Kael's POV
We crashed into the temple courtyard hard enough to crack stone.
I rolled, putting myself between Aria and the impact, feeling my ribs protest. The curse was still burning through my chest from saving her at the apartment, and now the landing added physical pain on top of magical agony.
Perfect.
Lyssa landed gracefully beside us, her violet flames fading. "Welcome to the Temple of the Moon Goddess. Try not to bleed on anything sacred."
"Where are we?" Aria asked, struggling to her feet. Through the bond, I felt her exhaustion and fear mixing with stubborn determination.
"The one place in all realms where divine magic is strongest." Lyssa gestured at the temple rising before us—white marble columns and silver domes that seemed to glow with their own light. "Also the one place where Theron's power means nothing. The Moon Goddess doesn't take sides in celestial politics."
"Then why bring us here?" I managed, fighting to stand. The curse was worse than before. Every heartbeat felt like swallowing glass.
"Because the Goddess might have answers about breaking curses. If you can survive her test." Lyssa's smile was sharp. "But first, your Oracle needs to understand exactly what she's trying to break. You haven't told her everything, have you?"
Aria turned to me, her eyes narrowing. "What is she talking about?"
"Nothing—"
"He's dying faster than he's letting on," Lyssa interrupted. "The Heartbreak Curse isn't just causing him pain anymore. It's actively killing him. I'd give him three days. Maybe four if he's lucky and stops caring about you completely."
The words hung in the air like a death sentence.
Aria's face went white. "Three days? But you said—you told me we had time to figure this out!"
"I lied." The admission came out harsher than I meant. "I didn't want you to panic. Didn't want you to do something stupid trying to save me."
"Something stupid?" Her voice rose. "Like what I did back at the apartment? Using my power to shield you from the curse?"
"Yes! Exactly like that!" I took a step toward her, ignoring how the movement made my chest burn. "You almost killed yourself trying to save me. You drained your Oracle power to nothing. What if James had attacked then? What if more agents had come? You would have been defenseless!"
"So what?" Aria's eyes blazed with anger. "I should have just let you die?"
"YES!"
The word echoed off the temple walls. Through the bond, I felt her shock, her hurt, and underneath it—the same stubborn refusal to give up that made her so dangerous to my carefully built walls.
"You don't mean that," she said quietly.
"I do." I turned away, unable to look at her face. "You want to know about the curse? Fine. Let me tell you exactly why you should let me die."
I felt Lyssa step back, giving us space. Smart woman.
"Three hundred years ago, I was the War Prince of the Celestial Court," I began, the words tasting like ash. "I was powerful. Respected. My brother's right hand in keeping the realms safe. I thought I was invincible."
"Then you met Sera," Aria said softly.
"Then I met Sera." Her name still hurt after all these years. "She was human. A healer in a village we were protecting. She saw a rogue immortal attacking a child and threw herself between them. No hesitation. No thought for her own safety. Just pure, stupid bravery."
I could still see it—Sera standing there, arms spread wide, facing down a creature that could have torn her apart in seconds.
"I saved her. And then I couldn't stop going back." I laughed bitterly. "She was everything immortals aren't. Warm. Kind. Temporary. She knew she'd grow old and die while I stayed young forever, and she loved me anyway."
Through the bond, I felt Aria's understanding. Her empathy. It made the curse spike, stealing my breath.
"The Celestial Council has laws," I continued when I could speak again. "Immortals don't fall in love with mortals. We don't bind ourselves to creatures that live for barely a century. It makes us weak. Distracted. Dangerous."
"But you did anyway," Aria said.
"I did. And I thought I was strong enough to make it work. I found an ancient ritual that could transform a human into one of us. It required enormous power and perfect timing, but I'd studied it for months. I was sure it would work."
My hands clenched into fists, remembering.
"The night of the ritual, Sera was afraid. She knew if something went wrong, she'd die. But she trusted me. She stood in that circle and held my hands and said she'd rather risk death than lose me."
