The Vault's heavy silence pressed in after the storm of magic, broken only by the slow, matched rhythm of their breathing. The runes on the floor were dim now, glowing faintly like cooling embers.
Rhea shifted in Kael's arms, her muscles weak but alive with a low, thrumming heat. Every move made her hyper-aware of the bond they had forged, a constant, invisible pull toward him.
Kael's gaze locked on hers. "You feel it, don't you?"
She swallowed. "It's… impossible to ignore."
His hand brushed down her side, fingertips grazing the outline of her mark. The touch sent sparks down her spine. "Good. It means the tether worked. But you need to understand, Rhea, this isn't just magic. It's blood-deep now. If I die—"
"I feel it," she cut in, her voice sharper than she intended. "And if you die, I burn with you."
His eyes darkened. "Exactly."
A crack echoed through the Vault ; stone grinding against stone. Kael tensed, pulling her closer. "We're not alone."
The shadows along the far wall began to writhe, peeling away from the stone and taking shape. Figures emerged ,three, then five, cloaked in tattered ash-grey robes. The air reeked of decay.
Rhea's claws slid free instinctively, but Kael's grip tightened around her wrist. "Not yet. They're Shadebound."
The leader stepped forward, its voice a rasp of air through bone. "You've bound yourselves in the Queen's Vault. That is a crime we are sworn to unmake."
Rhea's pulse hammered, the tether between her and Kael flaring hot. She felt his magic coil within her, uninvited but not unwelcome.
Kael leaned close, his breath brushing her ear. "Stay with me. We fight as one now."
When he let go, the tether snapped taut and power surged through her veins like wildfire.
The Shadebound rushed forward
They came in a blur of grey and black, their forms half-solid, half-smoke. The Vault's air grew colder with each step they took, frost crawling along the floor and up the walls.
Rhea felt Kael's magic ignite inside her chest , not like a loaned weapon, but like a second heartbeat. When she moved, he moved; when she thought to strike, the energy flowed into her claws without effort.
The first Shadebound lunged. Rhea's body reacted faster than her mind, her clawed hand slicing through its chest. It shrieked, dissolving into a burst of black dust. The tether pulsed with Kael's satisfaction; a dangerous, intimate echo of his emotions.
Another came at her from the side, but Kael was already there, his blade whistling through the air. Rhea felt the vibration of his strike as if the sword were in her own hand. The creature crumbled before it touched the ground.
"This bond" she gasped, spinning to slash at a third attacker. "is cheating."
A smirk flickered across his face. "You'll thank me later."
But the Shadebound were relentless. The leader's skeletal hand slammed into the floor, sending a wave of shadow racing toward them. Instinctively, Rhea grabbed Kael's arm. The tether flared white-hot, and a shield of crimson light burst around them, deflecting the attack.
They both froze for a heartbeat. Neither had cast that spell.
"That wasn't me," Kael said, voice low.
"It wasn't me either."
The leader's hollow eyes burned brighter. "You think you control the bond. You do not. It will take what it's owed."
Before either of them could move, the shadows surged again this time grabbing Rhea's ankle and yanking her toward the far wall. She clawed at the stone floor, but the tether pulled at her in a different way now, dragging Kael with her.
They were both lifted off their feet, slammed against the cold wall. The Shadebound closed in, chanting in a language older than the vault itself. The tether between them burned, not with power, but with pain.
Kael's eyes locked on hers. "We end this. Now."
Kael's grip tightened around Rhea's wrist, their bond flaring so brightly it blurred the edges of the Vault. The Shadebound leader raised its skeletal hand and pressed it against the burning tether between them.
The world shattered.
Not the stone, not the air the bond. Rhea felt something reach into her chest and pull, as though her soul were being unstitched. Kael's snarl was animal, desperate, as if fighting not just for her life but for his own existence.
Then the Vault of Ash and Bone was gone.
Cold mist swallowed everything. Rhea staggered, still tethered to Kael, but the cord between them now dripped with black shadow instead of crimson light.
A voice spoke — not the Shadebound leader, but something vaster, older.
"The bond is mine now."
The mist thickened, shaping into a massive pair of eyes ,molten gold with rings of silver flame.
Kael's face went pale. "Rhea… that's not supposed to be here."
The thing in the mist laughed, and the sound felt like claws raking along her bones.
"We have much to discuss, wolf-child. And no time at all."
The ground beneath them cracked. Darkness rushed up from below, and the mist eyes widened;not in threat, but in hunger.
They fell. Together.