Aria's POV
I was falling through a tunnel made of stars and screaming.
My stomach lurched like I was on the worst roller coaster ever. Colors I didn't have names for streaked past my face. Kael's arm was iron around my waist, the only solid thing in a world that had stopped making sense.
Then we hit ground. Hard.
I gasped, my knees buckling. Kael caught me before I could fall, but I felt his hands shaking. Through the bond—that impossible connection I still didn't understand—I felt his exhaustion like my own.
"Where are we?" I managed, looking around.
We stood in a massive hall made of white marble and silver light. Columns stretched up toward a ceiling so high I couldn't see it. Everything gleamed and sparkled like we were inside a diamond. It was the most beautiful place I'd ever seen.
It was also completely empty.
"The Celestial Court," Kael said quietly. "The Hall of Judgment, specifically. Where they sentenced me three hundred years ago."
His voice was flat, but through the bond I felt his pain. Old pain. Deep pain. The kind that never really healed.
"This is where you want to hide?" I pulled away from him slightly, immediately regretting it when the distance made the mark on my wrist burn. "You said everyone here wants you dead!"
"They do." Kael swayed, then caught himself against a column. His face had gone pale, and sweat beaded on his forehead. "But they also think I'm still sealed away. They won't expect me here. We have maybe an hour before someone senses the disturbance."
"An hour?" My voice came out too high. "That's your plan?"
"Do you have a better one?" He slid down the column until he was sitting on the floor, his head back, his eyes closed. "Because I'm open to suggestions, little Oracle."
I stared at him. This powerful, terrifying immortal who'd destroyed six attackers without breaking a sweat now looked like he might pass out.
"What's wrong with you?" I knelt beside him, my hand automatically reaching for his shoulder. The moment I touched him, I felt it—the curse burning through his chest like acid.
Kael's eyes snapped open. "Don't."
"Don't what?"
"Don't touch me. Don't be kind. Don't—" He broke off with a sharp gasp, his hand pressing against his heart. "Every time you show concern, every time you care even a little, the curse activates. It thinks you matter to me."
"Do I?" The question came out before I could stop it.
Kael looked at me, his gray eyes burning with something that might have been anger or might have been fear. "I've known you for less than an hour, Aria Chen. You broke a seal you had no business touching. You bound us together without understanding what that meant. You've complicated my existence in ways I can't even begin to explain."
He leaned forward, and I saw the exhaustion in every line of his face.
"But yes. Unfortunately, impossibly, against every bit of sense I have left—you matter. The bond makes sure of that. And it's going to kill me."
My chest tightened. "There has to be a way to break it. The bond, I mean. We can—"
"There isn't." His laugh was bitter. "Soul bonds can't be broken. Only death ends them. Yours or mine."
The words hung in the air between us like a death sentence.
"So what?" I said, anger flaring. "We're just stuck like this? I didn't ask for any of this! I was just trying to survive, trying to do my job, trying to—"
I broke off, surprised to find tears on my cheeks. Six months of holding everything together, of being strong, of pretending the betrayal didn't destroy me—it all came crashing down.
"I lost everything because of Marcus and Vivian," I whispered. "My career, my reputation, my future. I had nothing left except that stupid library job. And now I don't even have that. Now I'm bound to an immortal with a death curse, being hunted by people I thought I knew, and I don't understand any of it!"
Kael was quiet for a long moment. Then he did something that shocked me.
He pulled me closer, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. Through the bond, I felt his pain spike—the curse punishing him for the comfort he was offering.
"I know what it's like," he said softly. "To lose everything. To be betrayed by people you trusted. To wake up one day and realize the life you knew is gone forever."
"What happened to you?" I asked, wiping my eyes. "Vivian mentioned a woman. Sera?"
Kael's whole body tensed. The pain in his chest doubled, and I gasped, feeling the echo of it.
"Sera was human," he said finally. "Like you. I met her three hundred years ago when I was still the War Prince, still my brother's most trusted commander. She was a healer in a village we were protecting from rogue immortals."
His voice grew distant, like he was seeing the past instead of the glowing hall around us.
"She was kind. Brave. She saw me as more than just a weapon. For the first time in my very long life, I felt... human. I fell in love with her."
"What happened?"
"Immortals aren't supposed to love mortals. It's against celestial law. Our lives are too long, yours too short. The pain of watching you age and die while we stay the same—the Council believes it makes us weak. Dangerous."
Kael's hand tightened on my shoulder.
"But I didn't care. I thought if I could just make Sera immortal, we could be together. I found a ritual, an old spell that could transform a human into one of us. It required enormous power and perfect timing."
His voice cracked.
"My brother Theron found out. He went to the Council, told them I was breaking celestial law. But he didn't just report me—he sabotaged the ritual. I didn't know until it was too late. Until Sera was already in the circle, already transforming."
"She died," I whispered.
"She burned from the inside out. The ritual that should have made her immortal tore her apart instead. She died screaming my name, and I couldn't save her. I couldn't even hold her at the end because the magic was too unstable."
Tears ran down my face for this man I barely knew, for the woman he'd loved and lost.
"My grief destroyed half the celestial realm," Kael continued. "I was so angry, so broken, that my power went out of control. I almost killed my brother. Almost brought down the Veil between worlds. The Council had to stop me."
"The curse," I said.
"The curse was my punishment and my lesson. The Council said I needed to learn that mortal lives weren't worth the destruction I'd caused. They cursed me so that love would become my torture instead of my strength. Then they sealed me away to 'reflect on my sins.'"
He looked at me, and I saw the weight of three hundred years in his eyes.
