Kaelan's POV
I'm losing.
The Consortium's magic crawls through my mind like poison, turning my thoughts dark and twisted. They're trying to make me into their weapon, their puppet.
But they don't know about the soul bond. It's weak, barely formed, but it's there—a golden thread connecting me to Ember. Through it, I can feel her rage, her fear, her determination.
She's coming to the north tower. Like I asked.
I have maybe five minutes before the Consortium realizes I've pushed them out of my head. Five minutes to warn her before they take control again.
Five minutes to save the woman I've waited three hundred years to meet.
I reach the tower at sunset. The sky is bleeding purple and gold. I can feel Ember getting closer through the bond.
Then she bursts through the door, fire blazing in her hands.
"Kaelan?" She stops, uncertain. "Is it really you?"
"For now." My voice is rough. The corruption burns through my veins. "We don't have much time. They'll take control again soon."
She rushes forward and grabs my face, searching my eyes. They're silver again, not black. For this moment, I'm myself.
"What did they do to you?" Her hands are gentle despite the fury in her voice.
"Activated the curse early. They're trying to force us to bond before we're ready." I grip her wrists, needing to touch her, to prove she's real. "Ember, you need to run. Leave the Dark Realm. Go somewhere they can't find you."
"I'm not leaving without my mother."
"Your mother knew the risks when she helped you cross." I pull away before I do something stupid like kiss her. "You're more important than—"
"Don't." Fire flares in her eyes. "Don't tell me who's more important. She's my mother. You're my... whatever you are. I'm not abandoning either of you."
"Your soulmate," I say quietly. "That's what I am. Whether we want it or not."
"Do you want it?" The question catches me off guard.
I look at this woman—fierce and broken and burning with power. She's nothing like I imagined. I thought my soulmate would be gentle, soft, someone who needed protecting.
Ember needs no one. She's a wildfire in human form.
And I've never wanted anything more in my three hundred years of life.
"Yes," I tell her honestly. "I want it. I want you. But not like this. Not because a prophecy says we have to."
"Then we're on the same page." She steps closer. "So what do we do?"
"We need to find out which prophecy is real. The good one or the bad one."
"My mother said both are real. It depends on whether we bond from love or obligation."
I nod. "The Consortium wants to force us together out of desperation. But there's something they don't know."
"What?"
"The soul bond works both ways. They can track you through me, but we can track them through their curse on me." I show her the black veins on my arms. "Every time they try to control me, I can feel where their power is coming from. I know where their main base is."
Hope flares in her eyes. "We can attack them. Get my mother back."
"Not we. You." I grab her shoulders. "Listen carefully. The corruption is spreading faster now that they've activated it. I have maybe three days before I lose myself completely. Three days before I become their weapon permanently."
"Then we complete the bond now!" She grabs my shirt. "We—"
"NO!" I push her away gently. "That's exactly what they want. We can't give them that satisfaction. We need to be smart about this."
Black spots dance in my vision. They're coming back.
"Kaelan?" Ember's voice sounds far away.
"I'm losing control." I stumble backward. "Listen. There's someone in this castle you can trust. Dante Silvermoon. My second-in-command. Find him. Tell him code silver. He'll know what to do."
"What about you?"
"I'll buy you time. I'll let them think they're winning." The corruption spreads across my face again. "But Ember, when I'm possessed, I might try to hurt you. Don't hold back. Fire doesn't kill me permanently. Use everything you have."
"I can't hurt you!"
"You have to." My eyes are going black again. I can feel it. "Promise me!"
"Kaelan—"
"PROMISE ME!"
"I promise," she whispers, tears streaming down her face.
The Consortium floods back into my mind. I have one second—one final second of control.
I use it to kiss her.
It's brief, desperate, and it sets my whole world on fire. The soul bond flares bright between us, and for that one perfect moment, I feel complete.
Then the darkness takes me.
When I open my eyes again, they're black. The Consortium is back in control.
Ember stumbles backward, fire blazing in her hands. "Fight it, Kaelan!"
"He's gone," I hear myself say in that horrible multi-voice. "And now you're going to come with us. Quietly. Or we'll kill everyone in this castle, starting with Dante."
I watch through my own eyes as my body raises a hand. Shadow magic swirls, deadly and cold. I'm screaming inside, trying to stop it, but I can't move.
Ember's eyes harden. "You want to threaten people I care about? Fine. Two can play that game."
She slams her hands on the ground, and fire explodes through the tower. Not normal fire—cosmic fire mixed with shadow. The same fire that burned when we kissed.
The pain breaks the Consortium's hold for just a second.
"DANTE!" I manage to shout with my own voice. "CODE SILVER! PROTECT HER!"
Then the shadows grab Ember and throw her out the tower window.
I watch her fall three stories, screaming.
But she doesn't hit the ground. A man made of pure shadow catches her—Dante. He's been watching. Waiting.
"Got you," Dante says, setting Ember on her feet. "Kaelan sent me a message earlier. Told me you'd need backup."
The Consortium howls with rage inside my head. They force my body to leap from the window, chasing after Ember.
But Dante is faster. He grabs Ember and dissolves into shadows, disappearing before I can reach them.
I land hard on the courtyard stones. The Consortium is furious.
"Find her," they hiss through my mouth. "Find her or we start killing prisoners. Starting with her mother."
Through the soul bond, I feel Ember's response. She's not running. She's not hiding.
She's planning something.
And it's going to be spectacular.
"You just made a big mistake," I hear her thoughts through our connection. "You took my mother. You possessed my soulmate. You tried to throw me out a window."
I feel her anger building like a volcano about to erupt.
"Now I'm going to show you what happens when you push a fire mage too far."
The bond pulses with heat and fury.
Then I feel her start moving—not away from the castle, but toward it. Toward the dungeons where they're keeping her mother.
"She's coming back," the Consortium says through my mouth, sounding pleased. "Predictable. We'll capture her when she arrives."
But I know something they don't.
Ember isn't coming back to surrender.
She's coming back to burn this whole place down.