KAELEN'S POV
I haven't slept in weeks.
Sleep means nightmares. Nightmares mean reliving the massacre over and over. Watching my family die. Watching my little sister—
I cut off the thought and pace my chambers.
Through the bond, I can feel Elara sleeping. Her dreams are restless but not terrifying. Not like mine.
I should break the bond. Should sever it before she gets hurt.
But I can't.
For the first time in three centuries, I'm not alone. There's someone else in my head. Someone whose emotions aren't drowned in centuries of grief.
She feels alive. Bright. Like a flame in the darkness.
And I'm a monster for wanting to keep her close.
I'm heading back to my study when it hits me.
Pain. Sharp and sudden, stabbing through the bond like a knife.
Elara's pain.
I run.
The east wing is on the other side of the palace but I use shadow-walking, appearing directly outside her door.
I burst inside.
She's sitting up in bed, clutching her head, tears streaming down her face.
"Make it stop," she gasps. "Please, make it stop."
I'm at her side instantly. "What's wrong? What hurts?"
"Your memories. They're bleeding through the bond. I keep seeing—" She sobs. "A little girl. With your eyes. She's dying and you're holding her and—"
Ice floods my veins.
No.
Not that memory. Anything but that.
I try to pull away from the bond, to block the memories, but it's too late. Elara's already seen it.
Seen the worst moment of my life.
"Lira," I whisper. "Her name was Lira."
Elara looks up at me with tear-filled eyes. "Your sister."
"Yes."
"She was eight years old."
"Yes."
"And she died in your arms while you begged her to hold on."
I can't speak. Can't breathe.
Elara's hand finds mine. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry."
The bond flares between us. Her grief mixing with mine until I can't tell where one ends and the other begins.
I should push her away. Should leave before she sees more.
But instead, I hear myself say, "She asked me to sing to her. At the end. The lullaby our mother used to sing."
"Did you?"
"I tried. But I couldn't remember the words. I was covered in blood and everyone was screaming and I couldn't—" My voice breaks. "I couldn't even give her that."
Elara stands up. Wraps her arms around me.
I freeze, shocked.
No one has touched me in three hundred years. The curse makes it dangerous. Even this, even with the bond protecting her, could kill her.
But she holds on anyway.
"You were just a boy," she says quietly. "Watching your whole family die. You did everything you could."
"It wasn't enough."
"It never feels like enough when someone we love dies. But that doesn't mean we failed them."
Something in her voice makes me pull back. Look at her face.
"Who did you lose?" I ask.
"My mother. When I was sixteen. She got sick and we couldn't afford medicine. I tried to heal her with my magic but—" She stops. "I wasn't strong enough."
"How did she die?"
"Slowly. Painfully. Calling for my father who was too drunk to care." Elara's voice is steady but her eyes are full of old pain. "I held her hand until the end. Promised I'd take care of Calla. She made me promise."
"And you've been taking care of him ever since."
"Yes."
We stand there, two broken people sharing old wounds.
"The bond is showing us each other's worst memories," I say. "That's not normal."
"What is normal about any of this?"
Fair point.
I should leave. Put distance between us before the bond digs deeper.
Instead, I ask, "How did you know that lullaby?"
She blinks. "What?"
"Earlier. When you felt my memory. You were humming something. The lullaby my mother used to sing to Lira."
Elara's face goes pale. "I... I don't know. I've always known it. My mother taught me when I was little."
"Your mother couldn't have known it. That song is three hundred years old. From the Shadow Court. Before the massacre."
"That's impossible."
"Is it?" I move closer. "Your blood accepted a soul bond that should have killed you. You have magic that's forbidden in Aeloria. You know songs from my childhood. Who are you really, Elara Thorne?"
"I don't know!" She backs away. "I'm just... I'm just me. Nobody special. Nobody important."
"You're lying." Through the bond, I feel it. The fear beneath her words. "You know something. Or you suspect something."
"My grandfather," she whispers. "He was executed for conspiring with the Shadowlands. But Varen told me it wasn't treason. He was trying to expose a conspiracy. Something about an ancient pact."
The word hits me like lightning.
Pact.
"What pact?" I demand.
"I don't know! Varen wouldn't tell me! He just said I had something in my blood. Something that would either break your curse or destroy you."
My mind races. An ancient pact. A conspiracy. Magic in her bloodline that shouldn't exist.
And that song.
That gods-damned lullaby.
"There's someone who might have answers," I say slowly. "Someone who was alive before the massacre. Who remembers the old pacts."
"Who?"
"Lyris. She's the last surviving Keeper."
"What's a Keeper?"
"Beings who served as bridges between the human and shadow realms. They're extinct. Have been for centuries." I pause. "Or so I thought."
Elara's breathing quickens. "You think I'm... what? Part Keeper?"
"I think your bloodline has secrets. And Lyris might know what they are."
"Where is she?"
"Hiding. She hasn't left her sanctuary since the massacre. Doesn't trust anyone."
"Will she see me?"
I look at Elara. Really look at her. At the determination in her eyes despite her fear.
"She'll see you," I say. "Because if you really are what I think you are, you're the answer to a three-hundred-year-old question."
"What question?"
"Whether the Keepers can ever return. Whether the realms can be reunited. Whether—" I stop.
Whether I can be saved.
Through the bond, Elara hears the thought I didn't say.
"We'll find out together," she says firmly.
Before I can respond, the bond flares violently.
Pain explodes through both of us. Not emotional pain this time.
Physical.
The curse.
It's fighting the bond. Trying to break it. Trying to kill Elara.
She screams and collapses.
I catch her, my own vision going dark at the edges.
"No," I growl. "You don't get to take her."
I pour my power into the bond, reinforcing it, fighting the curse with everything I have.
The curse pushes back harder.
This is it. The curse has never tolerated sharing me with anyone. It's going to kill her just like it killed all the others.
Unless—
I do something I swore I'd never do again.
I open myself completely to the bond. Drop every wall, every defense, every protection.
Leave myself completely vulnerable to her.
And I feel the exact moment Elara does the same.
Our souls merge.
Not just connected. Merged.
The curse screams in rage and then—
Silence.
The pain stops.
Elara gasps in my arms, breathing hard.
"What... what just happened?" she whispers.
"We're not just bonded anymore," I say, my voice shaking. "We're one soul in two bodies. What I feel, you feel. What you experience, I experience."
"Forever?"
I look down at her.
And realize with absolute certainty that I just made the biggest mistake of my three-hundred-year life.
Or the best decision.
"Forever," I confirm.
Through the bond—through our merged soul—she feels what I'm not saying.
That t
his means when one of us dies, both of us die.
We just tied our fates together.
Completely.
And there's no way to undo it.