"What happened?" Aria's voice was barely a whisper.
"My brother happened." The rage I'd carried for three centuries burned fresh. "Theron found out what I was planning. He went to the Council, told them I was breaking celestial law. But he didn't just report me—he sabotaged the ritual. Changed one of the seals. Made it so the magic wouldn't transform Sera. It would destroy her."
I heard Aria's sharp intake of breath.
"I didn't know until it was too late. Until Sera was already in the circle, already being torn apart by magic that was supposed to save her. She burned from the inside out, screaming my name, and I couldn't—" My voice broke. "I couldn't even hold her. The magic was too unstable. I had to stand there and watch the woman I loved die because I was arrogant enough to think I could cheat death."
Tears ran down my face. I didn't bother wiping them away.
"My grief destroyed half the celestial realm. I lost control of my power. Nearly killed my brother. Nearly brought down the Veil between worlds. The Council had to use every bit of magic they had to stop me."
"The curse was their punishment," Aria said.
"The curse was their lesson." I finally turned to face her. "They said I needed to learn that mortal lives weren't worth the destruction I'd caused. So they cursed me—made love itself into torture. Made caring about someone into a death sentence. Then they sealed me away to 'reflect on my sins.'"
I stepped closer, letting her see the pain in my eyes. The exhaustion. The resignation.
"Three hundred years, Aria. Three hundred years alone with nothing but guilt and grief and the memory of Sera burning to ash. That's what loving a mortal cost me. That's what it will cost you if you don't walk away."
"I'm not walking away." Her voice was steady, sure. "We'll find another way. The temple—"
"The temple can't help." I grabbed her shoulders, needing her to understand. "The Heartbreak Curse isn't just any curse. It was placed by the entire Celestial Council. Breaking it would require power greater than all of them combined. Power that doesn't exist."
"Then what do we do?" Her eyes searched mine. "Just wait for you to die?"
"You let me go." I released her and stepped back, ignoring how the distance made the bond ache. "When the time comes, you don't try to save me. You don't use your Oracle power to fight the curse. You just... let me go."
"No."
"Aria—"
"I said no!" She moved forward, closing the distance I'd created. "I've lost everything, Kael. My career. My reputation. My future. I let people use me and throw me away because I didn't think I was worth fighting for. But I'm done being that person."
She pressed her hand over my heart, right where the curse burned hottest.
"You're worth fighting for. And I don't care if it's impossible or stupid or dangerous. We're bonded. That means your problems are my problems. Your death would be my death. So we either find a way to break this curse together, or we both go down trying."
The curse flared at her touch, at her words, at the care radiating through the bond. I gasped, my knees buckling. Aria caught me, supporting my weight despite being half my size.
"See?" I managed through gritted teeth. "This is what caring does. It kills me."
"Then I guess you better teach me how to break curses fast." She looked up at me, and I saw the same stupid bravery Sera had shown. The same refusal to give up. "Because I'm not losing you. Not like this."
Before I could respond, a voice echoed through the courtyard. Female. Ancient. Powerful enough to make the air vibrate.
"How touching. An Oracle and a War Prince, bonded by accident, fighting fate itself."
We both spun. A woman stood at the temple entrance—tall, ethereal, with silver hair that moved like liquid starlight and eyes that held galaxies.
The Moon Goddess herself.
Lyssa immediately dropped to one knee. "My Goddess."
"Rise, warrior." The Goddess's gaze fixed on Aria and me. "I've been watching you both since the seal broke. Watching you fight. Watching you bond. Watching you choose each other despite every reason not to."
She stepped closer, and reality seemed to bend around her.
"The Heartbreak Curse was placed with my blessing," she said. "I agreed that Kael Ashenveil needed to learn that mortal love brings only pain. That he needed to understand some prices are too high to pay."
My stomach dropped. If she'd blessed the curse, then breaking it was truly impossible.
