They said I was born to rule, but they never said I'd have to share my fate with a traitor.
The throne room of Ravaryn was a maw of carved obsidian, cold as the prince who stood at its heart.
Prince Kaelion Ravaryn, heir to the Onyx Throne, did not flinch as the prisoner was dragged before him. The man was bloodied, chained, and still smirking.
Evren Solare.
A name whispered in rebel camps. The last spark of a fallen bloodline outlaws, mages, and once, royalty.
"You're braver than I expected," Kaelion's voice cut through the silence, sharp as the blade at his hip. "Or significantly more foolish."
Evren didn't bow. He didn't kneel. He just stared up with eyes like banked fire and said, "You're taller than I expected. Still an asshole, though."
A guard shifted, but Kaelion raised a single hand. "Leave us."
When the heavy doors boomed shut, a different silence fell, thick with the ozone crackle of magic. Kaelion could feel it coiling in the air, a storm waiting to break.
"You used blood magic to breach the Royal Archives," he stated. "What were you looking for?"
Evren leaned back on his heels, the chains clinking. "Something your family buried."
"You will not leave this room alive," Kaelion warned, his tone flat and final.
A slow, dangerous smile spread across Evren's face. "I didn't come here to leave."
The magic erupted. It was not a spell, but a raw, desperate surge. Light and shadow collided in the center of the throne room. Kaelion's ward flared to life, a shield of pure will, and Evren shattered it. But the backlash was instant, a whip of untamed power that lashed back at them both.
The magic twisted.
Itbound.
It sealed itself in their veins.
Then, everything went black.
Kaelion awoke to two impossible truths. The chains were gone. And so was the space between them.
Their magic had bonded. Fused. An ancient, irrevocable link he could feel humming under his skin, a cage made of his own power.
The Crown Prince and the traitor mage were tied together.
When Kaelion took a step, Evren was pulled with him. Not by choice, but by an invisible tether woven through soul and sinew.
Kaelion's fists clenched, his knuckles white. "Undo this. Now."
Evren let out a sharp laugh. "You think I meant to soul-bond with the poster boy for tyrannical royalty? Trust me, you're not my type."
In a flash, Kaelion closed the distance, grabbing a handful of Evren's tunic and yanking him close. His eyes blazed with molten fury. "Then fix it."
"I can't!" Evren hissed, his breath ghosting across Kaelion's face. "You think I'd chain myself to you for fun?"
Kaelion released him with a shove that spoke of barely restrained violence. He turned, pacing the length of the obsidian floor. "This changes everything."
"For you, maybe," Evren muttered, rubbing his chest. "For me, it just shortens the time until your court decides my head would look better on a spike."
Kaelion stopped. His voice dropped to a deadly calm. "As long as this bond exists, your death is mine."
Evren went very still.
Oh.
The mighty prince was trapped,too.
The royal mage, an old man whose silver eyes held the ghosts of forgotten wars, confirmed their fate. "The bond is sealed in old magic. Blood-forged. It cannot be broken."
"There must be a way," Kaelion insisted, his jaw a hard line.
"There is one," the mage said carefully. "But it requires the two of you to remain… close. In body and in will."
Evren's face twisted in disgust. "What the hell does that mean?"
"It means," the mage replied, his expression grim, "that if you feed the hatred between you, the bond will turn violent. It will tear you both apart from the inside."
A long, heavy pause filled the room.
Then Kaelion spoke, his decision made. "We leave for Blackspire at first light."
"Blackspire?" Evren echoed, a knot of dread forming in his stomach.
"My fortress. Isolated. We will find a way to control this… thing."
"And if I refuse to come?"
Kaelion turned, and his gaze was like being impaled. "You are mine now, mage. You come… or we both burn."
The road to Blackspire was a serpent of switchbacks carved into the mountain, cold and endless. Storm clouds hunched above them like hungry beasts. Snow fell in silent, mocking flurries, but the silence between the two riders was louder than any thunder.
They rode alone no guards, no servants. Just the prince and the mage, bound by magic and mutual loathing.
