"You were to have run, Lian Yue."
His voice was deeper now. Rougher. As if it was coming from the center of the earth.
Lian Yue pressed up against the chilly stone of the shrine wall, heart racing. "What happened to you?"
Raihan entered the fitful light of the candle.
His black hair was matted with blood — his own? Someone else's? — and shadows followed his body like living armor. But it was his eyes that rooted her to the spot.
Once storm-grey. Now abyssal.
No whites. No irises.
Only black flame.
"I was keeping him at bay as long as I could," Raihan said. "But I let him in."
"You let him?"
"I had no choice," he snarled, gritting his teeth. "The Mourner marked me a long time back. A curse sealed into my veins. Every time I didn't let it kill you—every time I went against the Death Court—I fed it."
Lian Yue slowly took a step forward, her hand emitting a dim golden light. "I can help—"
"No!" Raihan roared, and his anger shook the entire shrine. "Don't come closer."
But she didn't stop.
Her light encountered his shadow, and they ignited like oil joined with fire.
"You promised you would take care of me," she whispered.
"I still will." His voice cracked. "Even if it kills me."
The Seer, arms crossed waiting behind her, nodded in silent cheer; she's known it all along.
"I warned you," she murmured. "He is bound to death. You are bound to life. The bond cannot hold."
"Don't sound like I'm not here," Raihan muttered. "I'm still me."
"No, you are not," replied the Seer, coolly. "You're turning into what you were always meant to be: her executioner."
Lian Yue stared at her. "You said he loved Celestine. What did you mean?"
The Seer tilted her head. "Why do you believe he's tethered to you now? - Why do you think the Death Court spared him all these years? He muttered under his breath, to Celestine's dying ember.
Lian Yue turned to Raihan. "Tell me it's not true."
He was silent.
"Tell me I'm not just her stand-in."
His jaw clenched. "You're not."
"Then why do you cringe whenever I mention her by name?"
The shadows illuminated at his touch.
Lian Yue's hands trembled.
Is this what fate means? To bequeath not only power, but also pain?
Raihan stepped away, panting. I swore to myself you would never Waking, you, not matter. That I'd hide you, let you live in some organics' misery. That I'd break the cycle."
"But you couldn't."
"No. "'Cause some part of me… still thought you were her."
Silence fell.
Not the peaceful sort — but the heavy, damning sort, the kind that breaks hearts.
Lian Yue turned away. "I always thought that the worst part was to be hunted. But it's worse to remember. As someone else."
She started to step toward the door of the shrine.
Raihan's voice stopped her. "I still see you. I swear it."
But it was the Seer who laughed, though whether with sincerity or surreptitiously we cannot say.
"Then prove it, Shadow-Bound. Prove it by letting her go. Or prove it by disobeying your master's order and taking her."
Raihan suddenly groaned and leant over doubled.
Dragons of black fire even appeared behind him as dark energy flowed out from his back.
His scream was guttural.
The Mourner was taking over.
"No!" Lian Yue ran to him. "Fight it! Don't let him win!"
Raihan's voice was guttural. "Run... before I forget what your face looks like."
Lian Yue's soulstone shone as she approached him, not minding the heat of his curse. She placed her hands on his heart.
"Raihan. Look at me."
For a moment, his real eyes blinked in the dark.
Pain.
Love.
Regret.
"Don't keep me in the dark," she whispered.
One more pulse of light, she forced her energy onto him.
The shadows howled.
And then—snapped.
Raihan passed out in shock.
The wings vanished.
The shrine was silent once more.
The Seer raised a brow. "That was reckless."
"Better fool than cold."
The lips of the Seer twitched slightly. "Maybe you're not Celestine after all. You love harder."
Lian Yue looked towards Raihan, who was still kneeling over himself.
"What now?" she asked.
"You get three days," said the Seer. "Prior to the Death Court opening the second Gate."
"What happens then?"
"They send a god-killer." Her eyes darkened. "One who remembers what your past was better than you remember it."
Lian Yue looked at Raihan's face from above.
For once, peaceful.
And she made a vow.
"I won't run anymore."
---
Hours later…
Raihan opened his eyes in the shrine, throat dry, limbs leaden.
She was the first thing he saw.
Lian Yue lying beside him, her fingers still around his.
He should have shooed her away.
Should have ridden before the dark came back.
Instead, he dropped a kiss upon her knuckles and whispered, "Once, I failed you. I won't do it again."
A rustle made him freeze.
He turned—
And locked eyes with a boy. Pale. Red-eyed. No older than twelve.
But Raihan instantly recognized him.
"Azar," he breathed.
The Child of Ash.
The last emissary of the Death Court.
The boy tilted his head. "Hello, Raihan. I came to remind you."
"Remind me of what?"
Azar's grin was cold and old. "That even if you love her with all your heart… the end always starts with you."
He raised a hand.
And Lian Yue started screaming in her sleep.
---
Raihan lunged for Azar.
But the boy vanished.
And Lian Yue awoke—his eyes wide with horror—gasping one word:
"He's coming."
-