Celeste's POV
Stop running! Kieran's voice screams in my mind. Let me control your body or we'll both die!
"Never!" I gasp, stumbling over broken rock. Behind us, the collapsing Stormrift is creating a shockwave of pure destruction.
You're too slow! Too weak! His frustration bleeds into my emotions, mixing with my fear until I can't tell which feelings are mine anymore. Just let me—
My body suddenly moves on its own. Lightning-fast reflexes throw me sideways just as a massive boulder crashes where I was standing. I didn't choose to move. Kieran did it through my body.
"I said DON'T control me!" I scream both out loud and in my mind.
Then stop being stupid and let me save us!
We barely make it past the edge of the Deadlands before the final explosion hits. The force throws me forward. I land hard on scorched earth, rolling several times before stopping.
Everything hurts. Everything.
And underneath my pain, I feel Kieran's emotions—relief, exhaustion, and a terror so deep it makes my breath catch.
We survived, his mental voice whispers, shaking. I'm... I'm out of the storms.
I lie on my back, staring at the dark sky, trying to process what just happened. There's someone in my chest. In my heartbeat. Feeling everything I feel.
This is a nightmare.
"Show yourself," I demand hoarsely. "If you're really inside me, then manifest or whatever you lightning people do."
Silence. Then: I'll try. But I'm not sure how this works anymore.
The air above me shimmers. Lightning crackles and forms, building into a shape. And suddenly, he's there—hovering right over me, connected to my chest by threads of pure electricity.
Kieran Stormborne is the most beautiful and terrifying thing I've ever seen.
His form is translucent, made of lightning and storm clouds, but I can see his features clearly. Sharp cheekbones, strong jaw, dark hair that moves like living shadows threaded with silver electricity. His eyes are storm-gray and ancient, holding centuries of pain and rage.
He's not fully solid—more like a ghost made of electricity. And he can't move more than a few feet from my body. The lightning threads connecting him to my heart keep him tethered.
"This is impossible," I breathe.
"Tell me about it." His voice out loud is like distant thunder—not as overwhelming as it was in my head, but still powerful. He stares at his semi-transparent hands. "I haven't had a body—even a half-formed one—in a thousand years."
We stare at each other. Two strangers bound together in the most intimate way possible.
"Can you... can you feel what I'm feeling right now?" I ask nervously.
His storm-gray eyes meet mine. "Every emotion. Your fear. Your pain. Your exhaustion." He pauses. "Your broken ribs and twisted ankle are agony, by the way. How are you still conscious?"
"Practice." I force myself to sit up, even though it makes me want to scream. "Can I feel your emotions too?"
"You tell me."
I focus inward, on the place where his presence sits in my heartbeat. And yes—I can feel him. His overwhelming relief at being free from the torture. His terror about what happens next. And underneath everything, a rage so vast and cold it's like touching ice.
"You hate them," I whisper. "The Radiant Court. You hate them so much it's like... like it's eating you alive."
"They tortured me for a millennium." His lightning-form flickers with anger. "They shattered my soul and made sure I felt every second of it. Yes, I hate them. I hate them more than you can possibly imagine."
"I can imagine pretty well." I touch my chest where the binding runes still scar my skin. "They stripped my magic. Destroyed my life. Threw me away like trash."
Kieran floats closer, studying me. "You're the Storm-Caller they disgraced. The one who discovered their genocide."
"How do you know that?"
"I can access your memories through the bond." He sees my horrified expression and adds quickly, "I'm not trying to invade your privacy. It just... happens. Your thoughts bleed into mine and vice versa. There's no barrier between us anymore."
I feel sick. "So you know everything? My whole life?"
"Only what surfaces in your active thoughts. I can't dig through your memories deliberately—at least, I don't think I can." He drifts back slightly. "This bond is uncharted territory. No one's ever had two souls in one heartbeat before."
"Then how do we break it?"
His expression goes carefully blank. "We don't."
"What?"
"My soul is shattered," Kieran explains, his voice tight. "The torture broke me into fragments. Those fragments can't exist independently anymore—they need an anchor. A living heartbeat. Yours is keeping me together."
"So find another heartbeat!" I stand up, ignoring the pain. "There are plenty of people in the Cinderfalls camp. Pick someone else!"
"It doesn't work like that." He follows me, the lightning threads stretching but never breaking. "The bond formed in that moment when I was desperate and fragmenting. Your Lightning-Blessed blood called to mine. The connection is established now. Permanent."
"Nothing's permanent. There has to be a way—"
"If I leave your heartbeat, I scatter back into storms forever." His voice goes hard. "And if your heart stops beating, I fragment anyway. We're stuck together, Storm-Caller. Both of us trapped."
