Kael's POV
Three hundred years in darkness, and the first thing I see is a terrified human girl with ink stains on her fingers.
Perfect.
I studied her through the settling dust and scattered books. Small. Fragile. Her dark hair was falling out of a messy bun, and her clothes looked like she'd grabbed them from a donation bin. She knelt on the floor where she'd dropped my prison, her brown eyes wide with shock.
Not fear yet. That would come soon enough.
"Who broke my prison?" I demanded, letting power roll through my voice. The temperature dropped another ten degrees. Frost crawled across the floor toward her.
She flinched but didn't run. Interesting.
"I—I didn't mean to," she stammered, struggling to her feet. "I was just cataloging books. I touched the seal and it—"
Pain exploded through my chest.
I gasped, my hand flying to my heart. It felt like someone was driving hot iron through my ribs, twisting and burning. I hadn't felt pain in three centuries. My body had forgotten what it meant to hurt.
The girl cried out and grabbed her own chest, her face going white. She staggered, and I saw it—silver light blazing across her left wrist. A mark burning into her skin in patterns I knew too well.
No. No, this couldn't be happening.
I looked at my own wrist and felt my world collapse. The same mark glowed on my skin, intricate and unmistakable. The Binding Seal. Soul-deep. Permanent.
"No," I whispered. My three hundred years of planning, of waiting, of surviving that darkness—all of it destroyed in one moment by this careless mortal. "No. You didn't just break the seal."
I stared at her, horror and rage warring in my chest. The bond pulsed between us like a second heartbeat. I could feel her now—her fear, her confusion, her pain mixing with mine until I couldn't tell where I ended and she began.
"You bound yourself to me."
She looked up at me with those wide, innocent eyes. "What did you do?"
What did I do? I almost laughed. Almost screamed.
"I was sealed away for three hundred years," I said, fighting to keep my voice steady. Each word took effort. The bond was pulling at me, trying to make me care about this fragile creature who'd just ruined everything. "Locked in darkness. Powerless. Forgotten. And you—"
I moved toward her, watching her shrink back. Good. She should be afraid. She should understand exactly what she'd done.
I stopped inches away, so close I could hear her rapid heartbeat. Could smell the fear on her skin mixed with paper and cheap coffee.
"You stupid, reckless mortal. You just chained yourself to the most dangerous creature in any realm."
I grabbed her wrist before she could pull away, my fingers closing over the fresh mark. The moment we touched, the bond flared wide open.
Her memories crashed into me like a tsunami.
A man with dark hair kissing her, whispering promises. The same man laughing with another woman while she watched from across a room. Standing in front of a review board, trying to prove the research was hers, watching them side with him instead. Walking home in the rain, crying, with nowhere left to go.
Betrayal. Humiliation. Loss.
I knew those feelings. Had lived them. They were carved into my bones after three hundred years alone with my failures.
She jerked away with a cry, breaking the contact. The visions stopped, but the connection remained. I could still feel her, a constant presence at the edge of my mind.
"What are you?" she whispered, pressing her marked wrist against her chest.
I should have lied. Should have told her I was just a powerful being, nothing more. But something about her broken edges called to my own, and the words came out before I could stop them.
"I'm the reason your people stopped believing in monsters."
Her breath caught. I saw the moment she decided I was telling the truth, saw the fear finally bloom in her eyes. But underneath it was something else. Something that looked almost like understanding.
Before either of us could speak, the lights died.
Complete darkness swallowed the basement. But I didn't need light to see. My senses spread out automatically, tracking heat signatures, movement, the subtle shift of air that meant—
"Someone's coming," I said quietly. "Multiple someones. Moving fast down the stairs."
"Who?" Her voice shook, but she stayed close to me. Brave or foolish, I couldn't tell yet.
"Everyone who wants me dead." I felt my power rising, silver fire dancing under my skin, eager for release after so long contained. "And everyone who wants to use you."
"Use me?" She sounded genuinely confused. "Why would anyone—"
"Because you carry the seal's power now, little mortal." I let the fire show in my eyes, just enough that she'd see the glow in the darkness. Just enough to make my point. "Every being in the celestial realm will sense it. Some will want to control it. Some will want to destroy it. And all of them will come for you."
The footsteps reached the bottom of the stairs. Six heat signatures. No, seven. All enhanced with celestial magic, their energy signatures blazing like torches in the dark.
Then I heard a voice that made the girl beside me go rigid.
"Aria? I know you're down here."
A male voice. Young. Confident. Familiar—I'd seen him in her memories. The betrayer. The thief who'd stolen her work and her trust.