"Three hundred years alone in darkness, Aria. Three hundred years with nothing but my guilt and my grief and the memory of Sera burning to ash. That's what loving a mortal cost me."
"I'm sorry," I whispered.
"Don't be sorry." His hand came up to cup my face, and I felt the curse tear through him. He gasped but didn't pull away. "Be smart. When we figure out how to separate, you need to run and never look back. Because everyone around me dies, and I won't watch another mortal woman I care about burn."
Before I could respond, a sound echoed through the hall. Footsteps. Multiple sets. Coming fast.
Kael was on his feet in an instant, pulling me up with him. "They found us."
"Already? You said we had an hour!"
"I underestimated how much power it took to bring you through the Veil." He pushed me behind him, silver fire sparking along his fingers. "They sensed the disturbance."
The footsteps grew louder. Then a voice rang out, cold and commanding.
"Stand down, brother. You're surrounded."
Kael went absolutely still.
A man stepped into the hall, and I knew immediately who he was. He looked like Kael—same sharp features, same powerful build, same silver-white hair. But where Kael's eyes were storm-gray, this man's were ice-blue and empty of warmth.
"Theron," Kael said, his voice deadly quiet.
"Hello, little brother." Theron smiled, but it was the kind of smile a snake might give a mouse. "I have to admit, I'm impressed. Sealed for three hundred years, and the first thing you do is break back into the Court. That takes courage or stupidity. I'm not sure which."
More immortals filed into the hall behind Theron. Warriors with silver armor and cold eyes. Mages with power crackling around their fingers. At least twenty of them, all focused on Kael.
On us.
"The Council wants to see you," Theron continued. "Both of you. It's not every day an Oracle Keeper breaks a divine seal and bonds herself to a war criminal."
"I'm not a criminal," Kael said. "You framed me. You sabotaged the ritual that killed Sera."
"Can you prove it?" Theron's smile widened. "No? Then it's still just your word against mine. And I'm the Starfire King now, brother. Who do you think they'll believe?"
I felt Kael's rage through the bond. Felt him gathering power, preparing to fight even though he was exhausted and outnumbered.
"Don't," I whispered, grabbing his arm. "You can't fight them all."
"Watch me."
"Kael, please—"
"He's not going to hurt you." Kael's eyes never left his brother. "I'll die before I let him touch you."
"How touching," Theron said. "Already attached to your new mortal pet. Tell me, does this one know what happened to the last woman you loved? Does she know that caring about you is a death sentence?"
Kael moved so fast I barely saw it. Silver fire exploded from his hands, a wave of pure power that made the hall shake. Theron's warriors threw up shields, but three of them weren't fast enough. They went flying.
Then Kael collapsed.
The curse. The effort of protecting me, of fighting, of using so much power—it was too much. He fell to his knees, blood trickling from his nose, his whole body shaking.
"Kael!" I dropped beside him, my hands on his face. Through the bond, I felt his agony. The curse was eating him alive.
"Run," he gasped. "Aria, run—"
"I'm not leaving you!"
"Foolish mortal," Theron said, walking toward us. His warriors closed in, forming a circle we couldn't escape. "Do you really think you can save him? The curse will kill him the moment he admits he loves you. And looking at his face right now, I'd say you have maybe a day before his heart gives out."
He crouched in front of us, his ice-blue eyes studying me like I was an interesting insect.
"But here's the interesting part, little Oracle. You have power now. Power that broke a seal even our strongest mages couldn't touch. Power that could change everything."
He held out his hand.
"Give me that power, willingly, and I'll break the bond. I'll send you home safe. Kael will be imprisoned again, yes, but he'll be alive. You'll both be alive. All you have to do is let go."
I looked at Kael. He was barely conscious, his gray eyes struggling to focus on me. Through the bond, I felt his pain, his fear—not for himself, but for me.
He'd known me less than two hours. But he'd protected me, fought for me, shared his deepest pain with me.
And now I had to choose.
Save myself and doom him to another three hundred years of darkness.
Or refuse and watch the curse kill him while Theron's warriors closed in.
"Aria," Kael whispered, his hand finding mine. "Choose yourself. Please. For once in your life, choose yourself."
But as I looked into his eyes, I realized something.
I'd spent six months being the victim. Being the one who got betrayed, who got hurt, who lost everything. I'd let Marcus and Vivian and everyone else convince me I was weak. Helpless. Nothing.
I was done being that person.
"No," I said, looking at Theron.
His eyebrows rose. "No?"
"No." I stood up, pulling Kael up with me. The mark on my wrist blazed silver, and I felt power—my power, the Oracle blood Vivian had mentioned—rising to the surface. "You're not getting my power. You're not touching him. And we're leaving."
Theron laughed. "You and what army, little mortal?"
I looked at the mark on my wrist, then at Kael's matching one. The bond between us hummed with energy. With possibility.
I didn't know what I was doing. Didn't know if it would even work. But six months ago, I'd translated ancient texts that no one else could read. I'd found connections in myths that no one else could see.
Maybe Oracle Keeper meant more than just reading old books.
I grabbed Kael's hand and focused on the bond, on the silver marks, on the power thrumming through my blood.
"Aria, what are you—" Kael started.
Light exploded from our joined hands. Silver and bright and so powerful that Theron stumbled back with a curse. His warriors threw up their arms, blinded.
And suddenly, I could see it. The Veil between worlds, the threads that connected everything, the pathways through reality itself.
Including one that led away from here.
"Hold on," I told Kael.
Then I tore a hole through reality and dragged us both through it.
The last thing I heard was Theron screaming in rage.
Then we were falling again, tumbling through starlight and shadow, and I had absolutely no idea where we'd end up.
Or if we'd survive the landing.