I want to scream. Want to cry. Want to tear him out of my chest.
But I can feel his emotions through the bond, and beneath his harsh words is pure terror. The thought of going back to that torture terrifies him more than anything.
He's as trapped as I am.
"This is your fault," I say bitterly. "You grabbed onto me without asking."
"I was dying!" Kieran's form crackles with lightning. "Or worse—scattering. Do you understand what that means? Being conscious in a thousand different places at once, feeling yourself torn apart but unable to stop it? I panicked. I grabbed the only lifeline available."
"And now I'm your prison."
"Better than the last one." His storm-gray eyes are cold. "At least you're warm. Alive. The storms were just pain and madness."
We glare at each other—two broken people forced together by desperation and circumstance.
"How do we even live like this?" I finally ask. "Can you control my body whenever you want?"
"I don't know. Let me try." His lightning-form concentrates, and suddenly my right arm lifts on its own. I didn't move it. He did.
"Stop that!" I force my arm back down through sheer will.
Kieran looks surprised. "You can resist me."
"Of course I can. It's MY body."
"But I'm inside it now too." He tries again—this time trying to make me step forward. I plant my feet and refuse to move. "Interesting. You're stronger-willed than I expected."
"Don't sound so disappointed."
"I'm not. If I could control you completely, you'd just be another kind of prison." His expression is unreadable. "This way, we're... equals? Partners? I don't know what to call it."
"Cellmates," I suggest darkly. "We're cellmates trapped in the same cell."
A strange sound escapes Kieran—something between a laugh and a sob. "After a thousand years of torture, I finally escape. And I end up imprisoned in a powerless, broken Storm-Caller's heartbeat." He looks at me with bitter irony. "The universe has a sick sense of humor."
"Tell me about it." I start limping back toward the Cinderfalls camp. "Come on. If we're stuck together, we might as well find shelter before something else tries to kill us."
"We?" Kieran floats alongside me. "You're accepting this?"
"Do I have a choice?" I shoot back. "You said the bond is permanent. So either I accept it or I spend the rest of my life fighting something I can't change. And I'm too tired to fight right now."
He's quiet for a moment. Then: "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For not hating me. For understanding that I didn't choose this either." His voice softens slightly. "We're both victims here."
"Yeah, well. Victims have to stick together." I pause. "But if you try to control my body without permission again, I'll find a way to make this bond hurt you too."
"Fair enough."
We walk in silence for a while. The burned earth gradually gives way to ash. In the distance, I can see smoke rising from Riven's camp.
"They're going to freak out when they see you," I mutter.
"A Lightning Prince bound to a disgraced Storm-Caller?" Kieran's smile is sharp. "They should freak out. We're the proof that everything the Radiant Court told them was a lie."
Something occurs to me. "You know what they did. You were there when they murdered your people."
"I remember everything." His lightning-form dims with old pain. "Every betrayal. Every murder. Every child they killed."
"Then you can testify. We can expose them together."
"If we survive long enough." He looks back at the collapsed Stormrift. "They'll know I'm free. The High Priestess has spells that monitor the seals. She already knows something broke."
My blood runs cold. "How long do we have?"
"Days. Maybe a week before they send hunters." His eyes meet mine. "They won't let me exist. And they definitely won't let you live now that you've freed me."
"Then we fight."
"With what power?" Kieran gestures at my scarred arms. "You're stripped. I'm fragmented and bound to your heartbeat. We're both broken."
"But we're not alone anymore," I point out. "You have a thousand years of knowledge. I know their current weaknesses. Together, maybe we're more dangerous than they think."
Kieran studies me with something like respect. "You're either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid."
"Probably both." I keep walking. "But I'm done being a victim. Done letting them win. If I'm going to die anyway, I'm taking them down with me."
"Even if it means staying bound to me? Sharing every emotion, every thought, every heartbeat?"
I stop and look at him directly. "Even then."
For the first time since forming, Kieran smiles. It's not a happy smile—it's the smile of someone who's found an ally in the darkest place.
"Then let's burn them down together, Storm-Caller."
"Celeste," I correct him. "If we're stuck in the same body, you should at least use my name."
"Celeste," he repeats, and something about the way he says it makes my heart skip.
Which he definitely feels through the bond, because his smile widens.
"This is going to be interesting," he murmurs.
We continue toward camp. Two broken souls in one heartbeat, bound together by desperation and revenge.
Neither of us knows if we'll survive what's coming.
But for the first time since my betrayal, I don't feel completely alone.
And maybe—just maybe—that's enough to keep fighting.