Kael's POV
I dive into the shadows after her.
It's suicide. I know it's suicide. Shadow portals created by Voidborn aren't meant for living things—they tear you apart from the inside out.
But I'm already moving before my brain catches up.
The darkness swallows me whole. Cold slams into every nerve like a thousand knives. My body feels like it's being stretched in ten directions at once. I can't see. Can't breathe. Can't think.
But through the bond, I feel her. Terrified. Suffocating. Dying.
Hold on, I think desperately, knowing she can't hear me. Just hold on.
My hand closes on something solid—an arm. Hers. I pull with everything I have.
The shadows fight back. They want her. They're hungry for her light.
"Not happening," I snarl into the void.
I channel power through our bond—not her light this time, but my own magic. Three hundred years of divine energy gifted by the goddess herself. I pour it into the connection between us, making our bond burn so bright the shadows recoil.
Reality tears open.
We explode out of the portal and hit solid ground hard. I roll, keeping Seraphina tucked against my chest so she doesn't get hurt.
We stop moving. I lie there gasping, every muscle screaming in protest.
Seraphina coughs violently above me. "What—how—"
"Don't talk." My voice sounds like I swallowed gravel. "Just breathe."
She's sprawled across my chest, her hands pressed against my armor. Through our bond, I feel her racing heart start to slow. Her terror fades to confusion, then shock, then something else.
Gratitude. Relief. And beneath it all—trust.
She trusts me. After everything. After I've been nothing but cold to her.
I should push her off. Put distance between us. Lock down the bond before she feels anything else from me.
Instead, I stay perfectly still.
"You came for me," she whispers. "You jumped into the shadows. You could have died."
"Yeah, well." I finally manage to sit up, forcing her to slide off me. "Can't let my assignment get kidnapped on day one. Looks bad on my record."
She stares at me with those too-knowing eyes. "That's not why you did it."
"Drop it."
"You were terrified. I felt it through the bond. You—"
"I said drop it!" I snap, getting to my feet. Pain shoots through my ribs where the wolf clawed me earlier. The wound's still bleeding. Great.
Seraphina stands too, swaying slightly. She looks around for the first time. "Where are we?"
Good question. I scan our surroundings quickly. Forest. Different from before—the trees here are thicker, older. The air tastes wrong. Too still.
Then I see the mountain range in the distance and my stomach sinks.
"The Borderlands," I mutter. "Perfect. Just perfect."
"What are Borderlands?"
"The edge of mortal territory. Where the barrier between worlds is weakest." I check my sword—still intact—and start walking. "It's where things that shouldn't exist can slip through. We need to leave. Now."
"Wait!" She grabs my arm. "What about the village? Those people were—"
"Dead or saved by now. Either way, there's nothing we can do." I pull free from her grip, ignoring how her face crumples. "The Voidborn wanted you gone so it could feed. It succeeded. We barely escaped with our lives. That's the reality."
"But—"
"No buts!" I spin to face her. "You want to know why I'm not nice? Why I don't hold your hand and tell you everything will be okay? Because it won't! This is war, Seraphina. People die. Villages burn. Sometimes you save them. Usually you don't."
Tears fill her eyes but she blinks them back furiously. "How do you live like that? Not caring?"
"I never said I don't care." The words slip out before I can stop them. "I said caring doesn't change anything."
She opens her mouth to argue, but I hold up a hand. "Listen."
We both freeze. At first, nothing. Then—voices. Multiple voices, getting closer.
"Behind the rocks," I hiss, pulling her down.
We crouch behind a boulder just as three figures emerge from the trees. Men. Armed with swords. But something's off about them. Their eyes are too bright. Their skin has a gray tint.
"Corrupted," I breathe. "Humans touched by void energy. They're hunting for something."
"The Lightbearer came through here," one of them says. "I can smell the goddess's stench."
"The King wants her alive," another adds. "Whoever brings her in gets promoted. Gets power."
They're hunting Seraphina. Actively hunting her.
Beside me, she's gone pale. "How many people want me dead?"
"Pretty much everyone aligned with the Voidborn King," I whisper back. "Which is a lot more than you'd think. He promises power. Glory. Strength. People sell their souls for less."
The corrupted men move past our hiding spot. We wait until their footsteps fade completely.
