Seraphina's POV
I was still crying on the balcony when the attack came.
A scream tore through the night, followed by more screams. I spun around to see shadows—wrong shadows—pouring through the palace windows.
Not Caelan's shadows. These were sick and twisted, reaching for anyone nearby.
The Forgotten. They'd found a way through.
"No!" I thrust my hands forward, and silver light exploded from my palms. The shadows recoiled, shrieking.
"SERAPHINA!" Thorne's voice bellowed. "Get inside! NOW!"
I ran back through the palace. Chaos everywhere. Guards fighting shadow creatures. Servants screaming and hiding. And through it all, I felt nothing from Caelan through our broken bond.
Was he even alive?
I burst into his chambers. He stood in the center of the room, shadows swirling around him as he fought off three Forgotten at once. But his movements were slower than before. Weaker.
"Caelan!" I sent a blast of silver light at the nearest Forgotten. It dissolved with a shriek.
He glanced at me, those dead silver eyes showing no emotion. "I told you to stay away."
"And I told you I make my own choices!" I destroyed another Forgotten. "How did they get through?"
"I don't know!" Lyra appeared in the doorway, purple magic crackling around her. "The barrier between layers is breaking down. We have hours, maybe less, before they can enter fully!"
"We need to complete the Soul Bind," I said. "Now. It's the only way!"
"No!" Caelan destroyed the last Forgotten in his room. "I refuse to trap you!"
"You're not trapping me! I'M CHOOSING THIS!" I grabbed his arm, ignoring how cold his skin felt. "Don't you understand? I'm not doing this just to save you! I'm doing it to save everyone! The Oracle said completing the bond will give us enough power to destroy the Forgotten permanently!"
"She also said you'd be bound to me forever! No freedom! No choice to leave!"
"I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE!" The words burst out before I could stop them.
Silence fell between us, even as chaos raged outside.
"What?" he whispered.
I took a shaky breath. "I know we barely know each other. I know this is insane. But Caelan... you're the first person who ever saw me as something more than worthless. You protected me. Believed in me. And I—" My voice cracked. "I can't watch you turn into a statue. I can't."
His expression finally cracked, showing pain beneath the emptiness. "Seraphina, if we do this, there's no going back. Ever. Your soul will be tied to mine for eternity."
"I know."
"You'll feel everything I feel. Every dark thought. Every terrible thing I've done in five hundred years."
"I don't care."
"You should!" He pulled away from me. "I've killed people. Destroyed kingdoms. I'm a monster!"
"You're MY monster!" I shouted back. "And I'm choosing you anyway!"
Another explosion rocked the palace. More screams.
Lyra ran back to the door. "We're running out of time! The Forgotten are multiplying! Whatever you're going to do, do it NOW!"
I looked at Caelan. "Please. Let me save you. Let me save everyone."
For a long moment, he just stared at me with those empty silver eyes.
Then, slowly, he held out his hand.
"If we do this," he said quietly, "promise me one thing."
"Anything."
"If I ever become the monster you think I'm not... if I ever hurt you or become something evil... promise you'll find a way to destroy me."
"That will never happen."
"Promise me!" His voice cracked with desperation. "Promise you'll stop me if I lose myself completely!"
I took his hand. "I promise. But you have to promise me something too."
"What?"
"Promise you'll fight. That you won't give up. That you'll stay with me."
His fingers tightened on mine. "I promise."
"Then let's do this." I looked at Lyra. "What do we need?"
"The crystal chamber. Now." She was already running.
We raced through the palace. Forgotten attacked from every shadow, but Caelan and I fought them off together—silver and shadow working as one.
We reached the crystal chamber. The moonlight beam in the center pulsed with power.
"Stand in the light," Lyra commanded. "Hold hands. And whatever you do, DON'T LET GO."
Caelan and I stepped into the beam together. The moment we did, magic surged through us.
"To complete a Soul Bind," Lyra began chanting, "you must offer your truth. Your heart. Your everything. Seraphina, speak your truth."
I looked into Caelan's silver eyes. "I was nobody. Nothing. You made me feel like somebody. Like I mattered. And in two days, you've given me more than twenty-three years of family ever did." Tears streamed down my face. "I choose you. I choose us. Forever."
Light burst from my chest—silver and pure.
"Caelan," Lyra prompted. "Your truth."
He stared at me, and for the first time since the transformation, I saw emotion in those eyes. Real emotion.
"I've been alive for five hundred years," he said, his voice rough. "I've watched everyone I ever cared about die. I stopped feeling. Stopped hoping. Until you." He lifted our joined hands. "You made me remember what it feels like to be alive. What it feels like to want to protect something. To care about someone more than myself." His voice broke. "I love you. I don't know how it happened so fast, but I do."
