ELARA'S POV
I woke up choking on darkness.
Not the normal kind of dark where your eyes adjust. This was alive. Thick and suffocating, pressing against my skin like oil-covered hands.
"Breathe," Kaelen's voice cut through my panic. "The shadows won't hurt you. Not while you're marked as mine."
My hands found solid ground—cold stone beneath my palms. I pushed myself up, trembling. "Where are we?"
"Underground. Deep beneath the archive. These tunnels haven't been used in centuries." A small flame of shadow-fire appeared in Kaelen's hand, casting just enough light to see his face. He looked terrible. Pale, sweating, blood still seeping from the wound Aurelia gave him.
"You're hurt," I said, crawling toward him. "That cut—it's not healing."
"Seraphim blades leave wounds that don't close easily." He winced as he shifted position. "Especially on cursed shadow-kin."
"So what, you'll just bleed to death down here?"
"Eventually." He said it so calmly, like dying was just another Tuesday. "Unless you complete the bond. That would heal me instantly. Cure the curse. Save both our lives." His amber eyes fixed on mine. "But you were about to refuse before we fell, weren't you?"
I had been. The thought of binding my soul to this terrifying stranger forever had seemed impossible.
But now, watching him bleed and fade, something twisted in my chest.
"I don't understand any of this," I whispered. "Yesterday I was nobody. A failed scholar cataloging books. Now I have magic, I'm bonded to a Shadow King, and people are trying to kill me. How is this my life?"
"Because you chose it." He leaned his head back against the tunnel wall. "The moment you spoke your soul name into that circle. 'Elara the Forsaken.' You called out to the universe and demanded to be seen. To be powerful. And the universe answered."
"By saddling me with you?"
"By giving you exactly what you asked for." His smile was bitter. "Power. Purpose. A chance to destroy everyone who wronged you. You just have to be brave enough to take it."
Footsteps echoed from above. Voices shouting. Searching for us.
Kaelen's shadow-fire flickered and died. We sat in complete darkness.
"They'll find us," I said. "Ravenna, Aurelia—they won't stop looking."
"No, they won't." I felt him move closer in the dark. His hand found mine, fingers lacing through mine. The touch sent warmth through the soul mark. "Ravenna wants your blood for her dark magic. Aurelia wants you dead to prevent the bond from completing. Marcus wants to use us both for power and revenge."
"So we're trapped. Hunted by everyone."
"Unless you complete the bond with me." His grip tightened. "Then we'd be strong enough to fight them all. Strong enough to survive. Strong enough to make them sorry they ever crossed us."
The temptation pulled at me. Power. Revenge. Safety.
But the cost...
"What was she like?" I asked quietly. "Selene. The woman whose soul I supposedly have."
Long silence. Then: "Gentle. Compassionate. She wanted to unite shadow-kin and humans peacefully. Build bridges instead of walls." His voice went rough. "She was everything good. Everything I wasn't. And they butchered her for it."
"You loved her."
"Yes."
The word stabbed through me. Jealousy over a dead woman I'd never met. How insane was that?
"And now you're stuck with me instead," I said. "The angry, bitter copy. The forsaken one."
"You're not a copy." His thumb traced circles on the back of my hand. "Selene tasted like starlight and peace. You taste like chaos and fury. She wanted to save the world. You want to watch it burn." I heard the smile in his voice. "I find you far more interesting."
Heat crept up my neck. "You're just saying that because you need me to complete the bond."
"Maybe." He shifted closer. I could feel his breath, warm against my face in the darkness. "Or maybe I'm saying it because it's true. You summoned me, little forsaken one. You tore through reality itself because you were angry and desperate and done being invisible. That takes a kind of strength Selene never had."
"She sounds better than me," I muttered.
"She was kinder. But kind doesn't survive in a world that wants you dead." His forehead pressed against mine. "You're a survivor, Elara. Like me. And survivors do whatever it takes to win."
The soul mark burned between us, not painful—electric. Alive.
"If I do this," I whispered, "if I complete the bond—I need to know something first."
"Ask."
"When the curse is broken and you're healed—will you leave? Go back to your shadow realm and forget about the human girl who was just a tool to save your life?"
His hand came up to cup my face in the darkness. "I spent six hundred years alone in a void prison, going mad from isolation. The curse was killing me slowly, and I welcomed it because at least death would end the loneliness." His thumb brushed across my cheek. "Then you summoned me. Angry and forsaken and absolutely fearless. And for the first time in six centuries, I felt something other than pain."
"What did you feel?"
"Hope." The word came out raw. "That maybe I wasn't meant to die alone after all."
My heart hammered. "That's not an answer."
"The answer is: I don't know what happens after. I don't know if you'll want me once the crisis passes and you're safe. I don't know if you'll hate me for the things I'll do to protect us." He pulled back slightly. "But I do know that the thought of leaving you makes the curse-pain feel gentle by comparison."
I should pull away. Run. This was too much, too fast, too intense.
Instead, I made a choice that would change everything.
"Teach me," I said. "Teach me how to complete the bond."
