if I didn't
Liar, Cassian interrupts pleasantly. She came because we promised her wealth and status. Just like she betrayed you the first time.
Elara's hand tightens in mine.
And through our bond, I feel something new rising in her.
Not fear. Not sadness.
Pure, burning rage.