Seraphina's POV
The summoning circle blazed brighter, and I felt it pulling at something deep inside me—my soul, my power, my very life force.
"Fight it!" Kael shouted, but his voice sounded far away. He was on his knees now, golden blood dripping from his nose. The circle was draining him too.
Mordain laughed. "Don't bother resisting. I've spent three centuries preparing this ritual. Every bride I killed, every drop of the Emperor's cursed blood, every piece of divine magic—it all fed this circle. You can't break it."
But my new power surged inside me, wild and desperate. The crown of light above my head burned hotter, and I felt something else—a presence. Ancient. Feminine. Powerful.
"Daughter of my line," a voice whispered in my mind. "You carry my power, but you must learn to use it. The circle can be broken, but only if you're willing to pay the price."
"What price?" I gasped out loud.
Mordain's eyes widened. "You can hear her? You can hear Thalia?"
"To break his spell, you must bind yourself to the Emperor. Not as his victim, but as his equal. A true soul bond—permanent and unbreakable. Are you willing?"
I looked at Kael. We'd known each other for less than a day. He'd been cursed, empty, capable of terrible things. But I'd also seen his guilt, his desperate attempt to protect me, his first fragile steps back toward humanity.
And he'd called me "someone worth saving."
"Yes," I said. "I'm willing."
"Then speak the words."
The ancient language flowed through me, and I understood every syllable. I reached out and grabbed Kael's hand. His silver eyes met mine, confused but trusting.
"By blood and bone, by curse and crown, I bind my soul to yours," I said, and golden light exploded from our joined hands. "Not as master and servant, not as victim and killer, but as equals. Two halves of one whole. Your pain is mine. Your healing is mine. And my power is yours."
The light became blinding.
Mordain screamed, "NO! You're breaking the circle!"
But it was too late. The soul bond snapped into place, and I felt Kael's presence flood into me—three hundred years of loneliness, guilt, and desperate hunger to feel anything. And he felt me—my fear, my determination, my stubborn refusal to be anyone's pawn.
The summoning circle shattered.
The explosion threw Mordain backward through the wall he'd destroyed. Kael and I collapsed to the floor, gasping.
"What did you do?" Kael asked, staring at our still-joined hands.
"I saved us. I think." I could feel his heartbeat as clearly as my own. "Can you feel that?"
"Your fear. Your courage." He looked at me with wonder. "I can feel everything you feel."
"Same here." And I could—his shock, his growing protectiveness, and underneath it all, a tiny spark of something that might have been hope.
A slow clap made us both look up.
Mordain stood in the hole in the wall, bleeding but smiling. "Brilliant. Truly brilliant. You've done exactly what I needed you to do."
"We broke your circle," I said.
"Yes. But you also created something much more valuable." His eyes gleamed with dark hunger. "A soul bond between a divine priestess and a cursed emperor. Do you know what that means?"
Kael pulled me behind him, standing despite his obvious pain. "Stay back, Mordain."
"It means," Mordain continued, "that when I consume one of you, I get both. All your power, all your magic, all your life force—doubled." He raised his hands, and dark energy crackled around his fingers. "Thank you for making my job easier."
The attack came fast—bolts of black lightning aimed straight at us.
Kael threw up his hand, and to my shock, golden light burst from his palm, creating a shield. My power, flowing through him because of our bond.
"That's new," he said.
"Very new." I raised my own hands, and silver energy—his cursed immortality, transformed by divine magic—swirled around my fingers. "I think we just became really dangerous together."
We attacked as one, our powers combining into something neither of us had alone. Golden and silver light twisted together, slamming into Mordain's dark magic.
The palace shook with the force of it.
But Mordain was three hundred years old and had been gathering power all that time. He pushed back, and we were forced to our knees again.
"Impressive," he said. "But not enough. You're newly bonded. Untrained. I've had centuries to perfect my craft."
He was right. I could feel our combined power wavering, failing.
Then I felt something else—other presences, moving through the palace. Not the corpse-brides. These were alive.
"Kael," I whispered. "Someone's coming."
"I know." He smiled grimly. "I called for backup before I came to your chambers. They're just very late."
The wall behind Mordain exploded inward.
Lady Iskra Volkov stood in the rubble, her sword drawn and glowing with its own magic. Behind her stood Sir Ryn and at least twenty palace guards.
"Your Majesty," Iskra said calmly, "next time you face an evil vizier, perhaps send a signal before the palace starts collapsing?"
"Noted," Kael said.
Mordain's smile faltered. "This changes nothing. I can handle all of you."
"Perhaps." A new voice spoke from the shadows. "But can you handle me?"
A figure stepped into the room, and my breath caught.
