Elara's POV
"Is that true?"
The words hang in the air between us. Kael stands frozen, his face unreadable. Theron—the shadow creature—grins like he's enjoying a show.
My Moonmark burns against my palm. Every instinct screams at me to run, but there's nowhere to go. The door is sealed. A monster blocks the exit. And the man I thought might help me could be planning to curse me.
"Answer her," Theron purrs. "Does the ritual transfer the curse? Yes or no?"
Kael's jaw clenches. "It's more complicated than—"
"YES OR NO?"
"Yes!" The word explodes from Kael. "Yes, the ritual can transfer a curse. But that's not what I was going to do!"
My stomach drops. "You lied to me."
"I didn't lie. I said we could use your power to reinforce the barrier. That's true." Kael takes a step toward me. I take a step back. "Elara, listen—"
"Why should I listen to anything you say? You're the Sorcerer King! You destroyed your own kingdom! You admitted you used dark magic!" My voice rises with each word. "How do I know you're not trying to use me the same way you used everyone else?"
Pain flashes across his face. Good. He should feel pain.
"You don't know," he says quietly. "You have no reason to trust me. I wouldn't trust me either."
"Finally, some honesty." Theron claps his shadowy hands. "This is going so well. Elara, darling, let me make you an offer. I can get you out of here. Back to Stellaris. Back to your life."
"I don't have a life there. They threw me away."
"Then somewhere else. Anywhere you want. I have that power." Theron floats closer. "All you have to do is place your hand on that altar and break the curse completely. Free the Sorcerer King from his punishment. The barrier falls, yes, but you'll be long gone before anything reaches the city."
"And thousands of people die," Kael says flatly.
"People who exiled you," Theron counters. "People who used you as a tool and discarded you like trash. Why do you care what happens to them?"
I look at the altar. At my glowing palm. At Kael, who destroyed a kingdom out of grief and has spent three hundred years paying for it.
"I don't care about them," I say slowly. "But I care about the innocent people. The kids. The servants. The people who have nothing to do with what the merchants and nobles did to me."
"How noble." Theron's voice drips sarcasm. "And what about you? What about your suffering?"
"My suffering doesn't give me the right to cause more suffering." I clench my fist, hiding the Moonmark. "I won't do it."
Theron's grin vanishes. "Pity. I was hoping you'd choose the easy way."
He moves so fast I don't see it. One second he's by the door, the next his shadow-hand is wrapped around my throat, lifting me off the ground.
I can't breathe. Can't scream. The world goes dark at the edges.
"Then I'll break the curse myself," Theron hisses. "Using your blood."
Suddenly, I'm falling. I hit the ground hard, gasping. Through watering eyes, I see Kael between me and Theron, his stone hand smoking where he punched through the shadow.
"You don't touch her," Kael growls.
"Protective, are we? How sweet. How doomed." Theron's form shifts, growing larger, more solid. "You can't beat me, old friend. You created me to be stronger than you."
"I know." Kael's stone hand is already reforming, gray spreading up his arm faster than before. The curse fighting back. "But I can slow you down."
They collide.
I've never seen anything like it. Kael moves like a weapon—precise, brutal, efficient. But Theron is smoke and shadow, reforming every time Kael's stone fist passes through him.
"Elara!" Nim appears beside me, all three eyes wide with panic. "The altar! Put your hand on the altar!"
"But the curse—"
"Trust me! Do it now!"
Kael crashes into the wall hard enough to crack stone. He's bleeding. The curse is spreading faster—both arms are gray now, creeping toward his chest.
I run to the altar.
The moment my palm touches the cold stone, power erupts. The Moonmark blazes so bright I have to close my eyes. I feel the magic pouring through me, into the altar, into the symbols carved around the room.
And I feel something else.
Memories. Not mine.
I see through Kael's eyes. Younger, human, standing in a garden with a girl who has silver eyes and a laugh like music. I feel what he felt—love so strong it hurts, joy so pure it glows.
Then I see her die. An assassin's blade. Blood on flowers. Kael holding her as the light leaves her eyes.
I see his grief turn to madness. See him find the dark grimoire. See him cast the spell meant to bring her back.
