The cell was not meant to hold him.
It was carved deep beneath the council chambers, stone soaked with old blood and older magic, its walls etched with sigils designed to suppress strength, rage, hope anything that could grow sharp enough to cut free.
Kael lay against the cold floor, wrists bound in iron that bit into his skin, each breath dragging fire through his ribs. Blood dried along his jaw, his temple, his knuckles. He had stopped counting how many times they'd beaten him. Stopped counting the hours.
But he hadn't stopped waiting.
The mark burned.
Not on him but through him.
It came suddenly, violently, like a blade driven straight into his chest. Kael gasped, his back arching as pain lanced through every nerve. The iron chains rattled, vibrating as if something beneath his skin was answering a call it had never learned how to refuse.
"Aelin," he breathed.
Her name tore from him like a prayer.
Above, far beyond stone and silence, the world fractured.
The council chamber was still trembling when Aelin stepped forward.
The destruction she had unleashed lingered in the air cracked stone, shattered sigils, guards sprawled unconscious or screaming as shadows crawled back into her skin like obedient beasts. Blood streaked her arms, her face, her torn dress. Her breathing was slow. Controlled.
Too controlled.
Mark stood a few steps away, his shields reforged but thinner now, his eyes alight with something dangerously close to awe.
"She's stabilizing," he murmured to the councilors still standing. "Remarkable."
Aelin's gaze snapped to him.
"What did you do?" she asked again, voice calm enough to be terrifying.
Mark smiled faintly. "I told you. I confirmed your future."
She laughed.
It was a soft sound. Broken. Not joyful in the slightest.
"My future," she echoed. "You mean the cage you built around me?"
"No," Mark said. "The weapon you were always meant to be."
Shadows stirred at her feet.
Mark lifted his hands slowly, placating. "Careful now. You don't want to lose control again."
"I never lost it," Aelin said.
She took another step forward.
"I was holding it back."
The chamber darkened.
Torches flickered, then died, their flames swallowed whole. The shadows did not spread randomly this time. They moved with purpose coiling, sharpening, forming shapes that felt too deliberate to be instinct alone.
Mark's smile faltered.
"You feel it, don't you?" Aelin asked softly. "The bond."
Mark's eyes flicked just once toward the floor.
"Kael," she said.
The sound of his name cracked something open inside her chest.
"You didn't just mark me," she continued. "You tied me to him. You tied my power to his suffering."
Mark exhaled, almost pleased. "Pain is a powerful catalyst."
Her eyes darkened completely.
"You used the wrong one."
The floor split beneath them.
Kael screamed.
The chains snapped tight as his body convulsed, light and shadow tearing through him in equal measure. The sigils along the walls flared violently, then shattered like glass. Stone cracked. Dust rained down.
He collapsed to his knees, coughing blood, vision blurring but the pain did not consume him.
It focused him.
Through the bond, he felt her.
Not just fear or rage but resolve.
She was coming.
The cell door exploded inward.
Stone disintegrated, thrown across the chamber as shadows surged ahead of her like a storm given form. Aelin stepped through the wreckage, eyes glowing with power that felt ancient and furious.
Kael stared.
For a heartbeat, he forgot how to breathe.
She crossed the distance between them in seconds, dropping to her knees in front of him, hands shaking as she cupped his face.
"Hey," she whispered, voice breaking. "Hey. I've got you."
Her touch grounded him.
The pain dulled. The chaos inside him stilled.
He leaned into her forehead, pressing it against his, chains clinking softly. "You shouldn't be here," he rasped.
"I know," she said. "That's why I am."
Her shadows wrapped around the chains, testing, pulling.
They resisted then shattered.
Kael slumped forward, and she caught him instantly, arms locking around him like she was afraid he'd vanish if she let go.
He buried his face against her shoulder.
For a moment, there was nothing but breathing. Heartbeats. Survival.
Then the guards came.
Steel rang.
Kael moved on instinct, even weakened, even bleeding. He ripped a fallen blade from the ground and surged forward, putting himself between Aelin and the oncoming threat.
"No," she said sharply. "You're hurt."
"So are they," he replied, grim.
The first guard lunged.
Kael sidestepped, driving the blade into the man's side with brutal efficiency. Blood sprayed, warm and real. Another came from the left Kael blocked, but the impact sent pain flaring through his ribs.
Aelin raised her hand.
The shadows obeyed.
They did not kill immediately. They bound, crushed, suffocated relentless and precise. Screams echoed, cut short one by one.
Kael watched her fight, awe and fear twisting together in his chest.
She was beautiful like this.
Terrifying.
And his.
Mark appeared at the far end of the chamber, his expression hard now, calculating.
"So this is what you choose," he said. "Him."
Aelin didn't look at him.
She looked at Kael.
"I choose us," she said.
The bond flared.
Power surged not wild, not destructive but shared.
Kael felt it then not just her strength feeding into him, but his grounding feeding into her. The pain lessened. The chaos aligned.
They moved together.
When Mark struck, Kael was already there blade meeting shield in a shower of sparks. Aelin followed, shadows slipping through the cracks Kael created, tearing at Mark's defenses.
"You can't kill me," Mark snarled, staggering back. "The council"
"Is finished," Aelin said coldly.
She reached into him.
Not physically but deeper.
Mark screamed as the mark answered her call, turning against its maker. His shields shattered. Blood streamed from his mouth as he collapsed to his knees.
Kael stood over him, blade raised.
Aelin caught his wrist.
"Not like this," she said softly.
Mark looked up at them, terror finally breaking through his arrogance. "You need me."
"No," Aelin replied. "We survived you."
She turned away.
The shadows closed in.
They fled before dawn.
The city burned behind them not in flame, but in upheaval. Sirens rang. The council was fractured. Power had shifted, violently and irreversibly.
They didn't stop until the forest swallowed them whole.
Only then did Kael collapse.
Aelin caught him again, lowering him gently to the ground, hands frantic as she checked his wounds.
"I was so scared," she whispered. "I thought I lost you."
He smiled weakly. "You'll have to do better than that."
Tears slid down her cheeks, unnoticed.
"I don't know what I am now," she admitted. "What this power means."
Kael reached for her hand, squeezing it.
"Whatever you are," he said, "you don't face it alone."
She leaned down, pressing her forehead to his.
The shadows settled.
Not gone.
Chosen.
And somewhere in the distance, something ancient stirred aware now of the bond that had awakened, and the war it promised.