My heart stopped.
He loved me?
Shadow poured from his chest, mixing with my silver light.
"Now," Lyra shouted over the growing magic, "seal the bond! Accept each other completely!"
"I accept you!" I cried. "All of you! Light and darkness! Forever!"
"I accept you!" Caelan shouted back. "Your power and your pain! Your strength and your fear! Forever!"
The light and shadow exploded outward.
Pain ripped through me—worse than breaking the binding, worse than splitting the realms. It felt like my soul was being torn apart and rebuilt.
Through it all, I held onto Caelan's hand. He held onto mine.
And suddenly, I could FEEL him. Not just through a broken connection. Everything. His fear. His love. His five hundred years of loneliness. His desperate hope that this would work.
I felt it all.
And he felt me. My pain. My strength. My choice.
The magic crescendoed, and I screamed.
So did he.
Then everything went silent.
I opened my eyes. We were still in the crystal chamber, still holding hands. But everything was different.
The marks on our wrists blazed with light—silver and shadow braided together perfectly. They pulsed in time with our heartbeats. With our shared heartbeat.
"It worked," Lyra breathed. "The bond is complete. You're true Inverse Souls now."
I looked at Caelan. His eyes were no longer pure silver. They were silver with hints of midnight blue, human again.
"How do you feel?" I whispered.
He smiled—really smiled. "Alive. For the first time in centuries, I feel truly alive."
Then the palace shook violently.
We ran to the window. Outside, the Forgotten were... screaming? They writhed in pain as silver-shadow light spread across the layered realms like a wave.
"The bond's power is destroying them!" Lyra said. "It's working!"
But then something else happened.
The light wave hit the barrier between realms, and instead of strengthening it, the barrier shattered completely.
"No," Lyra whispered. "No, no, no."
"What's happening?" I demanded.
"The Oracle lied!" Lyra's face went pale. "Or she didn't know! Completing the bond didn't just destroy the Forgotten—it destroyed ALL the barriers! The realms aren't layered anymore! They're—"
She didn't get to finish.
Reality itself cracked like glass.
And through the cracks, I saw things. Horrible things. Other realms. Other worlds. All bleeding into ours.
"What have we done?" Caelan breathed beside me.
The answer came from everywhere and nowhere at once. A voice that shook the foundations of existence.
"YOU HAVE OPENED THE GATE."
A figure materialized in front of us. Not a Forgotten. Something far worse. It looked almost human, but its presence made reality bend around it.
"I am the Architect," it said. "I created the barriers between worlds. I separated the realms. I imprisoned the Forgotten." It smiled, and the expression was terrifying. "And you, little Starborn, just undid three thousand years of my work."
"I didn't mean to!" I protested.
"Intentions are irrelevant. The Gate is open. The realms are merging. Not just two realms now. All of them. Every reality. Every dimension. Every world that ever existed." The Architect's smile widened. "Chaos will reign. War between worlds. And it's all your fault."
"How do we stop it?" Caelan demanded, stepping in front of me.
"You can't," the Architect said simply. "But I can. For a price."
"What price?" I asked, dreading the answer.
The Architect pointed at me. "You. The Starborn. Give yourself to me. Let me absorb your power. With it, I can rebuild the barriers, seal the Gate, save all of reality."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then every realm falls. Billions die. Existence itself ends."
I stared at this impossible being. "If I agree... what happens to me?"
"You cease to exist. Your soul, your power, your very essence becomes part of the new barrier. Forever."
Caelan grabbed my arm. Through our bond, I felt his absolute terror. "No. There has to be another way!"
"There is no other way," the Architect said. "She broke reality. She must fix it."
I looked at Caelan, at his desperate eyes. We'd just completed our bond. Just confessed our love. Just found each other.
And now I had to give it all up.
"How long do I have to decide?" I whispered.
"The realms are colliding as we speak," the Architect said. "You have until sunrise. After that, the damage will be irreversible."
It vanished, leaving us in devastated silence.
"No," Caelan said firmly. "I won't let you sacrifice yourself."
"We don't have a choice!"
"There's always a choice!" He grabbed my shoulders. "We'll find another way! We'll—"
Through our bond, I felt the moment he realized the truth.
There was no other way.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm so sorry I found you just to lose you."
And somewhere in the colliding realms, something ancient and hungry smiled.
Because the Architect had lied too.
Seraphina's sacrifice wouldn't save the realms.
It would destroy them completely.
And unleash something far worse than the Forgotten.
Something that had been waiting for this moment since the beginning of time.