Kael's POV
I shouldn't be here.
I should be in my fortress, alone, where I belong. Where the screams of the dead can't reach anyone but me.
But the moment I heard Calista's plan to execute Selene's daughter, I knew I had no choice.
I owe the Moon Goddess everything. And debts must be paid—even if it costs me the last shred of peace I have left.
The girl—Lyra—stares up at me from her knees. Her eyes are wide with terror. She should be terrified. Everyone who looks at me feels the same thing: death walks beside me like a shadow I can't shake.
"I invoke the Right of Protection," I repeat, louder this time so the entire Court hears. "Bind this girl to me. Her life is mine to guard."
"This is insane!" Calista's voice rises. "You're the Reaper! You kill, you don't protect!"
"I do what needs to be done." I turn my cold gaze on her. "Unless you'd prefer I investigate why Selene died twenty-five years ago? I was sent away on a convenient mission that night. When I returned, the Moon Goddess was dead, and her child had vanished. Strange timing, don't you think?"
Calista's face goes pale. Got her.
She knows I suspect the truth. She knows if I dig deep enough, I'll find her fingerprints all over Selene's murder.
"The Council will decide," Calista says quickly, turning to the six beings on the thrones.
An ancient man with a beard made of starlight speaks. "The Right of Protection is sacred law. If Kael Nightborne claims it, we cannot refuse. But there must be conditions."
"Name them," I say.
"A Soul Bond," another council member says—a woman with eyes like burning suns. "The girl's life will be bound to yours completely. You will feel her emotions. She will feel yours. If she dies, you experience her death. If she turns dark, you'll know immediately. And if you fail to protect her..." She smiles coldly. "The curse you already carry will consume you entirely."
My curse. The thing that makes every kill feel like I'm dying alongside my victim.
Adding more pain to that? It should terrify me.
But I've been in pain for three hundred years. What's a little more?
"I accept."
Lyra makes a small sound—fear or protest, I can't tell. I don't look at her. Can't look at her. If I see too much of Selene in her face, I might actually feel something. And feelings are dangerous.
"Bring the Binding Chains," Calista orders. She sounds furious.
Two priestesses approach carrying silver chains that glow with ancient magic. They wrap one end around Lyra's wrist, the other around mine.
The moment the chains touch my skin, I feel it—a connection forming, like a thread being woven between our souls. It burns. Everything in me wants to rip away, to run, to not let anyone this close to the darkness inside me.
Too late.
The chains flash bright as lightning, then disappear into our skin like they were never there. But I can feel them. I can feel HER.
Terror. Confusion. Heartbreak. Hope. Anger. Grief.
Every emotion Lyra feels slams into me like a physical blow. I stagger, gripping the edge of a nearby pillar to stay standing. Three hundred years of feeling nothing but death, and suddenly I'm drowning in someone else's life.
And she's feeling mine too.
Lyra gasps and collapses. I feel her shock as my emotions hit her—centuries of pain, endless deaths replaying in my mind, the weight of every life I've taken crushing down like an ocean of blood.
"Make it stop," she whispers, tears streaming down her face. "Please, make it stop."
I can't. The bond is permanent.
I force myself to breathe, to build walls around my emotions like I've done for centuries. Slowly, the connection dulls to a manageable throb instead of a scream. Lyra's breathing calms too as she learns to block me out.
But we'll always feel each other now. Always know when the other is in pain, in danger, or dying.
"It is done," the starlight-bearded council member announces. "Kael Nightborne, you are now responsible for Lyra Moonwhisper's life. She will remain under your guard until you determine her fate. The Court will not interfere—but if she proves to be a threat, you will execute her yourself. Do you understand?"
"Yes." My voice comes out rougher than I intended.
"Then take her from our sight. And Reaper?" Calista's smile is poisonous. "Don't forget what you are. A weapon. Not a savior. That girl is dangerous, and when she shows her true nature, you'll have to kill her. I wonder if you'll be strong enough to do it—or if Selene's memory will make you weak."
I meet her eyes. "I've never been weak. Don't test me, Priestess."
I grab Lyra's arm and pull her to her feet. She stumbles against me, still dizzy from the bond. Through our connection, I feel her exhaustion, her fear, her desperate confusion.
And underneath it all, I feel something that makes my dead heart clench: she still hopes I might be kind to her.
Foolish girl. I'm not kind. I'm not good. I'm a killer with a curse that makes me wish for death every single day.
But I owe Selene. And I'll keep this girl alive long enough to find out who really killed the Moon Goddess.
Even if it destroys me.
I open a portal with a wave of my hand—black smoke and silver light swirling together. "Come. We're leaving."
"Where are you taking me?" Lyra's voice shakes.
"My fortress. Your new prison." I step through the portal and drag her with me.
The last thing I hear before we disappear is Calista's voice, cold and certain: "She'll be dead within a month. The Reaper always finishes his contracts."
We emerge in my fortress. The air is cold, the walls are black stone, and there's no sound except wind howling through empty corridors.
Home. If you can call a place this dead a home.
Lyra looks around, and I feel her despair through the bond. She sees what this place is: a tomb for the living.
"You'll stay in the east wing," I say, already walking away. "Don't try to escape. The bond means I'll always find you. Don't touch anything. Don't go into the west wing. And don't talk to me unless absolutely necessary."
"Wait!" She runs after me, grabs my arm.
The moment she touches me, the bond flares. I feel her emotions sharper, clearer—and she feels mine.
She gasps and jerks back. "You're... you're in so much pain. How are you even standing?"
"Practice." I keep walking.
"Why did you save me?" she calls after me. "If you're just going to kill me later, why bother?"
I stop. Turn around. Look at this girl with silver eyes just like her mother's.
"Because I failed Selene once. I won't fail her again." My voice is cold, final. "Get some rest. Training starts at dawn. If you can't learn to fight, you're useless to me."
I leave her standing alone in the dark hallway.
Through the bond, I feel her crying. Feel her loneliness, her grief, her terror.
I force myself to ignore it. Build my walls higher. Lock my dead heart tighter.
But as I reach my chambers, I feel something else through the bond—something that makes me stop cold.
Lyra's power is waking up. I can feel it stirring inside her like a dragon opening its eyes after a long sleep.
And it's not just healing magic.
It's something else. Something ancient and terrifying and so powerful it makes my curse feel like a whisper.
Calista was right about one thing: this girl is dangerous.
But what the High Priestess doesn't know—what nobody knows—is that I felt this exact power once before.
Three hundred years ago.
In the Shadow King himself, right before he nearly destroyed the world.