POV: Kael
The light swallowed us whole.
I hadn't used my power in three thousand years. Couldn't use it—the curse made me empty, and power required will. Emotion. Drive.
But now, holding this fragile human girl against my chest as her enemies crashed through the trees with weapons, I felt something I thought was dead forever.
Rage.
Pure, burning, beautiful rage.
The light exploded outward from my body, and we shot through space faster than mortal eyes could follow. Trees became blurs. The ground disappeared beneath us.
The girl—Sera, I'd heard the men shouting her name—screamed and buried her face in my chest.
"What's happening?" Her voice was muffled against my shirt. "Are we flying? Are we dying? I can't tell!"
Despite everything—the poison, the chains, the three millennia of emptiness—I felt my lips curve into something unfamiliar.
A smile.
"We're traveling," I said. My voice sounded strange to my own ears. Warm. Alive. "Hold tighter. We're not done yet."
But we should be done. The poison should have killed me hours ago. The chains were made by the gods themselves to bind me until death. Nothing should have broken them.
Yet this girl's tears had shattered everything.
"Who are you?" I whispered, more to myself than to her.
Then the world snapped back into focus, and we were somewhere else entirely. My private chambers in the Eternal Court. Home.
Except it didn't feel like home. Nothing had felt like anything for so long, I'd forgotten what "home" meant.
Until now.
Now, standing in my own room with this trembling human in my arms, I felt... safe. Which was absurd. I was the Undying Emperor. The most feared being in all realms. I'd never needed safety before.
So why did it feel like this girl had just given me something precious?
"You can let go now," she said quietly. "I think we stopped... whatever that was."
I looked down and realized I was still holding her pressed against my chest. Her heart was beating so fast I could feel it. Her skin was warm where it touched mine. Her violet eyes—gods, those eyes—looked up at me with fear and confusion and something else.
Trust.
She trusted me. After everything that happened to her tonight, after I'd literally exploded us through space, she still trusted me.
When was the last time anyone trusted me?
I couldn't remember.
Carefully, like she might break, I set her on her feet. She swayed, and I caught her elbow.
That's when it hit me.
Her skin against mine—warm, soft, alive—sent sensation racing up my arm. Not just touch. Not just temperature.
Connection.
I jerked my hand back, staring at my palm like it had betrayed me.
"Are you okay?" Sera asked. "You look weird."
"I'm experiencing sensory input," I said, my voice coming out rougher than intended. "For the first time in three thousand years, I can feel the difference between stone and silk. Between cold and warm. Between..." I looked at her. "Between loneliness and company."
Her eyes widened. "The curse. You said you couldn't feel anything."
"Couldn't. Past tense." I flexed my fingers, marveling at the sensation. "Your tears broke more than my chains, little mortal. You broke my—"
An explosion of power shook the palace.
Someone was trying to break into my chambers. Someone powerful.
"Kael!" A female voice screamed from outside the door. "Open this door right now!"
Sera jumped. "Who is that?"
"Morvana." I felt anger surge through me—another new sensation. Or rather, an old one I was remembering how to use. "My advisor. Or former advisor, I suppose, since she's the one who poisoned me."
"She what?" Sera's face went pale. "She tried to kill you and now she's here?"
"She doesn't know I'm healed. Doesn't know you broke the curse." I grabbed Sera's wrist—gently, but firmly. "This is very important. Do you trust me?"
"You keep asking me that."
"Because I keep needing the answer. Do you?"
She bit her lip, glancing at the shaking door. "Those men in the woods. You saved me from them."
"I did."
"Why?"
The question caught me off guard. Why had I saved her? I barely knew her. Five minutes ago, I was dying. I should have let her run, let the men take her, saved my strength for survival.
But the thought of anyone hurting her made that new rage burn hotter.
"Because they wanted to hurt you," I said simply. "And I find that... unacceptable."
Another explosion. The door cracked.
