POV: Ella
"Get down!" I screamed.
Raine dove sideways just as Morgana's dark magic exploded where he'd been standing. The cabin wall disintegrated into splinters and dust.
I didn't think. I just acted.
Shadow tendrils erupted from my hands—not wild this time, but controlled. They lashed out at Morgana, forcing her to jump back. My curse marks burned hot against my skin, and I felt the entity inside me stir, hungry for the chaos.
Not now, I told it fiercely. You don't get to control me.
"Impressive," Morgana purred, brushing dust from her dark robes. "The little princess is learning to use her curse. How delightful."
Theron stepped further into the ruined cabin, his sword gleaming in the firelight. When he looked at me, there was no love, no regret—just cold calculation.
"Hello, Ella," he said. "You're looking rather... dark these days."
"You're working with her?" My voice shook with rage. "With a dark sorceress? After everything you said about corruption and purity?"
Theron laughed. "You always were naive. Did you really think I loved you? You were a stepping stone, nothing more. A way to the throne." He gestured at Morgana. "She approached me months ago with a proposition: help her get a Shadow Elf, and she'd give me power beyond anything the elf kingdom has ever seen."
"So you made me touch the tree," I whispered. "You planned all of it."
"Of course." Theron's smile was cruel. "I knew the old prophecies. I knew what the Shadowthorn would do to you. All I had to do was whisper the right words, and you walked right into the trap."
Pain lanced through my chest—not from the curse, but from the betrayal. I'd loved him. Trusted him. Given him everything.
And he'd destroyed me for power.
"Enough talking," Morgana said impatiently. She raised her hand, and dark energy crackled around her fingers. "Give me the Shadow Elf, Raine. Or I'll kill you and take her myself."
"Option three," Raine said coldly. He grabbed my hand, and I felt his magic surge through our bond. "We fight."
Everything happened at once.
Raine threw a massive blast of dark magic at Morgana. She blocked it, but the force sent her stumbling backward. Theron charged at me, his sword aimed at my heart.
I summoned my shadow tendrils and caught his blade. Metal screeched against dark magic. Theron's eyes widened in shock—he'd expected me to be weak, helpless.
"I'm not your delicate princess anymore," I snarled, and sent him flying backward with a pulse of shadow magic.
But we were outnumbered and outmatched. Morgana was one of the most powerful sorceresses alive, and Theron was a master swordsman. We were exhausted, injured, and running on pure desperation.
"Ella!" Raine shouted. "The bond! Use it!"
I didn't understand what he meant. Then, through our connection, I felt his magic reaching for mine. Not just stabilizing it, but merging with it.
Our powers flowed together like two rivers becoming one. Dark magic and shadow curse, wizard and Shadow Elf, combining into something new.
The cabin exploded with purple-black energy.
When the light faded, Morgana and Theron were both on the ground, stunned. Raine and I stood in the center of the blast, our hands still locked together, breathing hard.
"Run," Raine gasped. "Now, while they're down!"
We ran.
Behind us, I heard Morgana's furious scream as she recovered. But we had a head start, and Raine knew these forests better than anyone.
We ran for hours through the darkness, putting as much distance between us and them as possible. Finally, when I thought my legs would give out, Raine pulled me into a hidden cave.
We collapsed on the rocky floor, both of us shaking and gasping for air.
"That was..." I couldn't even find words.
"Stupid? Reckless? Nearly fatal?" Raine suggested, wincing as he touched his injured shoulder.
"I was going to say incredible." I looked at our hands, still intertwined. "What did we do? That combined magic?"
"I don't know." Raine stared at our joined hands like they held the answer. "I've never heard of a bond allowing two different types of magic to merge like that. We shouldn't be able to do what we just did."
"But we did." Through our connection, I could still feel the echo of our combined power. It had been terrifying and exhilarating all at once.
"They're going to come after us harder now," Raine said quietly. "Morgana saw what we can do together. She won't stop until she has you."
"And Theron won't stop until I'm dead." I leaned against the cave wall, exhaustion crashing over me. "I can't go home. I can't stay here. I can't run forever." My voice broke. "What am I supposed to do?"
Raine was quiet for a long moment. Then he said, "We find the Moonlight Crystal. We break your curse, stabilize my magic, and sever the bond if we can. Then we disappear somewhere neither Morgana nor Theron can ever find us."
