POV: Dominic
Darkness swallowed everything.
Then pain. Sharp and burning, spreading from my chest through every muscle.
I forced my eyes open. Warehouse ceiling. Cracked concrete. The smell of blood—my blood—everywhere.
I was still living.
Somehow.
The claws had missed my heart by inches. Close enough to kill most people. But I wasn't most people. S-rank Spirit Warriors don't die easy.
We just die slow.
I tried to sit up. My body screamed in protest. The cut in my chest wasn't healing like it should. The edges looked black. Poisoned.
No. Not poisoned.
Corrupted.
Celeste's claws brought something worse than venom. Something that ate at Spirit energy itself.
"Don't move." A voice echoed through the empty building. Cold. Ancient. Familiar but wrong.
Aria stood twenty feet away. Except she didn't move like Aria anymore. She floated. Her feet didn't quite touch the ground.
And her eyes. God, her eyes.
They glowed with silver light. Not human light. Not Spirit Warrior light. Something older. Something that made every feeling I had scream run.
"Aria?" My voice came out as a whisper.
"She's here," the thing wearing Aria's face said. "But she's not alone anymore. We are... joining. Remembering. Becoming what we were always meant to be."
The Nightmare King. It was waking inside her.
I'd failed. After five years of protecting her, of keeping her safe, of dying piece by piece to meet the contract—I'd failed at the one thing that mattered most.
Keeping Aria human.
"Where's Celeste?" I managed to ask.
"Gone. For now." Aria's bright eyes studied me like I was a puzzle. "She fled when the shadows came. Took the Council Guards with her. They're more afraid of me than they are of her." Her head tilted. "Interesting. They should be."
"Aria, listen to me—"
"Why?" She moved closer. Still floating. "Why should I listen to the man who ruined my life? Who called me worthless? Who picked my sister over me?"
Each question hit harder than Celeste's claws.
"Because it was all a lie," I said. The words tasted like blood. "Everything I did. Everything I said. It was all to protect you."
"Protect me?" She laughed. The sound echoed wrong. Multiple voices blended together. "You broke me, Dominic. Shattered me into pieces. That's not safety."
"It was the only way." I forced myself to sit up. Pain burst through my chest. Didn't matter. She needed to hear this. "Your mother made me promise. Five years ago, on her deathbed, she bound me with a Spirit Contract. Protect Aria at all costs. Keep her alive until she's strong enough."
Aria's glow flickered. "Strong enough for what?"
"For this." I pointed at her floating form. "For the rising. Your mother knew what you were. She knew the Nightmare King lived inside you. She spent her whole life keeping it locked away, keeping you safe." My voice cracked. "And when she died, she passed that burden to me."
"That doesn't explain the cruelty."
"The contract came with conditions." I coughed. Blood splattered my hand. More than before. "I had to keep you alive. But I couldn't tell you directly. Couldn't explain. If I did, the deal would kill us both." I looked up at her. "And your mother told me one more thing. She said you'd only awaken through pain. Through rage. Through being pushed so hard you'd break and rebuild yourself stronger."
Aria's feet touched the ground. The glow in her eyes faded slightly.
"So you decided to break me yourself," she whispered.
"I decided to control how you broke." I tried to stand. Failed. "Better me than someone who'd actually destroy you. Better a clean break I could predict than Celeste's slow poison."
"You knew about Celeste?" "I suspected. " More blood. My view blurred. "I knew someone was stealing your power. Keeping you weak. I just didn't know it was your own sister." I laughed bitterly. "Or the thing pretending to be your sister."
Aria knelt beside me. Her hand floated over my wound but didn't touch.
"You're dying," she said. Not a question.
"The contract's poison," I admitted. "Every time I took a Spirit attack meant for you, it corrupted me a little more. Every time I took damage in your place, the deal ate away at my core." I met her eyes. "I've been dying for five years, Aria. Since the day I made that promise."
Her sparkling eyes widened. "Every attack? Every time someone—"
"Every time." I smiled through the pain. "You thought you were unlucky. That accidents just happened around you. Failed training sessions. Equipment fails. Random Spirit attacks." I coughed again. "Those weren't mistakes. Someone was targeting you. And I was catching every single hit."
"Who?" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Who was attacking me?"
