Chapter Twelve: The Blade in His Shadow
The words hung between them like frost in the air.
> "Kael... what page was your name written on in the Book of Moonborn?
And why… is it crossed out?"
Kael didn't answer.
Not right away.
His silver eyes—usually so calm, so sharp—shook. Just slightly. Barely visible. But enough.
"Where did you hear that?" he asked, his voice low.
Aria took a step back. "It doesn't matter. I want the truth now. No more silence. No more riddles. No more protecting me from what you think I can't handle."
Kael ran a hand through his hair, turning his face away from her. For the first time, he looked… human.
Afraid.
"I didn't want you to know," he whispered.
"Know what?"
"That I wasn't sent to protect you," he said. "I was sent to watch you. Contain you. And if your power ever awakened fully—kill you."
---
The forest was deathly quiet.
Aria's throat tightened. "So all this time... the saving, the guiding, the pendant—you were just following instructions?"
"No," he said quickly. "It was true. It became true. But in the beginning…" He closed his eyes. "I wasn't even real."
Her breath hitched. "What do you mean?"
"I was created, Aria."
He finally turned to face her, and for the first time, she saw it—not just the moonlight in his eyes, but something darker behind it. Something not born, but forged.
"I was shaped from shadow and memory. From the broken pieces of fallen pacts. The Council crafted me as a living blade. A failsafe. If the Moonmarked child awoke—if you awoke—I would be close enough to end it before the world suffered."
"And yet you stayed," Aria said quietly. "You chose to stay."
He nodded. "Because I changed. Because you changed me."
A wind stirred the leaves around them. Her voice trembled.
"So is that what this is? A lie you grew to love?"
He didn't speak.
And that silence said everything.
---
Tears burned in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. "So when you touched me—when the power flared—was it real?"
"Yes," he said, stepping forward. "All of it. Aria, I'm not the same thing they made. I'm—"
"Stop," she whispered. "Don't try to be human now."
"Then let me be honest," he snapped, the mask cracking. "I don't know what I am anymore. But I know you're not safe. And I know the Council will come for you next."
She shook her head. "And what will they do when they find out you didn't complete your mission?"
He looked away.
Aria's voice hardened. "They'll kill you, won't they?"
"Yes."
A long silence followed.
Then she whispered, "So if I lose control… are you still going to be the one to kill me?"
Kael took a long breath. "I don't think I can."
"And what happens if you don't?"
"The world ends," he said.
---
The shadows around them thickened. The moon turned blood-red.
Far above, the veil between realms began to split—and something moved behind it.
A voice echoed from the dark:
> "The tether is breaking. The blade is hesitating.
The Moonmarked must choose—light, or ruin."
Aria stepped back.
The mark on her wrist blazed like fire.
Kael reached for her.
She didn't take his hand.
Not this time.
---