The dawn cracked open like a blade, cutting through the dense forest with cold light.
Elira lay beside Kael, their breaths slow and tangled in the chill.
The fire they'd sparked last night was still burning both between them and within.
But the danger was closing in.
Outside, distant horns echoed a summons for hunters and allies alike.
Kael rose slowly, muscles taut beneath skin kissed by scars.
We need allies, he said, eyes shadowed.
Elira nodded, pulling on her cloak.
Then we find them.
Together, they stepped into the waking world two flames fighting to survive the coming storm.
The wind picked up as Kael and Elira moved deeper into the forest, following the remnants of an old hunter's trail. The trees grew denser here, their twisted branches clawing at the gray sky like skeletal hands.
Kael paused, eyes scanning the distance,
Elira, he said lowly, we're not alone.
She felt it too, a pressure in the air, subtle but wrong. Her fingers drifted to the dagger at her waist, the same one he'd gifted her in silence days ago. The blade was still warm.
A sudden snap, a twig behind them.
Elira spun, and Kael had his hand raised, flames flickering between his fingers.
A figure stepped into the clearing: cloaked in ash-gray robes, face masked in silver.
Elira of the Hollow, Kael of the Flame, the stranger intoned. The Pact calls. And the price must be paid.
Kael's hand clenched. You're one of the Ember Sentinels.
The figure nodded. And you both
are out of time.
The Sentinel lowered his hood.
Beneath it was a face carved from silence eyes blind and glowing faintly silver, lips sealed by an old ember-scar that pulsed like a heartbeat.
Elira flinched.
They burn truth into their flesh, Kael muttered.
So they cannot lie. Or forget.
The Sentinel stepped forward. The bond between you is forbidden. Flame and Flesh were never meant to merge without sacrifice.
We didn't choose this, Elira snapped.
Yet it has begun. The Sentinel turned his glowing eyes to Kael. She carries your fire now. You've passed the Mark.
Elira's chest tightened.
What mark? she asked.
Kael didn't speak.
The Sentinel answered instead. The Ember Bond. Your souls are now entwined. If one dies—so does the other.
Elira staggered back, the forest spinning around her.
Kael reached for her hand, but she pulled away. You knew, she whispered.
His jaw clenched. I hoped it wouldn't happen. Not fully.
But it had.
The Sentinel turned, mist curling around his feet. The hunters are closing in. You have three days to stand before the Ember Throne. Or the fire will take you both.
And with that, he vanished.
The forest was silent long after the Sentinel vanished.
Kael stood still, head bowed, as though the earth itself had accused him.
Elira didn't speak for a long moment. Her voice, when it came, was raw.
You bonded me.
I didn't mean to, he said, eyes heavy with regret. The bond forms when two souls meet in the flame. I didn't think we were... that far gone.
Elira stepped back. And now if you die, I die. If I die
I burn from the inside out, Kael finished. I know.
She stared at him, torn between fury and fear.
Why didn't you warn me?
Because I didn't want to stop.
The truth hung between them, thick and suffocating.
Kael approached slowly, but this time there was no hunger in his touch. Only sorrow. He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek, gently.
I've lived with fire my whole life, he said. "But what happened between us… that was the first time it didn't hurt.
Elira's breath hitched. We have three days.
He nodded. Three days to reach the Ember Throne… or burn together.
Behind them, a distant howl rose in the windlow, long, and wrong.
Something ancient was coming.
And it could smell the bond.