Everything inside the cave tightened around Amelia as if the air itself had been taught fear. The circle of runes—burning a low, resigned red—looked like an execution ground waiting for its script to finish.
Kade stepped forward first.
His boots scraped stone that felt too loud in the swallowing quiet. His expression carried that storm-softness he only ever showed when it came to her, and the rest of him radiated lethal intent. His shadow stretched over the runes like a vow taking shape.
Riven didn't move.Didn't speak.Didn't even blink.
He just watched her.
Amelia felt pinned between two gravitational pulls: Kade's fury sharpening into something almost holy, and Riven's unreadable calm that wrapped around her spine like a whisper she didn't want to hear.
"Step away from her," Kade said, voice low but striking the chamber like a blade hitting anvil.
Riven tilted his head the slightest fraction. "She walked to me."
Kade's breath hitched. He wasn't jealous; he wasn't that kind of fragile.He was afraid.And that was worse.
Amelia took a step, her body moving before her thoughts caught up. "Kade, it's not—"
"Amelia."Her name from Riven's lips wasn't a call. It was gravity.
He lifted a hand, not toward her but toward the runes carved along the stone wall. They trembled, humming like deep-earth drums.
"She was summoned," Riven continued. "Not by me. Not by any mortal hand."
A pulse of heat rolled through the chamber. Sparks licked the air, like stray stars searching for someone to burn.
Kade's eyes narrowed. "You're saying—"
"That the prophecy is accelerating." Riven stepped closer, shadows trailing him like obedient beasts. "And you're no longer the only one it answers to."
The last words seemed to physically strike Kade. The torchlight bent around the force of his control slipping.
Amelia felt it too—something deep in her sternum shifting, as if a hinge had been waiting ages to rust open. A frequency no one else should hear began humming beneath her ribs.
She pressed a palm to her chest, breath shaking. "There's… something inside me."
Riven's gaze softened in a way that had no business being tender. "Not inside. Awakening."
Kade moved to her instantly. "Tell me what you feel."
Her skin prickled. "Heat. Like a sun rising the wrong way."
Riven nodded once. Almost reverently. "The eclipse mark."
Kade whirled on him. "You knew?"
"I suspected." Riven's eyes flicked to Amelia, warm and cold all at once. "But she responds to you. So I let it sleep."
The chamber vibrated, dust drifting from the ceiling like shaken constellations.
The moment cracked—literally—when the runes on the floor ignited in a blinding flare.
Amelia cried out as the circle snapped upward into a shimmering dome around her, cutting her off from both men.
Kade slammed his fist against the barrier; the impact rippled like liquid glass. "Amelia!"
Riven's expression finally fractured, alarm flashing as he pressed a palm to the barrier. "It chose now?"
Inside the dome, Amelia's heartbeat became thunder. Red-gold light bled under her skin like molten threads tracing a forgotten map.
Kade cursed under his breath, desperation converging with determination. "Break it, Riven."
Riven's jaw tightened. "I can't."
"You can," Kade snarled, "or I swear—"
"I can't…" Riven's voice dropped, unguarded for a bare heartbeat. "Because she must break it from the inside."
Amelia's knees weakened as the dome constricted, folding her in luminous heat.
Kade pressed his hand to the barrier, forehead leaning close. "Amelia, look at me."
His voice cut through the haze, a lifeline woven from iron and sunlight.
But the force inside her was rising too fast. She wasn't sure she could hold it.
The dome pulsed, ready to collapse—or combust.
Riven whispered through the barrier, "Choose your anchor."
Both men held her in their gaze.
And the power inside her prepared to decide.