Evelina's POV
I wake up to pain.
Not the dull ache of my cut hand or my bruised body. This is different. Deeper. Like something is being carved into my soul with a burning knife.
My eyes snap open. I'm still in the ruins, lying on cold stone. The sky above is dark now—full night has fallen while I was unconscious.
And the god is standing over me.
Kyroth looks worse than before. His form flickers like a candle in wind. The shadows covering him seem thinner, less solid. Even his silver eyes have dimmed slightly.
"You're awake," he says. His voice sounds strained. "Good. We need to talk."
I try to sit up, but my body won't cooperate. "What happened? Why do I feel like I'm being torn apart?"
"The bond is settling." He crouches beside me, studying my face with an intensity that makes me uncomfortable. "Your magic recognized mine. My power tried to consume yours. The collision nearly killed us both."
"My magic?" I shake my head. "I don't have magic. I'm just—"
"You're not 'just' anything." His eyes narrow. "You have god-touched blood running through your veins. Ancient power that's been sleeping for generations. My prison recognized it the moment your blood touched the seal."
I want to argue, but the mark over my heart burns hot, proving him right.
"So what does this bond mean?" I force the words out. "Why can't I stop feeling your... everything?"
"Because we're connected now." Kyroth's jaw tightens like he hates admitting it. "Your blood didn't just break my seal. It bound us together with magic older than this kingdom."
"Bound us how?"
He stands abruptly, pacing like a caged animal. "If you die, I return to my prison. The bond will drag me back, seal me away again for another three centuries."
My breath catches. "And if you die?"
"Then you die too." He stops pacing to look at me. "The bond goes both ways. We're stuck together, little mortal. Whether we like it or not."
The words hit me like a physical blow. I'm trapped. Bound to a god who hates me, who sees me as nothing but a tool.
Just like Adrian saw me as nothing but a crown.
Just like Isolde saw me as nothing but an obstacle.
I start laughing. Can't help it. The sound is broken and slightly insane, but I can't stop.
"What's funny?" Kyroth demands.
"Everything." Tears stream down my face, but I keep laughing. "I came here to die. To finally be free. And instead, I'm more trapped than ever. Bound to you for the rest of my life."
"Or the rest of mine," he snaps. "Don't forget—I'm the one who's suffered most here."
"You've suffered?" The laughter dies in my throat, replaced by anger. "You're a god. Immortal. Powerful. I'm just a human who lost everything in one night. My crown. My name. My family. The man I loved."
"Love?" Kyroth's lip curls. "That wasn't love. Love doesn't betray. It doesn't abandon. What you had was a comfortable lie."
"And what do you know about love?" I shoot back.
His eyes flash with pain so deep it steals my breath. "I know everything about it. I loved someone so much I was willing to burn the world for her. And when they killed her, I tried." His voice drops to barely a whisper. "They sealed me away not because I was evil, but because I loved too much."
The raw grief in his words makes my anger fade. Through the bond, I feel echoes of his loss. Three hundred years of mourning. Of rage. Of loneliness so deep it could swallow kingdoms.
"I'm sorry," I say quietly. "For what they did to her. To you."
He stares at me like I just spoke a foreign language. "You're apologizing? To me?"
"Someone should." I finally manage to sit up, even though everything hurts. "The world took someone you loved and punished you for grieving. That's not justice."
For a long moment, he just looks at me. Something shifts in his expression—something that might be surprise, or recognition, or something else I can't name.
Then his form flickers again, more violently this time.
He staggers, catching himself against a broken pillar. "No. Not yet."
"What's wrong?" I try to stand, but my legs are still weak.
"Three centuries of imprisonment drained most of my power." His breathing is labored now. "I need life force to maintain this form. Without it, I'll fade back into the seal."
Fear shoots through me. Not for me, but for him. If he fades, the bond drags me with him. We'll both be trapped.
But it's more than that. Something in me doesn't want to see him disappear. Doesn't want to lose the one person who understands what betrayal truly costs.
"What do you need?" I ask.
"Life force. Energy. Power I don't have." He slides down the pillar, his strength failing. "The bond connects us, but I'm too weak to draw from it properly. I need—"
He doesn't finish. His eyes roll back and he collapses forward.
Instinct overrides fear. I lunge forward, catching him before he hits the ground.
The moment we touch, everything explodes.
Power surges through the bond like lightning. His divine essence reaches for my life force desperately, hungrily. My hidden magic rises to meet it, awakening fully for the first time.
I scream. He screams. The sound echoes through the ruins like thunder.
Magic pours between us in waves. Gold and black. Light and shadow. Mortal and divine mixing into something that shouldn't exist.
The mark over my heart burns white-hot. I look down through my torn dress and see it glowing—the broken crown and thorns pulsing with power.
Kyroth's mark mirrors mine, the shattered chain on his chest blazing bright.
"Stop—" he gasps. "Too much—you'll kill yourself—"
But I can't stop. The magic has taken on a life of its own. It flows from me into him, feeding his starving power. And something flows back—knowledge, strength, centuries of divine energy that my mortal body was never meant to hold.
My vision blurs. I'm seeing double. Triple. Seeing my own memories mixed with his.
I see a beautiful woman with kind eyes—Seraphine. I see Kyroth holding her, loving her, losing her.
I see my own face in Adrian's chambers, finding Isolde in his bed.
The pain doubles. Triples. His grief mixing with mine until I can't tell where he ends and I begin.
Then, as suddenly as it started, the power surge stops.
We collapse together, tangled on the cold stone. Both breathing hard. Both changed by what just happened.
Slowly, carefully, I lift my head to look at him.
Kyroth's eyes are open, staring at me with shock and something that might be fear.
"That shouldn't be possible," he whispers.
"What shouldn't be?"
He reaches up, his hand trembling, and touches my face with careful fingers. Like I might shatter.
"You gave me life force willingly. Fed me your power without being forced." His voice is barely audible. "No mortal has ever done that. Not even—"
He stops himself, but I catch the name through the bond.
Not even Seraphine.
The weight of that hangs between us. What we just shared. What it means.
Then Kyroth's eyes widen in horror. He sits up fast, pulling away from me.
"Your hair," he says.
"What about it?"
He doesn't answer. Just stares.
I reach up with shaking hands and pull a strand forward to look at it.
My dark hair has changed. A single white streak runs through it now, starting from my temple. Pure white, like snow.
"What did you do to me?" I whisper.
"What did you do to me?" he counters, his voice rough. "Mortals don't survive that kind of power exchange. You should be dead."
"But I'm not."
"No." He looks at me like I'm a puzzle he can't solve. "You're not. You're something else now. Something between mortal and divine."
The mark over my heart pulses once more, then settles into a steady warmth.
Kyroth touches his own mark, his expression unreadable.
"The bond is sealed," he says quietly. "Complete. Unbreakable."
"What does that mean?"
He meets my eyes, and for the first time, I see genuine uncertainty in his face.
"It means," he says slowly, "that you're mine now. And I'm yours. For better or worse."
The words hang in the air between us.
Then footsteps echo through the ruins.
Multiple footsteps. Coming closer.
Kyroth's head snaps toward the sound, his divine senses sharper than mine. His face goes hard.
"Someone's coming," he says. "Someone who knows we're here."
"Who?"
He stands, pulling me up with him. His strength has returned, fed by my life force. The shadows around him thicken, preparing for a fight.
"Hunters," he says grimly. "They've found us already."