The heat from his touch spread fast. My skin smoked faintly beneath his fingers. Pain and something else, something sharper, cut through me.
"Kael" I gasped.
He let go, stepping back. "I told you not to test me."
I looked down. Smoke curled up from my wrist. The mark was glowing again, wild and alive.
"What's happening to me?"
He didn't answer. His look had turned faraway, haunted. "I shouldn't have touched you."
"Why?"
"Because when I do," he said gently, "you see things you shouldn't."
And before I could ask, the world tilted. My view was blurred. Heat surged behind my eyes then pictures began to flash.
Fire. Screams. A woman with silver hair crying his name.
Her face is my face.
She was burning, flames swallowing her as Kael held her in his arms, asking her to stay.
I felt the pain, the hopelessness, the overwhelming guilt.
Then everything went black.
I woke to his voice, low and strained. "Evelyn. Breathe."
My eyes flew open. He was crouched beside me, his hand floating near my face but not touching.
I jerked back, breathing. "What was that?"
He looked truly shaken. "You saw her."
"Who?"
He paused. Then, softly, "My wife."
My heart stuttered. "Your wife?"
"She died," he said. "Because of me."
I stared at him, the weight of his words sinking deep. "She looked like me."
He closed his eyes briefly. "I know."
The quiet burned between us.
"Why do I see her?" I spoke softly. "What does it mean?"
He opened his eyes again, and they glowed faintly gold. "It means the bond is deeper than I thought. You carry her picture. Her soul, maybe."
I shook my head. "No. I'm not her."
"Then why does your blood sing like hers?"
The words worried me.
"What was her name?" I asked quietly.
He paused, pain flashing across his face. "Lyra."
I whispered it aloud. "Lyra."
"She believed she could save me," he said. "She was wrong."
I studied him, the sadness in his eyes, the quiet torment beneath his calm. "Maybe she wasn't."
His gaze snapped to mine. "Don't."
"Don't what?"
"Don't try to fix what's already damned."
I straightened. "Maybe I'm not trying to fix you. Maybe I'm trying to understand why a man who claims to hate love still wears his pain like armor."
He laughed bitterly. "You think this is armor? No, Evelyn. It's punishment."
Something in his tone stopped me. He stood and turned away, his voice rough. "You should rest. You'll need your strength."
"For what?"
"To survive the next night," he said without looking back. "The castle tests those who don't belong."
"And I don't belong?"
He looked over his shoulder. "Not yet."
I should've let him go. But my curiosity was denied.
"Kael," I said, "why did you tell me I was your contract if you once had a wife?"
His face changed to a calm mask cracking. "Because you are not my wife."
"But"
He cut me off. "You're the price of my curse."
My breath caught. "Your curse?"
He nodded once. "Every hundred years, I'm bound to take a bride under blood oath. Each one ends the same way."
I mumbled, "She dies."
He met my eyes. "She burns."
My heart clenched. "Then why keep doing it?"
"Because the prophecy demands it."
I took a slow step toward him. "What prophecy?"
He didn't answer. His eyes flicked to the mark on my wrist.
"The Heart of Flame," he whispered. "She will either free him from his fire or be consumed with him in it."
My stomach dropped. "And you think that's me."
"I know it is."
"How?"
"Because when I touched you," he said, "you didn't scream. You saw."
I didn't know what to say. My pulse raced, my thoughts jumbled.
"I saw your pain," I breathed. "I saw her die."
He looked at me with eyes full of something I couldn't name. "Then you know what awaits you if you stay."
"I'm not her," I said again, but my voice wasn't steady.
"No," he said quietly. "But you might be worse."
We stared at each other, the air thick with things unsaid. Then, suddenly, the ground shook beneath us.
A deep rumble echoed from somewhere below.
Kael's head snapped toward the sound, his face sharp.
"They're early," he mumbled.
I frowned. "Who?"
He turned toward the door. "Those who want the prophecy dead before it begins."
Before I could move, flames flared in his eyes again. He stepped too close, his voice frantic.
"Do not open that door for anyone but me. Do you understand?"
"Kael"
"Do you understand?"
"Yes," I said quickly.
He turned to leave.
"Kael," I called. "If something happens to you"
He looked back, his face unreadable. "Then you'll burn with me."
He disappeared through the door, and I was left alone. The quiet that followed wasn't comfortable. It felt alive, listening.
The mark on my wrist pulsed again, brighter, hotter.
Then I heard faint whispers, calling my name from beyond the walls.
Evelyn…
My breath hitched. The speech was soft. Familiar.
Evelyn, help me…
I went cold. It was Lyra's voice. The dead wife.
I stood slowly, every nerve on edge. "No," I whispered. "You're not real."
He lied to you, the voice said. He killed me.
My blood ran cold.
"Stop," I whispered.
You will die too. Unless you stop him first.
The mark burned again fiercely and red like it wanted to answer her.
And then, just as suddenly, the voice stopped.
But the burn didn't.
I fell to my knees, gripping my arm. Pain burned through me as the mark split open, glowing like a live wound.
Inside the light, for a moment, I saw her again Lyra reaching toward me with fire in her eyes.
Free him or kill him.
Then the mark closed.
And the last sound that filled my head was Kael's voice, not hers.
"If you see her again… run."
The mark flared once more and this time, when I looked down, it wasn't glowing red. It was sparkling gold.
Kael's colour.
And I heard his roar echo through the castle walls.
His blood touched mine, and the world went silent.
I couldn't breathe. I couldn't even scream. The moment Kael's blade sliced his palm and pressed against my own, something old woke up between us. Fire rushed through my veins, burning, searing, claiming. I wanted to pull away, but his grip stiffened, unyielding, ruthless.
"Don't fight it," his voice rasped, low and rough, like smoke cutting through stone. "The bond must seal."
My pulse raced. "It feels like dying," I whispered.
His eyes were liquid gold, sharp as lightning flickered. "Then die, if you must. It is better than breaking the contract."
His words were cruel, yet his tone shook, as if they hurt him too.
I wanted to curse him, to tell him I wasn't some gift to his doomed life. But before I could speak, the circle beneath our feet blazed red. The symbols cut into the stone pulsed, one after another, until they surrounded us like a thousand eyes watching our death.
Then it happened and our blood sparked.
It wasn't just fire. It was memory, rage, pain, and desire all at once. I saw shadows rising, a woman screaming, a dragon's roar tearing through the sky.
My knees buckled. The air disappeared from my lungs. My heart thudded wildly then went still.
Darkness took me.