"You know these hunters?" I asked, already knowing the answer but needing to hear it.
"That's my ex-boyfriend," she breathed, and I felt her shock and confusion through the bond. "Marcus. But he can't be—he's just a professor. He doesn't know about any of this."
I almost pitied her. Almost.
"He knows now," I said, letting silver fire dance along my fingertips. "And he brought friends."
The lights slammed back on, blazing bright enough to make the mortal squint. I didn't blink. I'd spent three hundred years in absolute darkness. Light meant nothing to me anymore.
The man—Marcus—stood at the base of the stairs with six others. Two were clearly hired muscle, their bodies enhanced with basic combat magic. Three were mages, their fingers crackling with borrowed celestial power. And one—
I recognized her immediately. Silver-blonde hair. Cold blue eyes. A face that belonged in the celestial courts, not the mortal realm.
Vivian Cross. Half-fae. Daughter of Lord Cross of the Winter Court.
She'd been the one to testify against me at my trial. Had smiled while she lied. Had helped my brother seal me away.
And now she was here, standing beside the mortal who'd broken Aria Chen's heart.
"Well, well," Vivian purred, her eyes fixed on me with hunger and hatred. "The War Prince has finally been freed. And he's already found himself a new pet human."
Aria stiffened beside me. "Vivian? What are you—"
"Shut up, Aria." Vivian's voice turned sharp. "You were always too stupid to see what was right in front of you. Marcus didn't steal your research. I gave it to him. I've been watching you for months, waiting for you to lead us to something useful."
I felt Aria's shock through the bond, then her rage. Good. Anger was better than fear.
"You let her translate the seal locations," I said, pieces clicking into place. "You needed someone with Oracle blood to break them, but you couldn't risk doing it yourself."
"Very good." Vivian smiled. "Oracle Keepers are so rare now. Most don't even know what they are. But Aria?" She laughed. "Descended from the most powerful line, and she thought she was just good with languages. It was almost too easy."
"I don't understand," Aria said, and I could hear her voice breaking. "You used me? All of this—Marcus, the research, destroying my career—it was to get to some seal?"
"To get to him." Marcus stepped forward, and I saw the greed in his eyes as he looked at me. "An actual immortal. Do you know what I could learn? What I could become if I studied you?"
Silver fire exploded from my hands. The temperature dropped so fast that frost covered every surface in seconds. I let my full power show—let them see exactly what they'd freed.
"You want to study me?" I asked softly, deadly. "Then let me give you a lesson."
I moved.
Three hundred years of warrior training, of battles fought and won, of being the most feared commander in any realm—all of it came back in an instant.
The first mage went down before he could cast. The second managed to throw a spell, but I caught it and threw it back. It hit the third mage, and they both screamed.
The hired muscle tried to rush me. I broke the first one's arm without thinking. The second managed to land a hit that would have killed a mortal.
I didn't even feel it.
But Aria did.
Through the bond, I felt her gasp as phantom pain hit her. She staggered, and that moment of distraction cost me.
Marcus threw something—a containment charm, glowing with celestial power. It wrapped around my wrists like burning chains, cutting off my magic.
I snarled, pulling against them, but they held. Not for long. Nothing could hold me for long. But long enough.
Vivian moved toward Aria with inhuman speed. "Sorry, darling. But we need you alive. Him?" She smiled at me. "We just need him contained."
"Don't touch her," I growled, fighting the chains. The Heartbreak Curse flared in my chest—sharp, sudden, shocking. I gasped, and Vivian's smile widened.
"Oh," she breathed. "Oh, this is perfect. You're already developing feelings for her. The curse is active." She looked at Aria. "Do you know what that means, little Oracle? It means every time he cares about you, every time he tries to protect you, it causes him agony. And if he ever actually falls in love with you?"
She drew a finger across her throat.
"It'll kill him."
Aria looked at me, her eyes wide with horror. Through the bond, I felt her guilt, her fear—not for herself, but for me.
Foolish mortal.
"Run," I told her, even as the curse burned through my chest. "When I break free, you run and don't look back."
"I can't just—"
"RUN!"
I shattered the containment chains with a burst of power that made the whole building shake. Silver fire exploded outward, throwing everyone back. Marcus hit a shelf hard. Vivian rolled and came up hissing, her fae nature showing through.
"Aria, GO!" I shouted.
She ran.
And I bought her time.
Aria's POV
I ran through the basement like my life depended on it. Because it did.