His sharp intake of breath told me he hadn't expected that. "You're certain? Once it's done, there's no going back. We'll be bound until death. My memories become yours. Yours become mine. Every secret, every wound, every darkness—"
"I'm certain." And surprisingly, I was. "They already want us dead. Might as well have the power to fight back."
"It won't be pleasant," he warned. "The bonding ritual requires complete vulnerability. You'll experience everything I've endured. Six hundred years of torture. The loss of Selene. Centuries of madness in the void. Can you handle that?"
I thought of my own pain. Marcus's betrayal. My family's rejection. Six months of being invisible and worthless.
"I've survived my own hell," I said. "I can survive yours too."
"Then we'll do it at moonrise tomorrow. That gives us time to prepare, and time for you to change your mind if you—"
A sound echoed through the tunnels. Close. Too close.
Kaelen went completely still beside me. "They found the entrance."
"How? We fell through solid stone!"
"Ravenna's a blood mage. She probably tracked us using the drops of my blood from Aurelia's attack." He cursed softly. "We need to move. Now."
He pulled me to my feet. Shadow-fire bloomed in his hand again, illuminating a tunnel stretching into darkness.
"Can you teleport us out?" I asked.
"Not in my current state. The curse has drained too much power. I need time to recover." He started moving down the tunnel, still holding my hand. "We'll have to go the old-fashioned way."
We ran through the darkness, his shadow-fire lighting the way. Behind us, footsteps multiplied. Voices shouted in languages I didn't recognize.
The tunnel branched. Kaelen chose left without hesitating.
"How do you know where you're going?"
"I don't." He flashed a wild grin over his shoulder. "I'm improvising."
"That's not comforting!"
"Welcome to life with a Shadow King, little forsaken one. Nothing's ever comforting."
The tunnel opened into a massive chamber. My jaw dropped.
It was beautiful and terrifying. Enormous, with a ceiling so high the shadow-fire couldn't reach it. Ancient symbols covered every surface, glowing faintly with power that made my skin prickle. In the center stood a stone altar, and behind it—
"A portal," I breathed.
The air shimmered with magic, showing glimpses of somewhere else. Somewhere dark and cold and absolutely not the human world.
"The Shadow Realm," Kaelen said softly. "There's a gateway here. Sealed centuries ago, but still intact."
"Can we use it? Can we escape through there?"
"Not without completing the bond first. The gateway only responds to fully manifested shadow magic." He studied the portal with hungry eyes. "But once we're bonded, we could use this to disappear. They'd never find us in my realm."
Footsteps echoed behind us. Getting closer.
"We're trapped," I said, spinning around. Only one tunnel entrance—the one we'd come through. "They're going to corner us here."
Kaelen moved to the tunnel entrance, shadows gathering around his hands. "Then we make our stand."
"You can barely stand at all!" I grabbed his arm. "You're dying, remember? You can't fight them all!"
"Watch me."
"Kaelen—"
Marcus stepped into the chamber.
But he wasn't alone.
He'd brought an army. Two dozen mages, all wearing Ravenna's guild colors. And worse—he'd brought Institute security forces. Official enforcers with government authority.
And standing beside him, smiling coldly, was someone I never expected to see.
My brother, Damien.
"Hello, sister," Damien said calmly. "Surprised?"
My world tilted. "What are you doing here?"
"What I should have done six months ago." He drew a weapon—a Seraphim blade that glowed with holy light. "Ending your embarrassment to our family permanently."
Marcus stepped forward, that manic excitement back in his eyes. "I told you running was pointless, Elara. Did you really think you could escape? That summoning that thing—" he gestured at Kaelen with disgust "—would somehow make you matter?"
"Careful, insect," Kaelen growled. "My patience has limits."
"Your patience?" Marcus laughed. "You're bleeding out. Cursed. Dying. You're nothing but a shadow of your former power." He pulled out that strange device again, the one covered in glowing symbols. "And once I drain what's left of your essence, I'll be the most powerful mage alive."
"You tried that already," I said, finding my voice. "It didn't work."
"Because you interrupted." Marcus's smile turned cruel. "But this time, you're trapped. Outnumbered. And your 'protector' can barely stand." He looked at Damien. "Restrain her. I'll handle the shadow-kin."
Damien moved toward me.
And something inside me snapped.
Six months of being the disappointing daughter. The forgettable sister. The girl who didn't matter.
Rage flooded through me, hot and wild.
The mark on my chest blazed. Power erupted from my hands—raw, uncontrolled shadow-fire that exploded outward in a wave.
It caught Damien mid-step, throwing him backward into the mages. They scattered, shouting in alarm.
I stared at my hands, shocked. I'd done that. Me.
Through the bond, I felt Kaelen's savage pride.
"There she is," he murmured. "The monster they always feared."
Marcus screamed orders. The mages raised their hands, magic crackling.
Kaelen stepped beside me, wounded and dying but smiling like a predator.
"Last chance to run, little forsaken one," he said.
I looked at him. At the mark glowing on both our chests. At the choice laid bare before me.
Run and hide. Or stand and fight.
I chose fight.
"Teach me," I said. "Right now. How do I use this power?"
Hi
s grin was absolutely feral. "With pleasure."
The mages attacked.
And Kaelen taught me how monsters are born.