Alina opened her eyes to darkness pulsing with light.
The sanctum was alive now—its circular glyphs thrumming with deep blue energy. The ceiling above them shimmered like water. The air felt different. Softer. Heavier.
Beside her, Selene had collapsed to her knees, one hand pressed to her side where the blood had dripped. Alina's own palm still throbbed where the blade had kissed it, but the pain was distant—buried beneath the strange warmth curling through her veins.
She could feel Selene.
Not just sense her. Feel her.
A low ache behind her ribs. A sharp thought at the back of her mind. A thread tying them together, tighter than ever.
Alina stared down at her hand, then at Selene.
"What did we do?" she asked.
Selene looked up. Her expression was unreadable. "We bound ourselves. Willingly. It's no longer just a curse. It's a pact."
Alina's stomach twisted. "You didn't tell me it would feel like this."
"I didn't know it would," Selene replied. "This... this is deeper than I've ever dared."
Before Alina could answer, a heavy crack rang through the chamber. The sanctum's walls shook.
"They found the outer edge," Selene said. "They're trying to break through."
"How long will it hold?"
Selene stood, unsteady. "If we focus—long enough."
"Focus on what?"
"On each other."
Alina swallowed. "I don't even know who you really are."
"You know enough," Selene said. "You saw the glade. You felt the bond."
Another boom rocked the temple. The glyphs flickered.
Alina drew a breath. "Tell me the truth now. The whole prophecy. Not just the parts that make sense."
Selene hesitated. "The prophecy says the bond will grow until one soul consumes the other. That the cursed lovers will either rise as one—or fall with the world around them."
"That sounds like possession."
"That sounds like fate," Selene whispered.
Alina took a step back. "So either we merge... or we burn?"
"Yes."
Silence stretched between them—until another sound broke it.
Not a scream. Not a crash.
A voice.
Alina turned toward the stone wall. It was faint, but unmistakable:
Her brother, chanting a spell.
Selene paled. "They're calling a rift."
"A what?"
"A soul-splitter. If they breach the sanctum with it, it won't just kill us—it'll sever the bond."
Alina's blood ran cold. "Then we stop it."
She turned, striding to the center of the chamber, the scroll clutched in her hand.
"Alina—what are you doing?" Selene asked.
Alina's voice was steady. "If they want the prophecy, I'll give them something worse."
She began tearing it—line by line, rune by rune.
The sanctum howled.
And far above them, the sky began to split open.