The first sign was silence.
No birds. No wind. Just the sharp crack of a branch beneath Vivi's boot as she woke alone.
"Haken?"
Nothing.
She turned, heartbeat rising.
Their campfire was still warm—but the space beside her was empty.
"Haken!"
Then came the smell.
Smoke.
And blood.
She ran.
Through trees, past the old stones, over roots clawing at her feet.
Then she found it:
A ring of crushed earth. Burn marks in a circle.
A sigil drawn in ash. A message scrawled on stone, written in blood:
He is mine now, little flame.
Her knees buckled. But the fire inside her Virelya's fire would not let her collapse.
Far below the forest, in a cavern forgotten by time
Haken screamed.
Chains made of bone wrapped his wrists. A circle of light—twisted and corrupted—pulsed beneath him.
And in the shadows, smiling like a man who'd won before the game began:
Viper.
"You think her love could break your curse?" he sneered.
Haken growled, blood dripping from his mouth. His body was changing again—but not into the beast.
Into something worse.
"I won't be yours."
"But you were always mine," Viper whispered. "The moment you touched her. The moment she named you."
He lifted a shard of black crystal, dark with ancient runes.
This is the other half of her soul. She never knew she gave it to you."
You're lying"
"Am I?" Viper tilted his head. "Why do you think your curse calmed when she touched you? Why do you think your silver eyes came back?"
He pressed the shard to Haken's chest.
Pain. Fire. Memory.
In the forest, Vivi felt it.
A scream—not with sound, but with soul. A pain inside her that didn't belong to her… but did.
She clutched her chest.
Haken…"
She ran, guided by instinct now. Not direction. Not logic.
The way flame finds air.
The way love finds pain.
She whispered his name. Over and over. Not with fear—
But with power.
"Haken. Haken. Haken…"
Each time she said it, the forest moved.
Branches bent.
Stones cracked.
And at the far end of the broken land…
a gate opened.
Back underground—
Viper flinched.
The circle faltered. The light dimmed.
"No," he hissed. "She shouldn't be able to—"
Haken opened his eyes.
Silver.
"You forgot," he growled, breaking the chains, "I'm not the beast she fears."
"I'm the man she chose."
The cavern exploded in flame.