"Kael, I know you're in there!" Morvana's voice was frantic now. "The chains are broken! The standing stones are empty! If you're still alive—"
"She thinks you're weak," Sera whispered. "She's coming to finish what she started."
Smart girl.
"She's going to be very surprised," I said. "When I died, I was the most powerful immortal in existence. Now that I can feel again, I'm exponentially more dangerous. Emotions fuel power."
"That doesn't sound healthy."
"It's not. But it's useful." I pulled her behind me as the door exploded inward.
Morvana stood in the doorway, her beauty sharp and cold as ice. She'd been trying to make me love her for centuries. I'd felt nothing. Now, looking at her, I felt disgust.
"You're alive," she breathed. Then her eyes landed on Sera. "And you brought a pet? Kael, this isn't the time for—"
"Silence."
One word, but it carried the weight of three thousand years of authority. Morvana's mouth snapped shut, her eyes going wide.
"You poisoned me," I said quietly. "Chained me. Left me to die slowly in the mortal realm. Why?"
"I—" She struggled against my command, then gave up. "You were never going to love me. Three thousand years, Kael. Three thousand years I've waited, hoped, served you. But you felt nothing. You'd never feel anything."
"So you decided to kill me?"
"I decided to take what should have been mine!" Her composure cracked. "Your power. Your throne. Your kingdom. If you couldn't love me, at least I could have everything else you refused to give me."
"Didn't work out well for you, did it?" Sera said from behind me.
Morvana's eyes narrowed. "You. You're the one who broke the chains. I felt it across the realms—the curse shattering. What are you?"
"None of your concern," I said, moving to block her view of Sera completely.
Something shifted in the air. A warning.
Too late, I felt more power building. Not just Morvana—others with her. Coming fast.
"You brought reinforcements," I said flatly.
"Of course I did." Morvana smiled, cruel and cold. "I may have failed to kill you, but I can still take your little mortal. She's the key to breaking the curse permanently, isn't she? Imagine what we could do with that power."
Ice flooded my veins. "You will not touch her."
"Try to stop me."
Six immortals materialized in my chamber, surrounding us. Warriors. Hired killers. All loyal to Morvana's gold.
Sera's hand gripped the back of my shirt. "Kael? What do we do?"
What we do. She said "we" like we were a team. Like she wasn't a fragile human surrounded by beings who'd lived for centuries.
Something fierce and possessive roared to life inside me.
"We fight," I said.
"I can't fight! I don't even know what's happening!"
"Then stay behind me. And whatever you do—don't let go."
The warriors attacked as one.
I raised my hand, and power exploded from my palm—not the cold, calculated force I'd used when emotionless. This was hot. Angry. Protective.
The first three warriors flew backward, smashing through the stone walls.
But there were too many. One got past my defenses, lunging for Sera.
"No!" I spun, but I was too slow—
Sera screamed.
Light exploded from her body. Violet light, the same color as her eyes, the same color that had healed me.
The warrior flew backward, screaming as the light burned him.
"What—" Sera stared at her hands, which were glowing. "What's happening to me?"
"You're waking up," Morvana breathed, her expression hungry. "You're actually—it's impossible. The bloodline was extinct!"
"What bloodline?" Sera looked at me, terrified. "Kael, what's she talking about?"
I didn't know. But I knew danger when I saw it, and right now, everyone in this room wanted Sera for something.
I grabbed her glowing hands, and the light flared brighter.
"Hold on," I said.
"Again? We just—"
"Now!"
I pulled every ounce of power I had and folded space around us.
The last thing I heard was Morvana screaming, "Find them! I want that girl alive!"
Then we were falling through light and darkness and impossibility.
Sera's hand in mine was the only real thing in the universe.
And as we fell, I realized something terrifying:
I would burn down every realm to keep her safe.
After three thousand years of feeling nothing, this girl had made me feel everything.
And I was never letting her go.