ELARA'S POV
The guard's sword came down—
And Morven exploded.
There was no other word for it. One second he was crouched beside me, weakened and vulnerable. The next, darkness erupted from him like a tidal wave, slamming into all six guards and sending them flying backward into walls.
They hit hard. Didn't get up.
I stared at Morven, who was breathing heavily, one hand pressed against his chest where our binding mark glowed angry red.
"That hurt," he gasped. Then his silver eyes snapped to me. "I felt that. Using that much power—I felt it in your body."
My chest ached like someone had squeezed my heart. My arms trembled with exhaustion that wasn't mine. Through our bond, I'd experienced the strain of his divine power being forced through mortal limitations.
"We need to leave," Morven said. "Now. Before—"
The sky outside the temple turned gold.
Not sunset gold. Wrong gold. Divine gold.
"No." Morven's face went pale—actually pale, which I didn't think gods could do. "They're here."
"Who?"
"The Celestial Court." He grabbed my arm, pulling me toward the back of the temple. "The other gods. They felt the binding break. They're coming to investigate."
Terror shot through me. "What happens if they find us?"
"They'll kill you to free me. Then they'll punish me for allowing it to happen." His grip tightened. "Neither of us survives this."
Golden light poured through the temple entrance like liquid sunshine. And with it came a voice—beautiful and terrible and so full of power that my knees buckled.
"MORVEN. SHOW YOURSELF."
"The Arch-Seraph," Morven muttered. "Of course they sent him."
"Can't you fight him?"
Morven's laugh was bitter. "In my current state? He'd destroy me in seconds. And killing me kills you, remember?"
The golden light grew brighter, searching. In moments, it would find us.
Morven's hand moved to my face, his eyes meeting mine with desperate intensity. "Trust me?"
"No."
"Good answer." He pulled me against his chest, wrapping both arms around me. "Hold on."
Then reality ripped.
I'd felt him tear through space before, but that had been controlled. This was violent—like he was clawing through the fabric of existence with his bare hands. The world turned inside out. Colors that shouldn't exist flashed past us. I couldn't breathe, couldn't scream, couldn't do anything but hold onto Morven as we fell through impossible darkness.
Behind us, I heard the Arch-Seraph's roar of rage: "YOU CANNOT RUN FROM HEAVEN!"
But apparently, we could try.
We crashed back into reality so hard it knocked the wind from both of us. I landed on top of Morven on cold stone floor, both of us gasping.
"Where—" I started.
"Forbidden Forest. Edge of the mortal realm." Morven pushed me off him and rolled to his feet, swaying. "The divine can't easily track us here. Too much wild magic interfering with their senses."
He stumbled to a crumbling pillar and leaned against it. Sweat—actual sweat—dripped down his face. His hands shook.
"That took everything I had left," he admitted quietly. Then his eyes snapped to me, full of rage. "This is your fault. All of it."
"My fault?" I pushed myself up, anger flooding through exhaustion. "I didn't ask to be sacrificed! I didn't ask for any of this!"
"Your blood activated the ritual!" He pushed off the pillar and stalked toward me. "Your divine heritage triggered the one binding that could trap me. If you'd just been a normal mortal, you'd be dead and I'd be free!"
"Then why didn't you let the guards kill me?" I shot back. "Why save me? Why run from the other gods if you want me dead so badly?"
He stopped, jaw clenching. Through our bond, I felt his answer before he spoke it: Because if I die, you die. And you're not ready to die yet.
Wait. That wasn't right. That was backwards. He should want to live, not care about my readiness.
"You felt that," Morven said slowly, his eyes widening. "My thought. You heard it in your head."
"The bond is getting stronger," I whispered. "We're not just feeling emotions anymore. We're sharing thoughts."
Horror crossed both our faces.
"No." Morven backed away. "No, I won't have some mortal girl reading my mind. I won't—"
You already do, my thought whispered through the bond before I could stop it. You know I'm terrified. You know I'm angry. You know I keep thinking about Daemon and Celeste and how much I want them to pay.
"Stop it." His hands clenched into fists. "Stop thinking so loudly."
"I can't control it!" Panic rose in my chest. "Can you control your thoughts?"
No, his mind answered. Three thousand years of solitude, and now I can't even have privacy in my own head.
We stared at each other, both realizing the same horrible truth: the binding wasn't just physical. It was mental. Emotional. Maybe even spiritual.
We were becoming intertwined in every possible way.
"There has to be a way to reverse this," Morven said desperately. "Some ritual, some magic—"
A branch snapped outside the temple.
We both froze. Through our heightened senses—was that new, or had we always been this aware?—I heard footsteps. Multiple sets. Moving carefully through the forest toward us.
"More guards?" I whispered.
Morven tilted his head, listening. Then his face went grim. "Worse. Hunters. Divine hunters blessed by the Celestial Court. They're tracking our energy signature."
"How many?"
"At least twenty." He looked at me, and I saw real fear in his silver eyes. "I'm too weak to tear through space again. If they catch us—"
"Then we run." I moved to the back exit of the temple. "On foot. Like mortals do."
"I don't run from anyone."
"You do now." I grabbed his hand—the connection flaring warm between us. "Unless you want them to separate us. Permanently."
That decided it. Morven might hate being bound to me, but he hated the idea of void-prison more.
We ran.
The forest was dark and wild, full of twisting paths and ancient trees that seemed to move when I wasn't looking. Morven moved with inhuman grace even weakened, but I could feel his exhaustion through our bond. Could feel my own fear feeding into his anger, creating a spiral of emotion that made it hard to think.
Behind us, the hunters called to each other. Getting closer.
"They're faster than us," Morven panted. "This body—it's too slow—"
I pulled him behind a massive tree, pressing against the trunk. Our breathing was too loud. Our hearts hammered in sync.
They're going to find us, I thought.
I know, his mind answered.
What do we do?
His silver eyes met mine in the darkness. Something stupid. Something that might kill us both.
"What—"
He pressed his hand over my mouth, listening. The hunters were very close now. Twenty feet. Maybe less.
Through our bond, an idea formed. Not his or mine, but... ours. A desperate, insane plan.
Morven could use his full power—enough to wipe out the hunters completely. But it would burn through his weakened divine essence so fast it might kill him. Which would kill me.
Unless I gave him my mortal magic to cushion the blow. Used my healing power to keep both our hearts beating while he unleashed death itself.
It had never been done before. Mixing divine and mortal magic that intimately could tear us both apart.
Or it could save us.
"Do you trust me?" Morven whispered against my ear.
I thought of everything he'd done. The cruelty. The anger. The way he'd blamed me for his vulnerability.
But I also felt, through our bond, his buried fear. His desperate will to survive. His grudging respect for my refusal to break.
"Yes," I breathed. "I trust you."
The hunters burst into view.
And Morven's power exploded outward, dark and terrible and absolute—wrapped in my silver healing magic like a protective shell.