It was the old woman from last night—Mira, who'd brought me tea. But she looked different now. Younger. Stronger. And her eyes glowed with the same golden light as mine.
"Hello, Mordain," she said pleasantly. "Remember me? High Priestess Thalia's sister? The one you thought you killed two hundred years ago?"
Mordain's face went white. "Impossible. You died. I watched you—"
"You watched an illusion die." Mira—or whoever she really was—smiled. "I've been hiding in this palace for two centuries, waiting for Thalia's prophecy to come true. Waiting for her last descendant to awaken." She looked at me. "Hello, great-great-great-granddaughter. Sorry I couldn't reveal myself sooner. Had to make sure you were the real deal."
My head spun. "You're my ancestor?"
"Several generations removed, but yes." She turned back to Mordain. "And now that Seraphina has awakened and bonded with the Emperor, your plan is ruined. The curse is breaking. The gateway you wanted to open requires a cursed, soulless emperor. Kael isn't soulless anymore."
"Then I'll kill them both!" Mordain roared, dark magic exploding from him in all directions.
Everyone dove for cover as the room became a battlefield. Iskra and her guards attacked from one side. Ryn from another. Mira threw golden shields to protect us.
And Kael and I, still holding hands, still feeling each other's power flowing between us, fought together.
It was chaos. Beautiful, terrifying chaos.
But we were winning.
Until Elara's voice cut through the battle like ice.
"Did you really think I was the only ghost he controlled?"
I turned and saw her floating above us, but she wasn't alone.
Behind her stood hundreds of spirits—all the people who'd died in the Obsidian Palace over three hundred years. Servants. Guards. Visitors. Children.
An army of the dead.
"Mordain promised me revenge," Elara said. "He promised me you would suffer as I suffered. And I intend to collect."
She raised her hands, and the ghost army surged forward.
Mira's face went grim. "Everyone, fall back! We can't fight this many!"
"No," I said, and pulled away from Kael. My crown of light blazed brighter. "I can free them. Like I freed the seventeen brides. I just need—"
"Time," Kael finished. He understood through our bond what I was planning. "And I'll buy you that time."
"Kael, you can't hold off an army alone—"
"I'm not alone." He touched my face gently—the first truly tender gesture he'd made. "I have you. I can feel your power in my veins. Your courage in my heart. And for the first time in three hundred years, I have something worth fighting for."
Before I could respond, he kissed me.
It was brief, desperate, and filled with every emotion he was learning to feel again—fear, hope, determination.
Then he let me go and charged into the ghost army, golden and silver light exploding from his hands.
"NO!" I screamed, but Mira grabbed my arm.
"Focus! You need to channel the full awakening spell. The one that will free all these souls at once." She pressed something into my hand—another ancient spell paper. "This is the true version. The one in the wardrobe was just the first step. This one is more powerful. More dangerous. And it will cost you."
"Cost me what?"
Mira's eyes were sad. "Your mortality. You'll become fully divine—immortal like the Moon Goddess herself. But you'll never be fully human again. You'll watch everyone you love age and die while you remain unchanged."
Through our bond, I felt Kael fighting, felt his pain as ghostly hands tore at him. He was holding them back, but barely.
I looked at the spell. At Mira. At Kael surrounded by the dead.
"Will it save them?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Then I don't care about the cost."
I began to read the ancient words, and as I spoke them, my body began to change.
My skin glowed brighter. My crown solidified into real gold. Power unlike anything I'd ever imagined flooded through me, burning away everything human and leaving something new behind.
Something eternal.
I raised my hands, and pure divine light exploded outward in a wave that consumed the entire palace.
Every ghost touched by that light began to glow, their tortured faces finally peaceful.
"Thank you," they whispered as they faded. "Thank you for setting us free."
Elara was the last to go. As the light consumed her, she looked at me with something that might have been respect.
"He's lucky," she said. "To have someone willing to sacrifice everything for him. I wish..." She flickered. "I wish I'd been that brave."
Then she was gone.
The light faded. The palace fell silent.
I stood in the center of the destruction, no longer quite Seraphina Ashford. No longer quite human.
Kael limped toward me, bloody but alive. "Are you—"
"Different," I said. My voice echoed with power. "I'm different now. Immortal. Divine. I can't go back."
"I don't want you to go back." He took my glowing hands in his bloodstained ones. "I want you exactly as you are."
Behind him, Mordain rose from the rubble, battered but not beaten. "How touching. But it's not over."
He pulled something from his robes—a small vial of black liquid.
"Three centuries of Kael's cursed blood, distilled and concentrated. Enough power to rip open the gateway without needing you alive." He drank it. "I'll just have to extract your souls the old-fashioned way—by killing you."
His body began to change, growing larger, darker, more monstrous.
And I realized with horror that our biggest fight was still ahead.