Elaria didn't sleep that night.
She sat beside the shattered tree, fingers still tingling with the aftershock of what she'd seen. The memories were sharp now—clearer than dreams. Her childhood, her real bloodline, the boy with silver eyes who once held her hand in the fire.
Kael.
He didn't speak much. Just stayed nearby, silent and watchful, as if guarding her from the forest itself.
"Why didn't you come for me sooner?" she asked.
Kael looked up, the silver in his eyes catching the moonlight. "Because I was cursed too. Every time I tried to leave the Shadowlands, the mark burned. Until tonight."
"What changed?"
"You awakened. Your power called to mine. And now… the binding between us is active again."
Elaria looked down at the pendant still hanging around her neck. It pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat.
"What does that mean?" she asked.
Kael rose and walked toward her, stopping only when their shadows merged.
"It means if you die, I die. If I fall into darkness, you fall too. We're tied now—soul to soul, light to shadow."
She swallowed hard. "So I can't escape you."
He shook his head once. "You don't need to."
She didn't know whether to feel protected… or trapped.
But deep inside, something in her stirred—a memory of warmth in his arms, of trust in the middle of war.
And the feeling that maybe, just maybe, their curse… was never meant to destroy them.
It was meant to unite them.