The world reeked of ashes.
When Li Wei lifted her head, the air itself seemed to bleed. Black petals of fire drifted down from a torn sky, and each ember hissed as it touched the marble floor of the Demon Lord's hall. The flames should have burned her, yet they merely seared her soul—small reminders that she still lived when she should not have.
Chains of crimson spirit-steel wrapped around her wrists and ankles. Each link pulsed faintly, alive, feeding on her trembling energy. At the far end of the throne room, upon steps carved from obsidian, sat the being she had been delivered to—Kael Dravon, Lord of the Ninth Abyss.
He did not move.
He didn't need to.
Power rolled off him like the tide of another world, a cold pressure that bent even the shadows. His eyes were not red as the stories said—they were colorless, a gleam of storm-silver that caught every movement she made. A single glance, and she understood why heaven feared him.
A mortal could not look into those eyes and remain unchanged.
The guards who had dragged her here—a pair of horned wraiths—dropped to one knee and spoke in guttural tones. "My lord, the offering from the Temple of Eternal Light."
Their words were knives in her chest. Offering.
Her sect had sold her life in exchange for peace.
Kael's gaze never left her. "Remove the chains."
The wraiths froze. "My lord—she carries celestial energy. She—"
"Did I ask for your counsel?" His voice was a quiet thunder. The air cracked; the guards bowed lower, trembling.
With a sound like snapping bone, the chains fell away. The sudden freedom nearly sent Li Wei sprawling. Her knees struck the floor, and the cold of the stone seeped through her torn robes. She raised her head just enough to speak.
"Why spare me?" Her voice was hoarse. "Is this another cruelty?"
A faint smile touched his lips, nothing kind about it. "Cruelty requires care, little mortal. I am merely curious."
He descended the steps, each movement silent, measured. His cloak of shadows trailed behind him, swallowing the firelight. When he stopped before her, the air thickened; her lungs refused to obey. His hand rose, fingers calloused and black-veined from demonic qi. He touched the side of her face with the care of someone examining a blade.
"You bear the mark of the Blood Moon," he murmured. "The heavens call it a curse. I call it… intriguing."
Li Wei flinched at the contact. Her spirit energy flared instinctively, a flicker of silver-white light against his darkness—and something answered. The world shifted. The red fires dimmed. For an instant, she saw through his eyes: the memory of a burning temple, a woman dying beneath falling stars, his own scream swallowed by silence.
Then it was gone.
He stepped back sharply, eyes narrowing. "You felt it too."
"I felt nothing," she lied, clutching her chest where her heart pounded too fast. The space between them buzzed with residual energy, like the echo of an unfinished word.
Kael turned away and reclaimed his throne. "You are no ordinary sacrifice. The heavens bound your spirit to mine long before you were born."
She forced a bitter laugh. "Then unbind it. Kill me, and free yourself."
His fingers drummed once against the armrest. "Death will not free you. Or me."
The torches along the walls flared higher, reacting to his mood. In the sudden light, Li Wei saw the hall more clearly—rows of broken angelic statues, their wings twisted, their faces frozen in agony. The sight chilled her. These were trophies, remnants of a war that should have ended centuries ago.
Kael's gaze softened—not with mercy, but with an unreadable sadness. "Your sect feared what you might become. They thought handing you to me would erase that fear. Instead, they have given me the one thing heaven forbade me to touch."
He rose again. "Stand."
Li Wei's legs obeyed before her mind agreed. She was aware of her pulse, of the way her hair clung damply to her neck, of the quiet tremor she could not suppress. His shadow fell over her as he stopped close enough that she could feel the unnatural chill radiating from him.
"What do you want from me?" she whispered.
His reply was almost gentle. "The truth. Your power was born from mine; somewhere in you sleeps the memory of what the heavens took. I will awaken it."
He extended a hand, palm upward. Between his fingers shimmered a sphere of crimson light—pure demonic essence. "Take it."
She hesitated. Every lesson she had ever learned warned against accepting energy from a demon. To absorb it was to stain the soul forever. Yet something deeper, older, urged her to reach out. Her fingers brushed the sphere.
It dissolved instantly, sinking into her skin. A shiver tore through her body. Images flashed—mountains under a blood-red moon, the echo of a name she did not know, a kiss shared beneath collapsing stars.
Her knees buckled. Kael caught her before she fell. His touch was cold but steady, an anchor amid the storm raging inside her. She wanted to pull away; instead, her body leaned closer, drawn to the whisper of familiarity that shouldn't exist.
When she opened her eyes again, she saw his expression—shock, then something that looked too much like longing.
"I remember…" The words slipped from her lips unbidden. "I remember dying in your arms."
The hall fell utterly silent.
Kael's hands tightened around her shoulders. "Then the curse has already begun."
A tremor passed through the palace. The crimson torches guttered. Distant bells—celestial bells—rang from somewhere far above the abyss. Kael's eyes darkened.
"They know," he said softly. "Heaven knows our bond has awakened."
He turned to the guards. "Seal the Abyssal Gates. No one enters."
"But my lord, if the Celestials descend—"
"Then let them descend." He looked back at Li Wei, and for a moment, the fury in him gave way to something devastatingly human. "I defied them once. I will do so again."
A surge of power burst from him, wrapping around her like invisible wings. She gasped as the chains scattered across the floor melted into light. The demon sigils above the throne began to spin, forming a ward strong enough to shake the mountains.
Through it all, Kael's voice reached her, low and unwavering.
"You are mine to protect now, Li Wei. Whether you curse or bless me for it, I no longer care."
The heat of his energy pressed against her skin, not painful but overwhelming. It filled the vast emptiness her sect's betrayal had left inside her, whispering that perhaps damnation was not the worst fate after all.
She met his gaze, half in fear, half in defiance. "Then you have claimed a burden, not a bride."
A faint smile ghosted across his mouth. "So be it."
Outside the citadel, the abyss roared as if in answer. The Blood Moon rose higher, staining the clouds the same deep crimson that glowed now faintly beneath her skin.
And somewhere above the shattered heavens, a voice older than time murmured a prophecy long forgotten:
> "When mortal light embraces demon flame, the sky shall bleed and the world be remade."
Li Wei shivered.
Her story had only just begun.