The unified existence lasted three days.
Three days of burning together as phoenix-storm, three days of being woven into single consciousness, three days of believing they had beaten the Riftborn King's final curse by becoming something it couldn't target. Three days of hope that their merger was permanent, sustainable, that they had found a way to exist together that transcended the boundaries between separate entities.
Then the curse struck again.
It happened without warning, in a moment between heartbeats. Dante felt it through their unified consciousness—a seizure, a fracture, a tearing that shouldn't be possible. The integration that had seemed so stable, so complete, began to unravel. Not slowly, not gradually, but catastrophically, with violence that suggested this had been the curse's plan all along.
*What's happening?* Selena's consciousness screamed through their bond, panic evident. *We destroyed it—we burned away every thread—it's supposed to be gone—*
