The veil was bleeding.
Tears of silver spilled from the sky, slicing down like shattered light. Each drop that hit Kael's skin seared into him—memories not his, fragments of things Bella had seen, suffered, become.
He kept running.
His boots pounded across a bridge that wasn't made of stone or wood but of smoke and memory, arcing across the broken divide between worlds. Around him, the edges of the Realm twisted violently—trees uprooted themselves and howled, skies spun in reverse, and the stars pulsed like hearts with arrhythmic terror.
"Bella!" he shouted into the void.
No answer.
Only the crown's scent lingered—burnt roses, salt, and blood. It led him forward like a dying trail.
Every step he took, the weight on his back grew. Not physical, but ancient. Like the universe knew he was trespassing where no man should walk.
He gritted his teeth and pushed harder.
Until—
The bridge cracked.
Kael stumbled, his foot plunging through a tear in the air. Through it, he glimpsed a thousand versions of Bella—one screaming, one burning, one kneeling in chains.
He yanked himself free, breath coming in gasps.
"No," he whispered. "I don't care what she's becoming—I'm not losing her again."
The final gate appeared at the end of the path.
A door, twelve feet tall. Formed from bone and starlight. It pulsed with every beat of Bella's heart—weak, staggered, slipping.
Kael reached it just as it began to close.
He threw his shoulder into the creaking space, roaring as magic surged against him. His tattoos lit up with silver fire—gifts from the coven Bella had unknowingly awakened in him the day she touched his soul.
The door screamed.
But it opened.
And Kael fell through.
—
He landed in a place that was not earth.
The sky was a dome of violet glass, with cracks shaped like runes. The land beneath him was obsidian, pulsing with heat. Floating above the shattered horizon—one throne.
Two figures.
Bella.
And beside her—
No.
Not beside.
Inside.
Lilith.
Her face had changed—just slightly. Lips sharper. Eyes colder. Posture regal. Her hair moved like it had a will of its own, whispering curses in tongues Kael had never heard.
Bella turned toward him slowly.
Her voice, when she spoke, was not just hers.
"Kael," she said, smiling. "You're just in time to watch me end what I started lifetimes ago."
He took a step forward, hands trembling.
"Bella… fight her."
Lilith's voice slipped through Bella's mouth.
"She doesn't want to fight me anymore."
Bella raised a hand.
Power gathered at her fingertips—dark, molten, godlike.
Kael's heart shattered.
But he didn't flinch.
"I love you," he said softly. "Even if you burn me alive, Bella—I'll love you until I die."
Her hand hesitated.
Lilith hissed inside her.
"No," she snapped. "Kill him."
Bella's eyes flickered.
Kael stepped forward.
And the sky split again.
But this time—from above.
A third force was coming.
Something neither god nor queen expected.
Kael has found Bella—but she's not alone in her mind. And now, something worse than Lilith has crossed into the Realm.
Who—or what—is descending from the sky?