"But watching you these past days, I've come to a conclusion." The Goddess smiled, and it was neither kind nor cruel. "The Council was wrong. I was wrong. The curse was never about teaching you that love is dangerous."
"Then what was it about?" I asked.
"It was about teaching you that love is a choice." She looked between us. "Sera chose you without understanding the risks. You chose her out of desperation to keep her. Neither of you truly chose the consequences. The love that destroys isn't love at all—it's selfishness disguised as devotion."
She gestured to the bond between us, the silver marks glowing on our wrists.
"But you two? You're choosing each other knowing exactly what it costs. You, Kael, feel the curse every moment but stay anyway. You, Aria, risk your life repeatedly for a man you barely know. That's not selfishness. That's sacrifice."
Hope flickered in my chest, painful and terrifying. "Are you saying you'll break the curse?"
"I'm saying I'll give you a chance to break it yourselves." The Goddess's expression turned serious. "The temple has a trial. Enter the Heart Chamber and face what lies within. If you both survive, if you can prove your bond is built on true choice rather than fate or circumstance, the curse will break."
"And if we fail?" Aria asked.
The Goddess's smile turned sad. "Then the curse will complete its purpose. Kael will die, and you'll be free of the bond. You can return to your mortal life as if none of this ever happened."
"Except I'd remember," Aria said quietly. "I'd remember choosing him and losing him anyway."
"Yes." The Goddess inclined her head. "That's the price of love, child. Even when it ends, the memory remains."
She turned toward the temple entrance, her starlight hair trailing behind her.
"You have until dawn to decide. Enter the Heart Chamber and risk everything, or walk away and lose only one of you." She paused at the doorway. "Choose wisely. The trial has killed stronger bonds than yours."
Then she was gone, leaving us alone in the courtyard with Lyssa and an impossible choice.
Aria looked at me, and through the bond I felt her determination mixed with fear. "We're doing the trial."
"You heard her. It kills people."
"So does doing nothing." She grabbed my hand, lacing our fingers together. "I'm not losing you without a fight, Kael. Not after everything we've survived."
"Aria—"
A scream shattered the night.
We turned toward the temple entrance. Inside, in the shadows beyond the doorway, I saw them. Figures made of darkness and memory. Faces I recognized.
Sera. Standing in the ritual circle. Burning.
Theron. Smiling as he watched.
The Council. Passing judgment.
Every moment of my three hundred years of suffering, given form and waiting in that chamber.
"Your worst memories," Lyssa said quietly. "That's what the trial shows you. Your deepest fears. Your greatest failures. And you have to face them together, or they destroy you."
I looked at Aria. She was staring at the shadows, and I knew she was seeing her own demons. Marcus's betrayal. Vivian's lies. The academic board that destroyed her.
Everything that broke her, waiting to break her again.
"We don't have to do this," I said. "We can find another way. We can—"
"There is no other way." She squeezed my hand. "You know that. The curse kills you in three days. This trial might kill us both now. But at least if we die, we die trying."
She looked at me, and I saw Sera's bravery in her eyes. But also something Sera never had—the full knowledge of what we were facing and the choice to face it anyway.
"Together?" she asked.
Through the bond, I felt her fear. Her determination. Her absolute certainty that we were stronger together than apart.
And I realized something. The curse wasn't just punishing me for caring. It was testing me. Testing whether I'd learned anything in three hundred years of darkness.
Whether I'd finally learned that love wasn't about protecting someone from pain. It was about standing beside them through it.
"Together," I said.
We stepped toward the temple entrance, toward the shadows and screaming memories, toward a trial that would either break the curse or destroy us both.
Behind us, Lyssa called out: "If you survive, meet me at the base camp! If you don't—" Her voice softened. "It was an honor serving with you again, War Prince."
The shadows surged forward, eager and hungry.
Aria's hand tightened in mine.
And together, we walked into the Heart Chamber.
The darkness swallowed us whole.
And the screaming began.