"Liora!"
Kael screamed, his voice raw with desperation.
Where she had stood, a plume of ash and smouldering coals twirled. The ground was burned black and the heat radiated from it, a kind of pulsing failed magic. Now there was nothing but the smouldering scar it had made in the dirt, in the equally ancient rune for unbind.
Kael fell to his knees, his hand scrabbling into the dirt as though he could summon her back with sheer force of will. "Liora!"
Zev stood several feet away, still in shock. Not even he had thought that through. "She caught it …" he muttered, half to himself. "She should've died."
Kael whipped his head around to him, eyes flaring with shadows. "Where did you send her?"
Zev lifted both hands. "That obviously wasn't meant to teleport. It was supposed to sever."
"She's not dead," Kael spat. "I'd feel it. The bond — it's still there, but it's far away … twisted."
He staggered to his feet. "What was in that vial?"
"The very soul of unmaking," Zev said, inspecting the magical residue carefully. "But altered. Not by me."
Kael's fists clenched. "Someone tampered with it?"
Zev nodded, his cocky veneer sobered. "Or else… someone got in the way."
Kael glanced skyward, his heart pounding. "The Lost Flame."
---
Meanwhile – The Realm Between
Liora fell.
With more silence, not more space. A silence so complete it was weighty. Color bled from her vision. Time unraveled.
And then—
She landed.
The impact was soft, as if falling into mist.
She opened her eyes and saw she was in field of white lilies as far as her eyes could see. The sky overhead was lavender, and the stars throbbed like a pulse.
Liora staggered to her feet. The ground wasn't earth. It was… memory. With each step visions stirred—her mother laughing, the smell of Kael's coat, the sword in her hand. Echoes of herself.
She wheeled around, heart pounding. "Where am I?"
His phone rang, and a voice answered, gentle and melodic. "In between."
Liora whirled to find a woman among the lilies, draped in robes of flame. Her hair was a torrent of gold and red, eyes gleaming like twin flames. She appeared ageless, an awesomely beautiful terror.
"You are the Lost Flame," Liora whispered.
The woman nodded. "I am Seraphina."
Liora inched forward nervously. "Why did you bring me here?"
"Because you touched what should not be touched. The essence, your soul should have been in pieces. But your bond twisted it."
"You saved me?"
"No," Seraphina said. "You saved yourself. No longer is the bond between you and the Night Sovereign simply a thread. It is a chain."
Liora frowned. "But the Oracle said—"
"The Oracle speaks in riddles, and half-truths. You bring more than the bond of Kael to us. You bear his curse—and his salvation."
Liora's knees weakened. "I don't understand."
Seraphina made her way to her, lilies unfolding along the path she took. "You're turning into something new. Something that no longer exists as it did in my time. A Starborne."
Liora's breath caught. "What does that mean?"
"It means power. It means danger. And it means the Council won't be content to just kill you now… Her eyes sharpened. "They will want to use you."
Liora stepped back. "I'm just… I'm not like you."
"You will be," Seraphina said. "Or you'll die."
---
Back in the Wastes
Kael and Zev were in front of the Oracle once again, the space between them charged.
"She's not dead," Kael said again.
The Oracle nodded solemnly. "No. She's in the Veil — the land or whatever realm that is between life and fate."
"Can I reach her?"
The Oracle inspected the shadows that danced around him. "Only if she wants to be found. Her soul is shifting."
Kael gazed down at the bond inked onto his hand. It was flickering, unstable.
"I'm going after her," he said in a tone of determination.
"You'll die," Zev warned.
"Then I'll die."
The Oracle raised a hand. "There is a way. But it comes with a price."
"Anything."
The Oracle turned to Zev. "He has to defend your body while you traverse the Veil.
Kael hesitated. "Him?"
Zev crossed his arms. "I'm not a babysitter."
"Then leave," Kael growled. "I don't need your approval."
But Zev didn't move.
The Oracle stepped forward. "The ritual must begin now. Her time is running short."
---
In the Realm Between
2"Seraphina touched Liora's chest.
A hot warmth seeped through her, not hurtful—just stirring.
"You are not that girl who wobbled through Kael's gate," added Seraphina. "You have power now. You have to decide what you're going to do with it."
"Why are you helping me?" Liora asked.
For once a star has loved a star.' And I let him fall."
Before Liora could ask for more, the lillies around them rustled. The sky flickered.
"What's happening?"
Seraphina smiled. "He's coming."
---
Back at the Heartspire
Kael knelt, closed-eyed, in a circle of runes. The Oracle murmured, her voice spinning reality threadbare.
Zev stood watch, weapons at ready in his hands, gaze turned toward the distance.
He tensed at a flicker of movement.
Shadows had come and stood on the edge of that cliff. Cloaked figures. Dozens.
"The Council," he muttered.
He didn't wait. He launched toward them.
Kael's flesh shone with starlight, his soul already slipping into the Veil.
Zev yelled as they clashed with the first assassin, "You go after her, Kael. Because if you don't—"
A dagger sliced his arm. He growled.
"—we both die."
---
In the Realm Between
Liora looked up at the wavering sky. A star was dropping — no, plunging.
It smashed into the field with a whoosh of energy.
Kael leaped to his feet, his cloak shooting out, his eyes blazing.
"Liora!"
She rushed to him and flung herself into his arms. He held her, his face nuzzled in her hair.
"I thought I'd lost you," he whispered.
"You came."
"Always."
Seraphina stepped forward. "Your time is short. You must choose."
"Choose?" Kael asked.
"Stay in the Veil and are bound forever– or go back and risk never see her again.
Liora's heart stuttered. "Permanently?"
Seraphina nodded. "It will make you one. Power beyond imagining. But you will never be unbound."
Kael met Liora's gaze. "You don't have to—"
"I want to," she whispered.
He kissed her softly.
They joined hands, and when Seraphina among them had completed a circle, they entered into it.
As the ritual got underway, the sky tore open with light.
But then—
A black wind wafted over the lilies.
Seraphina's eyes widened. "No. It's too early — someone has broken the Veil."
She felt the bite of a jagged edge in her back.
Seraphina screamed and fell to her knees.
Kael whirled around.
A figure exited the shattered horizon.
Eyes of frost.
Armor of midnight.
It wasn't Zev.
It was someone older.
Stronger.
"Who—" Kael breathed.
The figure grinned.
"I'm the real Night Sovereign. And you, little echo … are in my face."