Death was not silent.
It pulsed.
Like a second heartbeat inside my skull, pounding with every breath I didn't take. I wasn't cold. I wasn't warm. I was nothing and everything. Floating, falling, flying. Time didn't exist here. Neither did rules. Just the scream of ancient voices and the weight of unfinished oaths.
My feet touched something.
Not ground.
Not really.
A shimmering path stretched before me, made of smoke and memories. Around me, the Veil breathed. Shapes moved in the fog. Some whispered. Some wailed. One reached for me a child's hand, broken at the wrist, dripping moonlight. I stepped back.
"Seraphina," a voice called.
Not the ghost girl.
This one was older. Familiar.
I turned.
And there she was.
My mother.
Not the way she looked when she died. Not wasted. Not weak. Here, she was radiant. Glorious. Wreathed in violet flame. The High Witch she was always meant to be.
"You shouldn't be here," she said.
Tears burned in my throat. "I had no choice."
She walked toward me, arms outstretched, but something stopped her an invisible wall of flickering gold.
"The Veil doesn't let go easily. Remember that."
"I need answers," I said. "The curse Kaelen it's killing him."
"And you think death holds truth?" she asked.
"I think life has lied to us long enough."
A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "Spoken like a true daughter of the Flame."
Then she pointed.
Beyond the fog, a light shone.
"Go. But do not drink. Do not linger. And when you hear the scream, run."
"Why?"
But she was already fading.
The Veil never gave anything without taking something in return.
I walked.
Each step echoed like thunder, though no ground lay beneath me. The path twisted, then split in two. One side bled shadows. The other shimmered with silver light.
I chose the dark.
Not out of bravery.
Out of instinct.
Something waited for me there.
Something old.
A temple rose from the gloom, built of bones and bound in runes. I stepped inside.
Torches lit themselves. Glyphs danced on the walls. And in the center
A throne.
Empty.
Until it wasn't.
A figure formed in its seat. Not flesh. Not spirit. A thing made of smoke and memory, draped in silver chains.
"You seek the truth of the bond," it said. Its voice was all voices.
"Yes."
"Then kneel."
I didn't hesitate.
The air tightened. My chest burned. Pain lanced through my skull.
"Do you accept the price?"
"What price?"
The chains on the figure's body clinked. One snapped.
"Should you return, the curse will follow."
"I don't care."
"Should you save him, another must fall."
My breath hitched.
"I don't care."
The second chain broke.
"Should you love him, you will suffer. Should you bind him, the world will bleed."
The final chain shattered.
The figure rose. Taller than any being I'd seen. It pointed a hand at my chest.
"You were warned."
Then it touched me.
Fire.
Not heat. Not flame. Something inside me ignited runes, blood, bone. It seared every memory, every lie, every wound.
I screamed.
And the world screamed back.
Everything shattered.
The temple, the Veil, the voices—all of it peeled away in layers of ash and blood and light. I was burning and drowning, weightless and crushed. And somewhere beneath the agony, I heard her.
The ghost girl.
"Don't let go. Hold onto the bond."
Kaelen's face flashed before me, not as he was now but as I first saw him. That first touch. That magnetic pull. The quiet ache that never left.
I reached.
Kaelen's voice was the first thing I heard.
"Sera! Wake up. Please don't do this. Don't leave me."
I gasped.
The Veil tore away like mist at dawn.
My body returned.
Pain came with it.
So did light.
I blinked. Ashvale's moon hung above me, full and crimson. Kaelen held me in his arms, shaking. His eyes wild. His chest heaving.
"You were gone," he whispered. "For so long."
"Only minutes," I rasped.
He shook his head. "Hours. The ghost vanished. The town started... changing. I thought I lost you."
I touched his face.
"I got what we needed," I said. "The truth. The bond isn't cursed by accident. It was forged to break a war and that war is coming."
He stared at me. "What war?"
I tried to speak. But something inside me twisted. A searing pain, like the mark left by that shadow figure in the temple.
Kaelen caught me as I stumbled.
"Sera?"
"I brought something back," I whispered. "From the Veil."
His grip tightened. "What do you mean?"
But I couldn't answer.
Because in the distance, something screamed.
Not human.
Not wolf.
Something older.
Something wrong.
The Veil hadn't closed.
Not entirely.
And something came through with me.
It was watching.
Waiting.
Breathing through Kaelen's heartbeat.
And it was only just waking up.