But dark magic doesn't resurrect. It corrupts.
The spell backfires. The girl's body turns to dust. The magic explodes outward, consuming everything—the garden, the palace, the city, the kingdom. Thousands die in seconds.
And Kael, at the center of it all, realizes too late what he's done.
The Moon Queen, dying, uses her last breath to curse him. Not to punish. To contain. To make sure the dark magic doesn't spread beyond the wasteland.
She turns him immortal so he can guard it forever.
The memories fade. I open my eyes.
Kael is on his knees, the curse now covering his entire torso. Theron stands over him, ready to strike.
"Stop!" My voice echoes with power I don't understand. "I know what happened. I know what you did. And I know what the Queen wanted."
Theron pauses. "And what did she want?"
"Not punishment. Protection. She made Kael the guardian because she knew he'd never let the darkness spread again. Because his guilt would make him stronger than any spell." I step away from the altar. The symbols are glowing now, responding to my magic. "The curse isn't meant to be broken. But it's not meant to destroy him either."
I walk toward Kael. Theron hisses a warning.
"If you touch him while the curse is active—"
"I know." I kneel beside Kael. Look into his eyes—human and haunted and full of three hundred years of regret. "I'm not going to break it. I'm going to share it."
"Elara, no—" Kael starts.
I press my Moonmark against his stone chest.
The world turns silver.
Power floods through me—his curse, my gift, mixing, merging, transforming. I feel the weight of three centuries of loneliness. Feel the barrier around the wasteland, held together by his will and the Queen's magic.
And I add my strength to his.
The curse stops spreading. The stone on Kael's body cracks, but doesn't crumble. Instead, it shifts, changes. The gray turns silver, matching my Moonmark.
We're linked now. The curse binding both of us. The barrier strengthening.
Theron screams—a sound of pure rage. "No! You've ruined everything!"
The light from our joined magic explodes outward. When it fades, Theron is gone. Banished back to whatever dark corner he crawled from.
I collapse against Kael. He catches me with arms that are half-human, half-silver stone.
"What did you do?" he whispers.
"I chose a third option." My voice is barely audible. "Not breaking the curse. Not transferring it. Sharing it."
"You've bound yourself to me. To this place. You can never leave."
"I know."
"You'll be immortal. Trapped. Just like me."
"I know that too."
"Why?" The question sounds broken. "Why would you do that?"
I look up at him. At this man who made terrible choices out of love, who's paid for them for three hundred years, who tried to push me away to protect me even when he needed help.
"Because everyone deserves a second chance," I say. "Even Sorcerer Kings."
His eyes widen. For a moment, he just stares at me.
Then the Keep shakes. Not from attack this time. From something else.
Nim appears, all three eyes spinning in different directions. "Uh, kids? We have a problem."
"What now?" Kael asks wearily.
"The barrier didn't just strengthen. It changed. And Stellaris noticed." Nim points up. "There's an army marching toward the Keep. Led by someone who really, really wants to talk to Elara."
My stomach drops. "Who?"
"Your brother. And he's not alone. He's brought the entire City Council, battle mages, and enough weapons to siege a castle." Nim's third eye focuses on me. "He's demanding you be returned. And if the Warden refuses..."
"He'll attack," Kael finishes grimly.
I push myself up, my legs shaking but holding. "Then we need to talk to them."
"They won't listen."
"They will." I look at my palm. The Moonmark has changed—now it glows silver and gray, a perfect mix of my gift and Kael's curse. "Because I'm not the powerless girl they threw away anymore."
Kael stands beside me. "This is going to be a disaster."
"Probably."
"They might kill us both."
"Maybe."
"You're absolutely sure about this?"
I take his half-stone hand in mine. Feel the curse thrumming between us, binding us, making us stronger together than either could be alone.
"I've never been sure of anything in my life," I admit. "But I'm doing it anyway."
Outside, an army gathers.
Inside, a girl who was meant to die and a king who can't chooses to stand together.
And somewhere in the wasteland, Theron watches and smiles.
Because this, he thinks, is going to be very entertaining indeed.