Evren tugged his cloak tighter, teeth chattering. "You know, I always imagined if I was being dragged to a cursed fortress, it'd be more dramatic. Torches. Angry mobs. A ceremonial beheading."
Kaelion didn't spare him a glance. "Would you prefer that?"
"Let's skip the beheading," Evren said. "The rest had potential."
Kaelion's expression didn't change, but Evren felt the ripple of his irritation through the bond a hot, sharp pulse beneath his own breastbone. Tension lived in Kaelion like a second skeleton.
They didn't speak again until the spires clawed into view.
Blackspire.
A fortress hewn from the mountain itself, its black stone peaks like jagged fangs against the bruised sky. The gates groaned open, ancient magic scanning the bond between them before granting passage.
Inside, the halls were lit by firestones that pulsed with a cold, blue light. Evren could feel their hum in his teeth.
Kaelion dismounted with practiced grace and pointed to a heavy oak door. "This is where you'll sleep."
The room within was spartan: a simple bed, a washbasin, no windows.
Evren raised a brow. "Cozy. Planning to tuck me in?"
Kaelion stepped into his space, the bond pulling taut. "I should have left you in the dungeons."
"You did," Evren smirked. "Until the universe decided you needed a soulmate."
Kaelion's eye twitched. A victory.
That night, the bond burned.
Evren woke from a fitful sleep, his heart hammering not from a nightmare, but from a foreign, suffocating wave of emotion rage, restlessness, a deep, cutting guilt. It was Kaelion's.
He wasn't alone in his suffering.
Pulled by the invisible tether, he found Kaelion in the training hall, shirt plastered to his torso with sweat, driving his sword into a practice dummy as if he could exorcise their bond through sheer violence.
Evren stepped out of the shadows.
Kaelion stilled, his chest heaving, eyes wild in the dim light. "Can't sleep?"
Evren just shook his head.
And in that moment no throne, no titles, just the two of them, bound in the silent, sweating dark something shifted. The air was thick with a tension that had no name.
The next morning, a sharp knock shattered the silence.
"Get up, let's begin training."
Evren groaned, rolling over. "You know, for my other half, you're not very nurturing."
He received only cold silence in reply.
In the training hall, Kaelion was already waiting, a sword in his hand, his stance a portrait of lethal perfection. "Pick a weapon."
Evren eyed the rack of blades with distaste. "I prefer magic."
Kaelion kicked a practice dagger toward his feet. "You'll learn both."
Evren bent to retrieve it, muttering, "Royalty and their control issues."
What followed was not training; it was a battle of wills. Kaelion didn't instruct; he attacked. Every parry was a criticism, every dodge a provocation. Evren stumbled, swore, and countered with short, sharp bursts of magic just enough to say I am not yours to break.
Until the bond snapped.
Not broke recoiled.
A concussive wave of pure force threw them apart. Evren's back hit the stone wall with a sickening thud. Kaelion staggered, catching himself on the weapons rack, his eyes wide with shock.
"What the hell was that?" Evren gasped, clutching his chest.
Before Kaelion could answer, the door swung open.
A man stood there, draped in a dark cloak, his silver eyes alight with smug amusement. "Trouble in paradise already? You always did make bonding look so painful, Your Highness."
Kaelion's face darkened into a thundercloud. "Leave, Therin. This doesn't concern you."
"On the contrary," Therin said, gliding into the room. His gaze swept over Evren like he was a fascinating new insect. "I think it concerns me very much. You haven't told him the best part, have you?"
Evren's eyes narrowed. "Told me what?"
Kaelion's jaw tightened to the point of pain.
Therin's smile was a razor cut. "That this bond of yours? It's parasitic. Neglect the connection, feed it only with hatred, and it will consume you. From the inside out. A rather… messy way to die."
Evren's heart plummeted. He looked at Kaelion. "You were going to tell me when? When I started coughing up shadows?"
The room crackled, thick with magic, fear, and something new, something terrifyingly intimate.
Therin watched it all, utterly pleased. "This," he purred, "is going to be exquisitely entertaining."