"Celeste. Always Celeste. She's been trying to kill you for years. But the deal wouldn't let her succeed." I felt my strength disappearing. "Until now. Until you woke. Now the contract's completed. I don't have to protect you anymore."
"Because I can protect myself," Aria said slowly.
"Because you're strong enough to survive what's coming." I reached for her hand. Caught it before she could pull away. "Listen to me. Celeste isn't working alone. She stated something before she attacked. Something about 'they're not ready for you yet.' She has friends. Powerful ones."
"Who?"
"I don't know. But—" I coughed harder. My lungs were filled with blood. "But they know about the Nightmare King. They know what you are. And they want to use you."
Aria's hand tightened around mine. "How do I stop them?"
"You don't." I pulled her closer. Made sure she was listening. "You become too powerful to control. You awaken fully. You accept what you are instead of fighting it." My vision was going dark around the edges. "Your mother was wrong about one thing. She thought keeping you human would keep you safe. But compassion was never your weakness, Aria. It's your best weapon."
"I don't understand."
"You will." My eyes were closed. Couldn't stop it. "The Nightmare King never learned love. Never learned kindness. Never understood why humans fight so hard to live." I smiled up at her. "But you did. You lived as human. Suffered as human. Loved as human. That makes you something new. Something that scares them."
"Dominic, stay awake—"
"One more thing." I forced the words out. "The deal. It's breaking. When it fully shatters, there's going to be reaction. Energy explosion. Everyone within fifty feet will—"
The building shook. Cracks split the concrete floor.
My chest burned. The black rot spreading from my wound suddenly flared bright red.
The deal was breaking. Right now.
"Run," I told Aria. "Get out before—"
"No." She gripped my hand tighter. Her eyes blazed silver again. "I'm not losing anyone else."
"Aria, you can't—"
"Watch me."
Power flooded through our linked hands. Not Spirit force. Something else. Something that felt like fears and hope mixed together.
The building exploded with light.
And in that moment, as the contract broke and energy ripped through us both, I felt it.
The bond forming. New. Different. Chosen instead of pushed.
Aria wasn't just saving my life.
She was tying us together in a way that couldn't be broken.
The light faded.
I gasped. Air filled my lungs. The wound in my chest was closing. The rot burning away.
Aria fell beside me, breathing hard.
"What did you do?" I whispered.
"I made a new contract." Her voice shook. "You saved me for five years. Now I save you. Equal. Willing. Together."
Before I could reply, my phone buzzed.
I pulled it out with shaking hands. Message from my second-in-command.
Commander, emergency. The Head Councilor just gave a kill order. Target: Aria Chen, recognized as the Nightmare King's vessel. All S-rank Warriors gathered. They're coming for her. ETA: ten minutes.
My blood went cold.
"Aria—"
Her phone buzzed too. She read her letter. Face went pale.
"Lyric says Celeste went to the Council. Told them everything. Showed them proof." Aria looked at me. "They're calling me a threat to the entire city. They want me dead."
"Then we run."
"Where? They'll find me anywhere in New Cascadia."
"Not if you're with me." I stumbled to my feet. "I'm still the War Commander. I have power. Resources. Safe houses they don't know about."
"They'll call you a traitor."
"They already have." I held out my hand. "So let them. I made my choice five years ago. I'm making it again now."
Aria stared at my hand. At me. At the choice I was giving.
"Together?" she asked quietly.
"Together."
She took my hand.
And that's when the warehouse doors burst inward for the second time tonight.
But this time, it wasn't Celeste standing there.
It was Dr. Silas Morpheus. The mystery scholar who'd been watching Aria's games.
His eyes glowed the same silver as Aria's.
"Hello, Nightmare King," he said with a smile that held too many secrets. "I've been waiting five hundred years for you to remember who you really are. And now that you have—" his smile widened "—it's time for you to meet the others."
"Others?" Aria whispered.
"The other Kings, of course." Dr. Silas stepped aside.
Behind him, four figures emerged from darkness. Each one radiating power that made my S-rank energy feel like a light next to the sun.
Each one with sparkling eyes.
Each one wearing a hat only I could see.
"Welcome home, sister," they said in agreement. "We have so much to talk. Starting with why our brother Celeste wants you dead."