The city of Aelreth loomed behind them, casting flickers of violet and gold across the night sky, but Selene didn't look back.
Her heart raced with every step she and Kieran took beyond the city's edge, into the ruins of the ancient territory known as Eredan's Spine—the only path to the Elder Circle.
It was forbidden ground. Old magic bled from the trees here, and shadows whispered secrets no sane mind should hear. The very air was thick with power and memory, as though the land itself remembered every betrayal, every sacrifice, every death that had ever occurred on its soil.
Kieran moved like a warrior trained to ignore fear. But even he was cautious now. Every step, every breath, was laced with readiness to fight.
Selene tried not to glance too often at the mark creeping up her arm.
It now reached her shoulder.
It didn't hurt.
But it pulsed with awareness—like it was waiting for something.
Or someone.
"When we get to the Circle," she asked, her voice low, "what exactly are we asking them for?"
Kieran glanced at her, his jaw tense. "Answers. Or a way to sever this bond before it becomes permanent."
Selene hesitated. "And if they say it can't be severed?"
"Then we find another way." He didn't slow his pace. "Even if we have to rip it from our own flesh."
But Selene wasn't sure anymore if she wanted to.
Because despite the fear, the uncertainty, the danger—a part of her had begun to crave the connection. To need the heat of his shadow wrapped around her flame.
The Elder Circle's temple emerged from the fog like something summoned by thought alone.
Seven pillars of stone, carved with runes too old to translate, stood in a perfect circle around a black crystal monolith. The air around it shimmered, distorting space and sound.
As they stepped into the circle, the wind stilled. Time itself seemed to pause.
A voice boomed from within the stone.
"Who dares summon the Circle?"
Kieran stepped forward, shoulders squared. "Kieran Varyn of the Shadowborn line."
The ground rumbled.
"And the girl?"
Selene raised her chin. "Selene Kael of House Veyra. Flameborn. Marked."
Silence followed. Then—
A low hum, like the collective breath of ancient beings.
From the stone emerged seven spectral figures, each cloaked in an aura of pure elemental energy. Fire. Ice. Shadow. Blood. Storm. Bone. Time.
The Elder of Shadows leaned forward, his eyes twin voids. "The bond on you is no simple fate-thread."
"We know," Kieran said. "We came to understand it. Stop it."
The Elder of Fire, her voice a crackling inferno, turned to Selene. "You've already burned for him. The bond is fed. Alive. You ask us to sever what has already merged your essences."
Selene's blood ran cold. "Can it be undone?"
The Elder of Bone gave a twisted smile. "Undone? No." He raised a skeletal finger. "But redirected... perhaps."
Kieran's fists clenched. "How?"
The Elder of Time spoke then—his voice neither young nor old. "By finishing what you started. Complete the bond. Face what waits beyond it."
Selene's voice was barely a whisper. "And what waits?"
The Elder of Blood grinned. "A throne made of ruin. And love strong enough to either save the world… or set it on fire."
The wind returned. The spirits vanished. The monolith cracked straight down the middle.
Selene turned to Kieran. "So what now?"
Kieran's golden eyes glowed brighter than ever.
"Now," he said, stepping into the crack where shadow and flame bled from the stone, "we go all the way in."
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