Mira's POV
The shadow teleportation felt like drowning in ice water.
One second I was in Caspian's arms in the execution square. The next, darkness swallowed everything—sight, sound, even the feeling of my own body. Just endless cold and the sensation of falling through nothing.
Then solid ground slammed into my feet.
I collapsed immediately, my legs giving out. Strong hands caught me before I hit the floor.
"Easy," Caspian's deep voice said. "Shadow travel takes getting used to."
I couldn't respond. Couldn't do anything except gasp for air that felt too thick, too heavy. My whole body shook like I'd been thrown into a frozen lake.
Caspian kept one arm around my waist, holding me steady. With his free hand, he snapped his fingers.
Warmth flooded through me instantly, pushing back the cold. Magic—he'd used magic to warm me up.
"Better?" he asked.
I managed a nod, still too dizzy to speak.
He released me carefully, making sure I could stand on my own before stepping back.
That's when I finally looked around.
We were in a massive room with walls made of black stone. Tall windows showed a night sky full of stars—even though seconds ago it had been morning. Dark furniture filled the space, elegant but somehow threatening. Everything looked expensive and dangerous at the same time.
"Where are we?" My voice came out as a croak.
"The Shadowlands," Caspian said simply. "My territory. The place they exiled me to seven years ago." He moved to a cabinet and poured something dark red into a glass. "Sit down before you fall down."
It wasn't a suggestion. It was an order.
But my legs were still shaking, so I obeyed, sinking into a chair that was surprisingly comfortable.
Caspian handed me the glass. "Drink. It will help with the shock."
I sniffed it cautiously. "What is it?"
"Wine mixed with a healing potion." His silver eyes watched me carefully. "I'm not trying to poison you, if that's what you're worried about. If I wanted you dead, I would have left you on that execution platform."
Fair point.
I drank. The liquid was warm and sweet, and almost immediately, the shaking in my hands stopped. My head cleared.
Caspian sat down across from me, his movements controlled and precise. Everything about him screamed power held carefully in check.
"Now," he said quietly. "Talk."
So I did.
I told him everything. About dying in my world. About waking up in Seraphina's body. About Evangeline's confession that she'd been summoning souls for twenty years to use as sacrifices. About Celestine murdering the real Seraphina out of jealous rage.
Caspian's face didn't change through any of it. He just listened, those silver eyes never leaving mine.
When I finished, silence filled the room.
Then: "Celestine killed her."
It wasn't a question, but I nodded anyway.
Something dark flickered across his face. Pain, maybe. Or rage so deep it had gone cold.
"I should have known," he said softly. "Celestine was always obsessed. I told Seraphina to be careful around her, but Seraphina—" His voice caught. "She trusted too easily."
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm so sorry she's gone."
His eyes snapped to mine, sharp and assessing. "Are you? You're wearing her face. Living in her body. You activated a binding ceremony meant for her."
The accusation in his voice made my chest tight. "I didn't choose this! I didn't want to steal her life! I just—I just wanted to survive."
"By using her magic to summon me."
"Yes!" I stood up, anger pushing through fear. "Yes, I used her magic because I was about to die! Because Evangeline summoned me here specifically to be murdered! What was I supposed to do, just accept it?"
Caspian stood too, and suddenly the room felt much smaller. He moved toward me slowly, like a predator approaching prey.
"You activated a binding ceremony," he said, his voice low and dangerous. "Do you even understand what that means?"
I backed up until I hit the wall. "It—it calls you to me. That's all I knew. I just needed you to come—"
"It does more than call me." He stopped right in front of me, close enough that I could feel the heat of him. "A binding ceremony ties two souls together. Forever. It means I can feel your emotions. Your pain. Your fear. It means if you die, I'll feel it like a knife to the heart. It means—"
He stopped abruptly, his jaw clenching.
"What?" I demanded. "What else does it mean?"
His silver eyes bore into mine. "It means you're my mate now. My bride. Bound to me by magic that can't be undone."
The words hit me like a punch. "But that's impossible. You said I'm your second fated mate. People can't have two fated mates!"
"They can't," he agreed. "Which means either the Moon Goddess has broken her own rules—" He reached out and touched my cheek, his hand surprisingly gentle. "—or you were always meant to be mine, and Seraphina was just preparing the path."
I couldn't breathe. "That doesn't make sense."
"None of this makes sense." His thumb traced my cheekbone. "You're not from this world. You're wearing a dead woman's body. You completed a binding meant for someone else. And yet—"
His eyes widened suddenly, like he'd just realized something.
"And yet you did complete it," he whispered. "The binding worked. Which means—"
He grabbed my wrist—the one where the binding mark would be—and pulled back my sleeve.
We both stared.
Instead of Caspian's mark, there were two marks on my wrist. Two different magical symbols, burning silver against my skin.
One was Caspian's binding mark, like he'd said.
