I pace the length of the room like a caged animal, each step harder than the last. The echoes bounce off stone walls like a heartbeat I can't slow. My thoughts spiral—too fast to catch, colliding like jagged glass.
Where the hell is he?
Where is Vaelen?
He's been gone too long. I can feel the absence like a phantom limb, like something vital has been severed. The bond between us is still there, humming faintly at the back of my mind, but it's distant. Off. Like something's wrong and I can't name it.
The longer I wait, the more the storm builds. My anger coils tighter with every breath. I've always been like this—ever since I was a kid. When my mind spirals, I move. And if I stop, it all burns.
The door creaks open.
He steps in.
And I freeze.
Something about him is wrong. His shoulders are tight, face pale, eyes hollowed like he's seen something that cracked him in half. My heart stutters. The bond between us hums—faint, alive—but wrong.
The Vaelen standing in front of me?
He's not the same.
"Where were you?" I ask, voice sharp, brittle, already unraveling. "Why did it take you so long?"
He doesn't answer right away. His gaze flicks down, then back up—haunted. He opens his mouth, hesitates.
"I was summoned… by Khorath."
The name hits me like a slap.
"Khorath?" I repeat, the word venom on my tongue. It tastes foul. Ancient. Heavy. "The Khorath? God of death? Twister of fates, devourer of souls, that Khorath?"
Vaelen doesn't flinch, but something behind his eyes shifts. A flicker of fear. Or guilt.
My hands curl into fists. My voice sharpens to a blade.
"Don't you dare hide it from me, Vaelen." I step closer, fury rising, power simmering just beneath my skin. "I know who he is. I've heard the stories. He doesn't just take—he owns. He plays with lives like toys, and now what? You're working for him? Serving him? Bound to him?"
He tries to speak, but I'm not done. The dam inside me breaks.
"You think I haven't noticed what's happening to me? You think I don't feel it—the pull, the power growing like it's alive? I wake up every day and feel like a stranger in my own skin! And you… you disappear without a word, and come back looking like death kissed you and walked away!"
I throw my arms out, the force of my words shaking loose the wild magic inside me. It surges, crackling in the air like a warning.
"It was all a lie, wasn't it?" I shout. "The gods. This bond. Us. Just another step in their master plan."
Vaelen's face twists, something between pain and regret, but it's too late for softness now.
"I'm done playing by their rules," I hiss. "Fuck fate. Fuck the gods. I will not be their pawn. I will not become their weapon."
The room vibrates with my rage. The storm inside me threatens to spill free, to consume everything in reach. My power—thanatokinesis—burns like wildfire beneath my skin. I can barely hold it back.
Silence swells between us, thick and suffocating.
Then Vaelen steps forward, slowly. His voice is low. Cracked.
"You don't know everything, Seraphina." He swallows hard. "The gods… they've always been behind this. Pulling strings none of us can see. The soul tie—it's not random. It's part of something older. Something bigger. I didn't see it until he summoned me."
The room spins. My knees nearly buckle.
"You knew," I whisper, voice raw. "You knew and you didn't tell me."
His silence answers for him.
I look at him and see it all. The guilt. The exhaustion. The pain. But it's not enough.
"I swear I didn't know until today," he says, barely audible. "Until I was there. With him."
I shake my head. It doesn't matter. Nothing feels real anymore.
"I won't be part of their game," I say, grounding myself in the one truth I have left. "I don't care what they planned. I don't care what they want. I'm not theirs. And if you still stand with me, Vaelen… then we find a way to stop this."
He meets my gaze, but he doesn't speak.
Because even now, doubt is creeping in.
Even now, I don't know if we can.