Behind me, I heard crashes, screams, and something that sounded like thunder inside the building. Kael was fighting them all. For me. A stranger he'd known for ten minutes.
And it was killing him. I could feel it through the bond—sharp spikes of pain every time he moved to protect me, every time he pushed himself harder to give me more time.
The curse. Vivian had said he was cursed. That caring about me would hurt him. That love would kill him.
I burst through the basement door and ran straight into James.
"Aria!" He grabbed my shoulders. "What's happening? I heard—"
"We have to go," I gasped. "Now. There's—"
An explosion rocked the library. Books flew off shelves. The windows shattered. And through the chaos, I felt Kael through the bond—his rage, his pain, his determination.
Then I felt him calling to me. Not with words, but with something deeper. The bond pulled tight, and I knew—knew—that he was coming for me.
And so was everyone else.
"James, run," I said, pushing him toward the exit.
"I'm not leaving you—"
The front doors exploded inward.
Kael stood in the entrance, his silver hair whipping in a wind that shouldn't exist indoors. His eyes blazed with fire. Blood dripped from a cut on his cheek, but he was smiling.
"Found you, little Oracle," he said.
Behind him, Vivian and Marcus emerged from the smoke and dust, both looking furious and determined.
"You can't protect her forever, Kael," Vivian called. "The curse will finish you long before we do."
Kael looked at me, and I saw something flicker across his face. Something that looked almost like regret.
"I don't need forever," he said quietly. "I just need tonight."
He grabbed my hand, and the world exploded into silver light.
When my vision cleared, we were somewhere else. Somewhere dark and cold and definitely not the library.
"Where—" I started.
"Between realms," Kael said, swaying slightly. His hand was still locked around mine, and through our connection, I felt how much that last spell had cost him. "We can't stay long. But it'll buy us a few hours."
"You're hurt." I could see it now—not just the cut on his face, but the way he held himself, like something inside was broken.
"The curse," he said simply. "Using power to protect you activates it. It'll pass."
"This is insane." I pulled my hand free, immediately regretting it when I felt the distance between us like a physical ache. The bond didn't like separation. "I don't understand any of this. Why does Vivian want you? Why did they use me? What's an Oracle Keeper? And what the hell is this curse?"
Kael looked at me for a long moment. Then he did something I didn't expect.
He laughed. Not a happy sound. A broken one.
"You want the truth, Aria Chen?" He stepped closer, and I saw the weight of centuries in his eyes. "Then sit down. Because the story of how I became the monster in your basement starts three hundred years ago with a woman I loved, a brother who betrayed me, and a curse that was supposed to teach me that mortals aren't worth dying for."
He held out his hand, the mark on his wrist glowing faintly silver.
"And it ends with you and me, bound together by a seal you never should have been able to break. Because you're not just an Oracle Keeper, little mortal. You're something much more dangerous."
"What am I?" I whispered.
His smile turned sad.
"You're the one person in any realm who can save me or destroy me. And I have absolutely no idea which one you'll choose."
The silver light around us began to flicker. Somewhere in the distance, I heard voices. Vivian. Marcus. Others I didn't recognize.
They'd found us already.
Kael's hand tightened on mine. "We need to move. Now."
"Where?" I asked, even as I let him pull me forward.
"Somewhere they won't dare follow." His eyes met mine, and I saw fear in them for the first time. "Somewhere even I swore I'd never return."
"Where?"
"Home," he said quietly. "The Celestial Court. Where my brother rules. Where they sealed me away. Where everyone wants me dead."
I stared at him. "That's your plan? Walk into enemy territory?"
"It's the only place they won't expect us to go." He pulled me closer as the voices grew louder. "Trust me or don't, Aria. But decide fast, because in about thirty seconds, Vivian and her hunters are going to break through, and I'm too weak to fight them again."
Through the bond, I felt his exhaustion. His pain. The curse eating away at him with every moment he spent protecting me.
I'd been betrayed before. By Marcus. By Vivian. By the entire academic community. Trusting people only led to pain.
But looking into Kael's ancient, tired eyes, I realized something.
He'd been betrayed too. And he was still fighting.
"Okay," I said. "Let's go."
His eyes widened slightly, surprised. Then he smiled—a real smile this time.
"Hold on tight, little Oracle. The Celestial Court doesn't welcome mortals kindly."
He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me against him. I felt his power building, felt the bond between us flare bright and hot.
The silver light exploded.
The last thing I heard before the world disappeared was Vivian screaming my name and Marcus shouting something about containment spells.
Then we were gone.
And I was falling through stars.