★Elowen POV★
I wake screaming.
The sound rips out of me before I know why, throat raw, heart hammering like I've been running for miles.
Fire erupts from my skin—wild, uncontrolled—slamming into the stone walls of the cell. The heat is blinding, furious, wrong. It scorches my palms, my arms, my chest, pain and power tangled so tightly I can't tell where one ends and the other begins.
I collapse to my knees, gasping.
"No," I choke. "No—stop—"
The flames gutter and die, leaving only smoke and the echo of my own terror.
My hands shake as I stare at them.
That wasn't control.
That wasn't strength.
That was panic wearing my power like a weapon.
They told me this would happen.
That doubt would rot the bond until my magic turned on me.
I press my hands to the floor, forehead dropping against cold stone as the truth presses in on me from all sides.
If Kael wanted me…
If he truly wanted me…
Wouldn't he have come sooner?
The thought is quiet.
That's what makes it dangerous.
★Kael POV★
The bond lashes out like a wounded beast.
Pain rips through my chest without warning—sharp enough that my vision blurs, shadows screaming in response as I stagger to one knee.
"Elowen," I snarl.
Something is wrong.
Not distance.
Not suppression.
Fear.
Her fear pours through the bond unfiltered, raw and jagged, and beneath it—doubt. A corrosive, gnawing uncertainty that eats at the connection like acid.
They're poisoning her.
I rise slowly, forcing my breathing to steady.
If I storm in now, raging and unchecked, I confirm every lie they're feeding her.
They want me monstrous.
So I will be patient.
And far more dangerous for it.
★Elowen POV★
They come for me after the fire.
Two robed figures. Calm. Unhurried.
"You see?" one of them says gently, as if he isn't standing in the wreckage of my fear. "This is what happens when you cling to him."
I laugh weakly. "You chained me. Suppressed me. This is your doing."
"Is it?" he asks. "Or is it the bond unraveling because he's not here to anchor you?"
My chest tightens painfully.
"Where is he?" I demand. "If he's so cruel, so careless—where is he?"
The cultist tilts his head. "Burning kingdoms. Punishing disobedience."
The words shouldn't hurt.
They do.
They sit heavy and sharp in my gut, dragging old memories forward—his fury, his control, the way the world bent when he was angry.
Had I mistaken restraint for mercy?
"Why keep me alive?" I whisper. "If I'm such a threat."
He smiles.
"Because broken power is the most useful kind."
Cold dread floods me.
"You don't want my strength," I realize. "You want my belief."
They leave me with that thought gnawing at my ribs.
★Kael POV★
The second stronghold tells me nothing.
The third screams.
I stand amid the ruins, blood dripping from my knuckles—not mine—as the final cultist gasps on the ground before me.
"Where is she?"
He laughs, wet and broken. "You're already losing her."
I crouch, eyes burning. "Say that again."
"She doubts you," he wheezes. "Every moment you're not there, we win."
Something inside me stills.
Not snaps.
Stillness is worse.
I straighten slowly.
"You misunderstand," I say softly. "I'm not trying to be believed."
I step back, shadows tightening.
"I'm trying to be undeniable."
I leave him alive.
So he can spread fear.
★Elowen POV★
That night, the bond flares without warning.
Not warmth.
Not comfort.
Presence.
My breath catches painfully as heat coils low in my belly, sharp and sudden, my body reacting before my mind can catch up.
"Kael?" I whisper into the dark.
The connection hums—tense, restrained, furious.
He's close.
Not here.
But closer than he's ever been since I left.
Relief surges—and immediately after it, fear.
Because what if he comes angry?
What if the cult is right?
What if I begged for him to save me…
…and he reminded me what it costs to belong to him?
My fingers curl into the stone.
"I don't know if I can survive you anymore," I whisper, voice breaking.
The bond pulses once.
Hard.
A promise or a warning—I can't tell which.
And somewhere in the dark, something ancient and terrible begins to move.