Arielle didn't sleep.
She couldn't.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw it—the black star, cold and pulsing in a sky with no moon. It wasn't just following her now.
It was speaking.
> "You are the breach," it whispered. "You are the door."
Her hands shook as she poured water into a basin. The reflection didn't show her face.
It showed Kael's.
Eyes burning white. A mouth open in agony.
"Help me," he mouthed.
And then… her face replaced his.
But the eyes weren't hers.
They belonged to Azenar.
Calen's Warning
Calen found Arielle in the sanctuary behind the town's chapel, where light never reached the floor.
He looked tired—ancient.
> "He's moving through you now," Calen said. "The fracture has reached your soul."
> "Can I stop it?" she asked.
> "Maybe. But not without cost."
> "Whose cost?"
He hesitated.
> "Ayden's."
The Trial of the Bonded Flame
There was an ancient rite in the Book of Forgotten Names.
A test for soul-bonded pairs touched by celestial power.
> One must burn to purify the other.
One must fall to let the other rise.
Ayden read the words, heart crumbling with every line.
> "You mean I have to suffer—for her to survive?"
> "Not just suffer," Calen said quietly.
"You may have to die."
Ayden turned toward the room where Arielle slept, the faint glow of her aura casting constellations on the walls.
He whispered, "Then I will."
Arielle's Descent
That night, Azenar pressed further.
Arielle's thoughts blurred.
She saw herself rising over Edenvale, her voice echoing with starlight and ruin.
The town burning.
Ayden, reaching for her.
> "Arielle," he said. "Come back."
But she couldn't speak.
Because she wasn't in control anymore.
---
The Sacred Fire
The town's hidden temple had one flame that had never died.
Forged from Kael's final breath when he fell to Earth.
Calen brought Arielle and Ayden there as dawn cracked the horizon.
"This is your trial," he said. "She must walk through the flame. But she cannot survive it… unless her anchor walks with her."
Ayden stepped forward.
"Then we walk together."
Arielle turned to him, tears
in her glowing eyes.
"What if you vanish?"
He smiled, brushing a strand of light from her cheek.
"Then I'll vanish loving you."