"He's coming."
Lian Yue barely raised his voice above a whisper, and yet his words were like a sharp edge to the heart of the shrine.
Raihan swept her trembling shoulders between his palms. "Who? Who did you see?"
Her eyes were far away, almost luminous. "I don't know. "But he had Celestine's pendant on." The one she gave you...before she was killed."
Raihan's grip tightened.
That pendant had disappeared with her final breath.
"Azar," he muttered. "That little demon was more than a warning. He was a herald."
Lian Yue nodded and wiped the cold sweat from her forehead. "I had another sense in the dream. Something is wrong. As if my soul were…undoing."
Raihan stood, pacing. "It's the handiwork of a Soul Severer. That's what the Death Court dispatched."
"The god-killer?"
He turned, jaw clenched. "His name is Kaelen. One of the dying lines of Servers. And the sole being for an entire universe to eliminate a lovebacked god three times, each lifetime.
Lian Yue's chest tightened. "You think he's after me."
"I know he is."
They exchanged a long look. The kind who lugged around every inquiry they couldn't speak.
And then Raihan looked to the Seer. "You have been lurking in the shadows long enough. Where is the second gate?"
The Seer lifted her chin. "You wouldn't get to it in time."
"Then open a rift."
"You would do well to remember who serves who, shadow-bound.
Before Lian Yue could retort, he walked up. "If you won't help, then I'll find somebody who will."
Seer's eyes narrowed, biting, and shrewd. "You don't actually believe any other immortal would risk holding for you?"
"I don't need them to. I just need time."
"Time is what you're losing."
"Then give me one day." Lian Yue's voice was cool now, clear. "Let me prepare."
The Seer stared at her for a long, chilly moment—and finally dipped her head. "One day. At dawn, the rift opens. Then you're on your own."
Lian Yue whirled to Raihan, her eyes blazing. "Train me."
---
Hours passed.
The shrine transformed.
Torches burned on the walls. The holy circle was turned into a battlefield. On the other side, Raihan wielded two short knives against Lian Yue. She carried a staff of whitewood and starlight.
"You're not fighting with your hands," Raihan said. "You're fighting with every generation of pain that you inherited, that was buried in your bones."
Lian Yue lunged.
Fast. But too predictable.
He easily knocked the staff aside and spun, sweeping her legs.
It fell down with a grunt. "I'm trying."
"Try harder." His voice was cold.
Again and again, she charged.
Again and again, she fell.
Her arms ached. Her legs burned. Her soulstone pulsed with annoyance.
"Get up," Raihan snapped. "The god-killer isn't going to give you a second wind.
She jerked her body up. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because if I don't, you're going to die."
"No," she spat. "You're punishing me. For not being her."
His eyes flickered.
Then he threw his blade.
It missed her by inches, cut through the air and lodged itself in the wall of the shrine.
"I'm punishing myself." His voice broke. "Because I don't know how to save you without losing you."
Lian Yue's breath caught.
The fire between them was not just tension now. It was heartbreak stripped down to the embers.
He walked closer. "You think I don't see you? I do. Every version of you. Mortal. Divine. Warrior. Girl. You're not Celestine."
She blinked back tears.
"You're more. Because you chose to stay."
He cupped her cheek and reached out.
She pressed into his touch reflexively.
"Raihan…" she whispered.
Then he kissed her.
Not gently. Not like a man who's scared of snapping her in half.
But it is like a desperate man clutching life.
They sparked each other's souls — her light, his shadow — and time did not move.
Her fingers gripped his shirt, tugging him in. His fingers meshed with her hair.
It was heat and hunger and heartbreak and hope, all in one.
When they separated, both gasping for air, Raihan's forehead kept hers in place.
"I don't know how long I can resist him," he whispered back. "But I will fight until my last breath. For you."
Lian Yue patted the soulstone that lay on his chest.
"It's enough."
---
That night…
They didn't sleep.
Raihan stood guard.
Lian Yue used meditation to allow her power to flow freely for the first time. Memories surfaced. Not only of her former existence — but pieces of a prophecy branded into the stars.
She saw herself teetering on the brink of a cliff, wind lashing at her hair, with a fire in one hand and a shadow in the other.
The world split under her feet.
Her soulstone beat in her chest like a second heart.
Then came a whisper.
"One can survive the final proof."
She opened her eyes.
The stars had faded.
Dawn had come.
---
At the edge of the Veil…
Through the rift, churning with black smoke and golden sparks, stood the Seer.
"You've got until sundown," she said. "The gate's not going to last that much longer.
Raihan nodded. "We will have found the god-killer before that happens.
Lian Yue gripped her staff. "Or he'll find us."
She turned to Raihan. "If I don't make it—"
"You will."
"Then promise me something."
"Anything."
"If I shift into her—into Celestine—do not love me as her."
He took her hand, lacing their fingers. "I never did."
She smiled.
And stepped through the rift.
---
On the other side…
The world was cold.
Mountains loomed like the value of doom. Ice whipped around them. The second gate stood at the center of a ruined palace ruined, with cracked columns, shattered glass, and rune-marks glowing eerily through the snow.
And on the top step, however, stood Kaelen.
The god-killer.
Tall. Pale. Eyes like molten silver. A pendulum rested on his chest -Celestine's.
"Well," he said, his voice frozen silk. The reincarnated goddess is back. "And she came with her favorite shadow."
Raihan came forward, his blades glistening.
But Kaelen ignored him.
His gaze rested with Lian Yue.
"I've waited three lifetimes to bring to completion all that I began.
He raised his hand.
The wind died.
And the sky cracked open.
---
Kaelen smiled. "Shall we begin, Celestine?"
There was an explosion of light from Lian Yue's soulstone.
But inside her chest … another soul stirred.
A voice she'd never heard before.
Her own.
But older.
Colder.
More divine.
And it whispered—
"Let me out."