★Elowen POV★
Time stops behaving like it should in the dark.
There's no sun to mark the hours, no sound but my own breathing and the slow drip of water somewhere far away. I count heartbeats until they blur together, until even my thoughts feel tired.
The chains are gone.
That's worse.
They don't bind my body anymore—they don't need to. Whatever magic they used to suppress my power still clings to me like damp ash, smothering every spark before it can form.
I press my palm to my chest.
Nothing answers.
The bond is still there—faint, distant—but it feels… muted. Like a voice screaming through water.
Footsteps approach.
I tense instinctively, drawing my knees closer, even though there's nowhere left to retreat.
The door opens.
Lyra steps inside.
Alive.
Relief hits me so hard it almost knocks the breath from my lungs.
"You're safe," I breathe, scrambling to my feet. "They didn't hurt you—"
She doesn't meet my eyes.
"Elowen," she says quietly. "Sit."
My stomach twists.
"What's wrong?"
She swallows. "They showed me something."
Cold creeps up my spine.
"Showed you what?"
She hesitates just long enough for dread to bloom.
"They showed me Kael."
My heart stutters. "What about him?"
Lyra finally looks at me.
And there's fear in her eyes.
"He didn't come after you," she says softly. "Not right away."
I shake my head. "That doesn't mean anything. He was buying time—"
"They showed me the castle," she presses. "Burning. They said he chose punishment over pursuit. That he—"
"No," I snap. "Stop."
"They said you were a lesson," Lyra whispers. "That he let you go so you'd learn what defiance costs."
The words sink in slowly.
Too slowly.
They wedge themselves between my ribs and begin to pry.
"That's not true," I say, but my voice is thinner than I want it to be. "He let me go because I asked him to."
Lyra's hands tremble. "Elowen… what if that's what he wants you to believe?"
Pain blossoms sharp and immediate, like a blade turning.
The bond flickers.
Not reassurance.
Not warmth.
Distance.
And for the first time since I met Kael, doubt slides into the space where certainty used to live.
★Kael POV★
I don't torture them.
I don't need to.
The first cultist breaks the moment I step out of the shadows.
He drops to his knees, sobbing, begging, promising anything.
I crouch in front of him, calm enough to be terrifying.
"You touched what is mine," I say evenly.
"I didn't—she chose—"
I grab his throat and lift him off the ground.
"She chose mercy," I correct. "You chose to exploit it."
My shadows peel back his defenses layer by layer—not flesh, not bone, but memory. Lies unravel. Secrets scream their way free.
And there it is.
The plan.
Not to kill her.
Not yet.
To turn her.
To convince her that I am the monster they claim.
I smile.
It is not a pleasant expression.
"She will never believe you," I say.
The cultist laughs weakly. "She already is."
The bond pulses.
Wrong.
Off.
Something has shifted.
Rage unlike anything I've known tears through me, precise and lethal.
I crush his throat without another word.
★Elowen POV★
After Lyra leaves, the silence feels heavier.
Her words echo again and again, cruel in their persistence.
He didn't come. He chose punishment. You were a lesson.
I press my back to the wall and slide down until I'm sitting on the cold floor, arms wrapped around myself like I can hold the pieces together by force.
I replay the moment I left him.
His face.
The way he didn't stop me.
The way he didn't chase.
At the time, it felt like respect.
Now—
It feels like abandonment.
My chest aches, hollow and sharp.
"If you're real," I whisper into the dark, voice breaking, "say something."
The bond trembles faintly.
Too faint.
Tears spill over, hot and angry.
"Don't let this be a lie," I plead. "Don't let me be wrong about you."
But the silence stretches on.
And doubt—quiet, poisonous—settles in.
★Kael POV★
I stand at the edge of a rift, staring down into a cult stronghold that no longer exists.
Ash drifts through the air like snow.
Every cell empty.
Every sigil shattered.
Too late.
They've moved her again.
My shadows coil tight around my heart, restless, furious.
They think distance will weaken the bond.
They think lies will replace me.
I close my eyes, breathing slowly.
"Believe me," I murmur into the connection, voice steady despite the storm inside me. "Even if you hate me—believe me."
The bond flickers.
Uncertain.
But not severed.
Good.
Because when I reach her—
And I will—
The truth will burn louder than any lie they've planted.
And the ones who taught her to doubt me?
They won't die quickly enough to regret it.