The scream that tore from Damien's lips wasn't entirely human.
The cave where Renak had bound him pulsed with wild energy. Chains of ash-metal rattled across the stone as Damien writhed, every vein alight with golden threads. He wasn't just waking.
He was becoming.
Mara watched from the shadows, eyes wide. "You said the seal was only for Kyrell."
Renak stepped forward, grim. "It was. But Lucian's blood… it's rewriting the prophecy."
Damien's laughter turned savage. His eyes snapped open—flaring red, not with rage, but with devotion. "So this is what it means... to burn for him."
"No," Renak hissed. "You're burning because of him. Your heart doesn't belong to Kyrell anymore."
"I never said it did," Damien whispered. "But I know how to break the seal now."
—
Far above them, in the ruined courtyard of the Temple, Lucian stood with Kyrell beneath a red-washed sky. Clouds churned with unnatural pressure. The council's silence wasn't peace—it was retreat.
Kyrell tensed, rubbing his marked shoulder. "It's him."
"Damien?" Lucian asked, calm, deadly.
Kyrell nodded. "He's not human anymore."
Lucian tilted his head slightly, eyes glowing faintly. "Then let's see how much he remembers of the man who taught him how to fight."
Kyrell smirked. "He hated that you were better."
Lucian leaned in, mouth brushing Kyrell's ear. "He hated that you wanted me."
Kyrell's breath hitched, skin burning where Lucian's fingers traced the curve of his spine.
"Lucian…"
But whatever promise might have unraveled between them was shattered by a quake beneath the stone.
Cracks split the ancient floor. From within them rose fire—and a shape cloaked in it.
Damien.
Half-shadow, half-seraph, his body glowed with power stolen from both bloodlines.
"Do you love him still?" Damien's voice echoed through the courtyard.
Kyrell didn't flinch. "Yes."
Lucian stepped in front of him, voice cold as obsidian. "Then you'll fight me for him?"
Damien grinned. "No."
He extended his hand.
"I'll burn the world for him."
—
Lucian moved first.
The ground erupted beneath his feet, obsidian fangs surging like spears. But Damien vanished mid-strike, reappearing behind Kyrell with a blade made of soul-flame.
Kyrell turned just in time, catching Damien's wrist. Their eyes locked—two sides of a past they never truly left.
"Don't do this," Kyrell said, breath trembling. "It doesn't have to end like this."
Damien pressed in, lips almost at Kyrell's throat. "But it began with you. You were mine first."
Lucian's voice was a growl from behind him.
"He was never yours."
Before Damien could strike, a wall of fire separated them. Lucian stepped through it, bare-chested, marked by ancient blood.
"You want war, Damien?" Lucian snarled. "You want pain?"
He threw his hand forward—
And Damien screamed as a mark seared across his chest, mirroring Kyrell's.
It wasn't love.
It wasn't choice.
It was punishment.
—