Raina awoke to silence.
Not the peaceful kind but the kind that claws at your chest, the kind that sounds like something sacred has just been stolen. Her body ached. Her mind raced. She reached instinctively across the bed.
But the other side was cold.
Lucien was gone.
The scent of scorched wood and blood hung in the air like ghosts. Outside the shattered window, ash drifted from the sky, blanketing the ruins of what had once been the eastern wing of the estate. All that remained of the garden were broken roots and charred stone. The magic that had once pulsed beneath the ground was fractured, sputtering in the wind like a candle struggling to stay lit.
Raina sat up, her ribs wrapped tightly in bandages she didn't remember. Her skin stung with the echo of the blood oath. Her heart throbbed with an ache that wasn't physical it was primal.
She should've felt Lucien.
But his bond… it was dimming. Distant. Like a star collapsing far beyond reach.
"Where is he?" she rasped, voice broken with fear.
Maeva sat in the corner, face bruised and armor bloodied. She held a half-burnt rune stone in her palm, watching the smoke drift through her fingers.
"He's not dead," Maeva answered finally, her voice flat. "But he's not here either. He crossed over."
Raina swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood, ignoring the pain that lanced through her legs. "Crossed where?"
Maeva's eyes darkened. "The Void Realm. He sacrificed himself to anchor the bond during the ritual. It was the only way to keep Aeris's curse from consuming you."
The words struck like thunder.
"No," Raina whispered. "No. He should've told me. I could have "
"You would've stopped him," Maeva cut in. "He knew that."
Raina's hands trembled as the mark on her wrist began to burn again brighter, deeper. The ink spread slowly, morphing into a new shape. Not just a symbol of their bond, but a map. A pull.
Lucien wasn't dead.
But he was calling to her.
Without another word, Raina stormed down the hall, barefoot and blazing. The mansion's stone walls seemed to pulse with her rage, the torches flickering as she passed. She moved like a storm runes glowing across her skin, her eyes silver with purpose.
She descended into the ritual chamber, where shadows danced across the mirror pool.
Maeva followed, silent, watchful.
Raina dropped to her knees beside the pool. The water shimmered not with reflection, but with memory. She dipped her hand in. Cold. Deep. Alive.
Lucien's face rippled through the surface. His body chained to obsidian. His voice a whisper across a thousand miles of dark: "Forgive me."
She didn't hesitate. She plunged her hand deeper.
The pool exploded in light.
Visions slammed into herb Lucien kneeling at the crypt, offering himself to the old gods. Blood on his hands. Magic pulling him into the void. Chains forged from sacrifice.
He had traded everything.
And never once told her goodbye.
"Stupid, selfish, beautiful man," she hissed, tears blurring her vision.
Maeva reached for her, but Raina stood.
"Prepare the summoning circle," she said, voice like steel. "I'm bringing him back."
"You don't know what waits on the other side."
"I don't care."
That night, she dressed in armor woven with moonthread and silver. Her skin burned with symbols older than time. She lit the twelve sacred candles, placed the runes in their perfect alignment, and stood in the center of the summoning ring.
Her voice cracked with the first chant. Then the second. Then the third.
The room shook.
The mirror pool boiled. And the floor beneath her split open like a wound.
Light surged up and swallowed her whole.
She fell through fire, through blood, through the ancient scream of the gods.
She landed on ash.
The sky was crimson. The trees were twisted into nightmares. And there, bound to a spire of black stone, was Lucien.
His shirt was torn. His eyes were closed. Chains of magic looped around his chest and neck. He looked like death but she knew better.
She ran.
"Lucien!" she shouted.
His eyes fluttered. "Raina…? You can't be here…"
"You left me!" she shouted back, rage shaking her bones. "You thought I'd let you go alone?"
"I made a deal," he whispered. "To protect you…"
"You are my protection. You're my partner. My mate. My everything."
And then she kissed him hard and desperate. Their marks lit like twin suns.
The chains cracked.
The void screamed.
Power surged around them, pulling at her, trying to drag her away. But she held him tighter.
"You're not dying here," she said. "We're going home."
The gods roared in protest flames, ice, wind, darkness. But Raina stood tall, her voice slicing through it all: "Enough."
Everything froze.
Time broke.
And then they were back.
In the ritual chamber, sprawled on the cold stone floor, gasping for breath.
Lucien coughed, then laughed. "You really don't listen to anyone, do you?"
Raina sobbed, laughing through the tears. "Not when it comes to you."
Maeva stood over them, stunned. "You crossed into the realm of sacrifice… and survived."
Lucien turned to her. "We didn't survive. We rewrote the rules."
The mark on Raina's wrist had changed again now glowing gold and silver. A symbol never before seen.
"You're not just bound anymore," Maeva said slowly. "You're eternal."
Raina helped Lucien to his feet.
Their bond didn't feel like magic anymore.
It felt like truth.
And the gods?
They would never touch them again.
Outside, the moon glowed clean. The wind smelled of promise. The war had scarred them but it hadn't broken them.
They were more than mates.
They were unbreakable.