"We need to keep moving," I say quietly. "Get you somewhere safe where I can—"
"Teach me to fight," she interrupts.
I blink. "What?"
"You said I need control. Training. So train me." She straightens her shoulders, and despite the fear still radiating through our bond, her voice is steady. "I'm tired of being helpless. Tired of watching you risk your life while I do nothing. Teach me."
For three hundred years, I've trained warriors. Dozens of them. Most quit within days. The ones who didn't became legends.
But I've never trained someone I actually cared about.
And I do care. Despite every wall I've built, despite every oath I've sworn to stay detached—I care about this stubborn, brave, ridiculous mortal girl who should mean nothing to me.
"Fine," I hear myself say. "But I'm not going easy on you."
"I don't want you to."
Something in her eyes makes my breath catch. Determination. Fire. The same thing I saw in myself three centuries ago before the world beat it out of me.
Maybe she can keep hers. Maybe—
A bloodcurdling roar echoes through the forest.
We both spin around. Something massive is moving through the trees, snapping them like twigs. Something that makes the ground shake with each step.
"Run," I say.
"What is that?"
"RUN!"
We bolt. Behind us, trees explode as whatever's chasing us crashes through. It's fast. Too fast for something that size.
"What is it?" Seraphina gasps as we sprint.
"Border Beast. Creature made of pure void energy. No mind. No mercy. Just hunger." I risk a glance back and curse. "And it's locked onto you."
"Why me?"
"Your light attracts them like moths to flame!" I grab her hand, pulling her faster. "We need to—"
The ground beneath us collapses.
We're falling through darkness again, but this time it's different. Not a shadow portal. A sinkhole. And at the bottom, I hear water rushing.
We hit liquid ice so cold it drives the air from my lungs. I lose my grip on Seraphina. The current is savage, dragging us under, slamming us into rocks.
I surface, gasping. "Seraphina!"
No answer. Just the roar of rapids.
Then I feel it through the bond—terror spiking. She can't swim. She's drowning.
I dive under, eyes burning from the cold. There—a flash of golden light in the murky water. She's fighting the current, losing.
I reach her. Grab her. Start pulling her up.
But something wraps around my ankle. Pulls hard in the opposite direction.
I look down through the dark water and see it—a hand made of writhing shadows, reaching up from the riverbed. Then another. And another. Dozens of shadow hands, all grasping, pulling, trying to drag us both down into the depths.
Seraphina's eyes meet mine underwater. Wide. Terrified. Trusting.
Save me, her expression begs. Please.
I have maybe seconds before we both drown.
The shadow hands pull harder. Seraphina's going limp in my arms. No air left.
Through our bond, I feel her consciousness starting to fade.
She's dying.
And I have to make a choice that might kill us both.
I pull her against my chest. Press my lips to hers. And breathe my own air into her lungs—sharing oxygen through the bond like I shared her power earlier.
Her eyes fly open in shock.
The bond flares golden between us. Our combined light explodes outward in a shockwave that turns the shadow hands to smoke.
The current catches us, sweeping us downstream and up—out of the water completely.
We land hard on a riverbank, tangled together, gasping and coughing.
"Did you just—" Seraphina chokes out. "Did you just kiss me?"
"I saved your life," I snap, rolling away from her. "Don't read into it."
But through the bond—the bond I still haven't closed—she feels the truth.
That wasn't just about saving her.
Some part of me wanted to.
"Kael—" she starts.
A slow clap echoes through the trees.
We both freeze.
A woman steps out from the shadows. Beautiful. Elegant. With eyes that glow the same red as the alpha wolf's did.
"How touching," she purrs. "The guardian and the Lightbearer. Bonded. Connected. Falling in love."
She smiles, revealing teeth too sharp to be human.
"My master will be so pleased when I bring him your corpses."
She raises one hand. Dark energy crackles around her fingers—more power than the Voidborn creature had. More than anything I've felt outside the goddess herself.
This isn't a random servant.
This is one of the Voidborn King's generals.
And we're both exhausted. Wounded. Barely able to stand.
Seraphina looks at me, terror clear in her eyes.
I meet her gaze. Through our bond, I send one message: Trust me.
Then I grab her hand and jump off the cliff behind us into the raging waterfall below—choosing certain death over capture.
Her scream echoes as we fall into the void.