But the other—
"That's Seraphina's soul mark," Caspian breathed. "Her personal magical signature. But she's dead. Her mark should have faded when she died."
I stared at the two marks, my mind racing. "What does it mean?"
Caspian looked up at me, and for the first time, I saw genuine confusion in his eyes. Confusion and something that might have been hope.
"It means," he said slowly, "that Seraphina's soul isn't gone. Not completely. Some part of her is still here, attached to her body. Attached to you."
My blood ran cold. "You mean she's—she's inside me? Like, sharing my body?"
"I don't know." He released my wrist carefully. "I've never seen anything like this. Two souls, two marks, one body." He ran a hand through his dark hair, frustrated. "You're an impossible existence, Mira Chen."
"Story of my life," I muttered.
Despite everything, his lips twitched slightly. Almost a smile.
Then his expression went serious again. "This complicates things."
"Complicates what?"
"Everything." He moved to the window, staring out at the dark landscape beyond. "Evangeline will come for you. She needs you dead to complete her immortality ritual. And now that I've claimed you publicly as my bride, she'll use that against me. Against us."
"So what do we do?"
He was quiet for a long moment. Then: "We figure out what you are. Why the binding worked. Why Seraphina's soul mark is still active." He turned to face me. "And we find a way to destroy Evangeline before she destroys us."
"Just like that?" I asked. "You're just going to help me? Even though I'm not Seraphina?"
His silver eyes met mine, and something in them made my breath catch.
"The binding ceremony doesn't lie," he said quietly. "If it accepted you as my mate, then you're meant to be here. Meant to be mine. I don't understand how or why yet, but I've learned to trust fate—even when it makes no sense."
He crossed the room in two strides and took my hand, pressing something cold and metal into my palm.
The key. The one he'd left for Seraphina.
"You kept this," he said. "Even when you didn't know what it was for. Even when you could have thrown it away. That tells me something about who you are, Mira Chen."
"What does it tell you?"
His smile was small but real. "That you're a survivor. Like me."
Warmth spread through my chest at his words.
But then a voice echoed through the room—a woman's voice, cold and furious, amplified by magic:
"Caspian Nyx. You have three days to return the sacrifice, or I will bring war to your doorstep. The girl dies one way or another."
Evangeline's voice faded, leaving behind heavy silence.
Caspian's expression went cold as ice. "So it begins."
"What begins?" I asked, even though I was afraid of the answer.
He looked at me, his silver eyes glowing with dark power.
"War," he said simply. "Evangeline has just declared war on the Shadowlands. On me. And on you."
My knees went weak. "Can we win?"
"I don't know." His honesty was almost worse than a lie would have been. "But I know one thing: I'm not giving you back. You're mine now, Mira. My bride. My mate. And I protect what's mine."
The conviction in his voice sent shivers down my spine.
Before I could respond, the door burst open.
A fierce-looking woman with scars covering her arms strode in, her hand on the sword at her hip. "My lord, our scouts report movement at the border. Evangeline's forces are already mobilizing—"
She stopped dead when she saw me.
Her eyes went wide. "Seraphina?"
"No," Caspian said firmly. "This is Mira. It's complicated. I'll explain later."
The woman—Raven, I realized from Seraphina's memories—stared at me with shock and something else. Something almost like recognition.
"My lady," she breathed. "You're alive. How—"
"Raven," Caspian's voice cut through. "Later. Right now, I need you to prepare the defensive wards. Full strength."
But Raven wasn't listening. She was staring at me with tears in her eyes.
"I thought you were dead," she whispered. "I felt it when your soul disappeared three days ago. But now—" She stepped closer, her expression confused. "Now I can feel two souls in you. Two lights."
Caspian and I exchanged glances.
"You can feel souls too?" I asked.
"I'm half-fae," Raven said. "We all can." She looked at Caspian. "My lord, this girl—she's carrying Seraphina's soul essence. And something else. Something from beyond our world."
"I know," Caspian said grimly. "Which means we have a bigger problem than I thought."
"What problem?" I demanded.
Raven answered before he could: "If Evangeline discovers Seraphina's soul hasn't completely departed, she'll try to extract it. Soul essence is the most powerful magical ingredient that exists. If she gets it—"
"She'll become unstoppable," Caspian finished.
The room spun. "So I'm not just a sacrifice anymore. I'm a—a magical battery?"
"Essentially," Caspian said. "Which means keeping you alive just became the most important thing in this world."
He pulled me against his chest, his arms wrapping around me protectively.
And somewhere far away, in the Temple of Light, High Priestess Evangeline smiled as her magic finally identified what she'd been searching for.
Two souls in one body.
The perfect vessel for her ascension.
She'd let Caspian think he'd won for now.
But soon, very soon, she would take back what was hers.
And this time, she wouldn't just kill the girl.
She would consume her entirely.