ELARA'S POV
"Hello, stepdaughter."
Seraphine stepped fully into the temple, and I saw what she'd become. Her eyes glowed with unnatural red light. Dark veins spread across her skin like spider webs. And floating behind her were three figures wrapped in shadow—corrupted mages twisted by dark magic.
"How did you find us?" Morven moved in front of me protectively, his power already gathering.
Seraphine smiled, and it was nothing like the cold, calculating expression I remembered. This smile was mad. Hungry.
"The binding mark, of course." She gestured to her own chest, where a twisted version of our silver mark burned black on her skin. "Did you really think Lavinia only had one plan? She placed a tracking curse on the altar—anyone with divine blood who touched it would be marked. And I..." she laughed, "I volunteered to be the hunter."
"You let her curse you?" I couldn't believe it. "You let dark magic into your body just to track me?"
"Not just to track you, dear. To take what's yours." Her red eyes fixed on Morven with obsessive intensity. "A god, bound and vulnerable. Do you know how much power I could gain by killing you both and consuming that binding? I'd become divine myself."
Morven's hand found mine, and through our bond, I felt his racing thoughts. She's stronger than she should be. The dark magic has amplified her power. We can't fight her and the corrupted mages while I'm this weak.
"Run," he whispered to me.
"I'm not leaving you—"
"RUN!" He shoved me toward the back exit just as Seraphine attacked.
Black fire exploded through the temple. I ran, but not away—I ducked behind a pillar, watching in horror as Morven faced four enemies alone.
He was magnificent and terrible. Even weakened, his power was devastating. Dark energy poured from his hands, meeting Seraphine's fire in mid-air. The corrupted mages circled him, attacking from all sides.
But I felt his strain through our bond. Every blast of power hurt him. Hurt us. My chest ached with phantom pain as his divine energy burned through mortal limitations.
He couldn't win this. Not alone.
One of the corrupted mages got behind Morven, dark magic crackling toward his unprotected back—
I didn't think. Just acted.
My healing magic burst out instinctively, forming a silver shield that caught the attack. The magic exploded against my barrier, and the force of it sent me flying backward.
"Elara!" Morven's terror flooded through our bond. He spun, abandoning his fight with Seraphine to check on me.
Which was exactly what Seraphine wanted.
Her dark fire slammed into his chest, and Morven went down hard. Through our bond, I felt his agony as if it were my own. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Just pain, burning through every nerve.
"Morven!" I crawled toward him, but Seraphine was faster.
She grabbed me by the throat and lifted me off the ground. Her corrupted strength was inhuman.
"Look at you," she sneered. "Still trying to save people. Still trying to be the hero. That's what got you sacrificed in the first place, you stupid girl."
I clawed at her hand, gasping for air. Through our bond, I felt Morven struggling to stand, to reach me, but the corrupted mages held him down with chains of dark magic.
"I never wanted to be your mother," Seraphine continued, her face inches from mine. "Your real mother was everything—beautiful, powerful, beloved. When she died, your father was so broken. I thought if I married him, if I gave him a new family, he'd forget her. But he never did. Because you were there. Living proof of his perfect first wife. Every time he looked at you, he saw her." Her grip tightened. "So I destroyed you. Just like I should have done years ago."
Black spots danced across my vision. I was dying. And if I died—
Morven dies too.
No. I refused. I'd survived betrayal. Survived the mountain. Survived divine hunters. I would not die at my stepmother's hands.
Through the bond, I reached for Morven's power. Not to drain it, but to connect with it. To blend our magic the way we had against the hunters.
Trust me, I thought to him.
Always, came his instant response.
Our magic merged.
Divine death energy and mortal healing light twisted together, forming something completely new. Something that had never existed before.
Silver-black power exploded from me, and Seraphine flew backward, her hand leaving smoking marks on my throat.
I hit the ground gasping, and Morven was there immediately, the dark chains shattered. He pulled me against him, and the contact amplified our merged magic even more.
"What is this?" Seraphine stared at her burned hand in disbelief. "What are you?"
"Something new," Morven said, his voice layered with mine—we were speaking in perfect unison without meaning to. "Something you can't control."
The corrupted mages attacked together, but Morven and I moved as one. When I thought left, he was already dodging left. When he channeled power, my healing magic was already there to protect us from the strain.
We were fighting like we'd trained together for years instead of hours.
We were fighting like one person with two bodies.
It was terrifying and exhilarating and wrong and perfect all at once.