"You make it sound so simple."
"It's not." He met my eyes. "The journey to the Crystal Peak Mountains will take months. We'll have to cross the Obsidian Swamps, climb treacherous passes, fight off creatures and hunters. We might not survive."
"Better than waiting here to be killed," I said.
"Agreed." Raine stood up slowly, every movement showing his exhaustion. "We rest tonight. At dawn, we start moving. We'll stay off the main roads, avoid settlements, and keep our magic use to a minimum so they can't track us."
"Raine?" I said as he moved to the cave entrance to set up protective wards.
"What?"
"Thank you. For not giving me to Morgana. You could have saved yourself."
He looked back at me, and something in his expression made my breath catch. "We're bonded, Ella. Your death is mine, and mine is yours. Saving you is saving myself."
"Is that the only reason?"
The question hung in the air between us. Through our bond, I felt his emotions—complex and guarded, but definitely there. He cared about me. Maybe not love, not yet, but something more than just self-preservation.
"Go to sleep," he said instead of answering. "We have a long journey ahead."
I lay down on the hard cave floor, using my cloak as a blanket. Despite everything—the terror, the betrayal, the near-death experience—I felt oddly safe with Raine standing guard.
Through our bond, I felt him keeping watch, alert for any danger. And I realized something: for the first time since my exile, I wasn't alone.
I was just drifting off to sleep when Raine suddenly went rigid.
"Raine?" I sat up. "What's wrong?"
He stood at the cave entrance, staring out into the darkness. Through our bond, I felt his shock, his confusion, his fear.
"There's someone out there," he whispered.
"Morgana? Theron?"
"No. Someone else." He turned to look at me, his face pale. "Someone who knows exactly where we are. They've been following us since we left the cabin."
My heart hammered. "Who?"
Before Raine could answer, a voice called out from the darkness—young, familiar, and full of pain.
"Princess Ella! I know you're in there! Please... I need to talk to you!"
I knew that voice. I'd known it since childhood.
"That's Kael," I breathed. "My friend. One of the Moonblade Assassins."
Raine's hand went to his staff. "Assassins don't usually ask to talk."
"Kael's different. He wouldn't—"
"Princess!" Kael's voice was desperate now. "They sent me to kill you, but I can't do it! Please, you have to listen! You're in danger—more danger than you know!"
Raine and I looked at each other. Through our bond, I felt his suspicion warring with his curiosity.
"It could be a trap," he warned.
"Or he could have information we need," I countered.
"Princess, please!" Kael shouted. "Theron is planning something terrible! The bounty on your head—it's not just about keeping you away from the throne! He needs you for a ritual! He and Morgana are going to use your cursed blood to open a portal to—"
Kael's voice cut off with a strangled cry.
Raine and I rushed to the cave entrance just in time to see a dark figure emerge from the shadows behind Kael. A blade flashed in the moonlight.
Kael collapsed to the ground.
Standing over his body, pulling a bloody dagger from between his shoulder blades, was a woman I'd never seen before. She was young, maybe my age, with white hair and eyes that glowed red in the darkness.
She smiled at us—a smile that promised death.
"Found you," she said in a voice like silk and poison. "Morgana sends her regards. Oh, and she says to tell you: the hunt has just begun."
Then she vanished into the shadows like smoke.
I ran to Kael, dropping to my knees beside him. Blood pooled beneath him, dark and terrible.
"Kael!" I pressed my hands against his wound, trying to stop the bleeding. "Stay with me! Please!"
His eyes fluttered open, unfocused and fading. "Ella... the portal... they're going to destroy... everything..." His hand grabbed my wrist weakly. "Stop them... please..."
"I will," I promised, tears streaming down my face. "Just hold on—"
But his hand went limp.
Kael was dead.
My childhood friend, the boy who'd taught me to climb trees and sneak pastries from the palace kitchen, was gone.
And he'd died trying to warn us.
"Ella," Raine said urgently, pulling me to my feet. "We have to go. Now. That assassin will bring others."
"But Kael—"
"Is dead. And we will be too if we don't move."
He was right, but it didn't make it hurt any less.
As we fled into the night, leaving Kael's body behind, one thought consumed me: Theron and Morgana were planning something that required my cursed blood. Something that would "destroy everything."
And I had no idea how to stop them.