"Impossible!" Seraphine shrieked. "The binding shouldn't work this way! You're supposed to be trapped, weakened, dying!"
"Shows what you know about divine magic," Morven said coldly. We raised our hands together, and silver-black energy gathered between our palms. "The Binding of Souls doesn't just chain us together. It makes us one."
We released the power, and it swept through the temple like a tsunami. The corrupted mages disintegrated. Seraphine's dark magic shattered, and she collapsed, her borrowed power torn away.
The silence after the battle was deafening.
Morven and I stood there, still touching, still merged, both breathing hard. Slowly, carefully, we separated. The magic split back into two distinct forces—his and mine.
"That was..." I started.
"Unprecedented," he finished. "The magic shouldn't have merged that smoothly. That completely."
"But it did." I looked at my hands, where silver-black energy still flickered around my fingers. "What does that mean?"
Through our bond, I felt his confusion matching mine. And underneath, something else. Something that felt almost like wonder.
"It means the binding is evolving," he said quietly. "Changing into something the ancient gods never intended. Something more powerful."
Seraphine groaned from where she'd fallen. I walked over to her, Morven a step behind me.
My stepmother looked small now, stripped of her stolen power. The dark veins were fading from her skin. But the hate in her eyes was still there.
"You should have died on that mountain," she spat.
"But I didn't." I crouched beside her. "I survived. I'm bound to a god. And I have power now—real power, not the dark magic you tried to steal. So here's what's going to happen. You're going to tell me everything. Lavinia's plans. Daemon's involvement. All of it."
"I'll tell you nothing."
Morven knelt beside me, his silver eyes fixed on Seraphine. "Oh, you'll talk. Because if you don't, I'll let Elara practice her new merged magic on you. And trust me—combining death and healing? We can make you feel like you're dying for a very, very long time without actually killing you."
The threat was cold and effective. Seraphine's face went pale.
"Fine," she whispered. "But knowing the truth won't save you. Lavinia's plan is already in motion. The sacrifice might have failed, but she got what she needed—proof that the Binding of Souls can be activated. Now she knows how to do it herself."
Ice ran down my spine. "What do you mean?"
"She's going to create her own binding," Seraphine said, and actually smiled through her fear. "She found another god. A weaker one, easier to control. And she has another sacrifice ready—someone with divine blood strong enough to trigger the ritual."
"Who?" Morven demanded.
"Your little brother, of course," Seraphine said to me. "Your half-brother Finn. The son my daughter Celeste and I made sure carried the same divine bloodline as you—courtesy of your father's family. Lavinia has him already."
The world tilted.
Finn. My ten-year-old half-brother. I'd barely known him—Seraphine had kept us separated our whole lives. But he was innocent. Just a child.
"Where is he?" My voice came out deadly calm.
"The Grand Cathedral in the capital. Lavinia's performing the ritual tomorrow night during the blood eclipse." Seraphine's smile widened. "You'll never make it in time. It's three days' journey, and you're being hunted by everyone. The boy dies. Lavinia gets her bound god. And you?" She laughed. "You get to live with the guilt of another innocent dying because of you."
Rage exploded through me—mine and Morven's combined. Our magic flared, making the air crackle.
"Easy," Morven murmured, his hand on my shoulder grounding me. Through our bond: We'll save him. I promise.
How? I thought back desperately. She's right. We'll never make it in time.
"Actually," a new voice said from the temple entrance, "you might."
We spun around.
Standing in the doorway was a man I'd never expected to see. Commander Drace—the captain of the Citadel Guard who'd arrested me, who'd dragged me up the mountain to my execution.
He was supposed to be my enemy.
So why was he holding his hands up in peace? Why did he look... guilty?
"Lady Elara," he said quietly. "I know you have no reason to trust me. But I need to tell you something. About your mother. About what really happened the night she died." He took a breath. "And about the secret she hid to protect you—a secret that could change everything."
Through our bond, Morven and I shared the same thought: This is either our salvation or a trap.
But we needed answers. Needed any advantage we could get.
"Talk," I said. "Fast."
Drace's eyes were haunted. "Your mother didn't die in childbirth, Elara. She was murdered. By the same people who are hunting you now. And before she died, she left something behind. Something Lavinia would kill everyone in the kingdom to possess."
"What?" I demanded.
"The key to breaking divine bindings. The one thing that could free Morven from you—or free every god the Celestial Court has ever imprisoned." He looked between us. "Your mother was the last Keeper of Divine Locks. And she passed that power to you."