Chapter 7 The Blood-Tied Gate

The air trembled with the aftermath of the explosive clash. Shadows twisted against the glowing embers scattered across the battlefield, as if reality itself recoiled from the weight of unleashed power. Seraphina stood at the heart of the chaos, her breath ragged, her pulse thundering like war drums beneath her skin. Around her, the remnants of magic crackled through the air-Killian's protective aura fading into sparks that kissed her cheeks like phantom touches.

"Killian," she whispered, the name catching in her throat.

He stood bloodied, swaying, eyes glazed yet burning with the last flickers of unrelenting will. His shirt was torn from chest to waist, revealing gashes that no ordinary healer could mend. A claw mark shimmered across his abdomen, glowing faintly as if cursed with ancient venom.

Seraphina rushed forward, catching him just before he collapsed. The feel of his body against hers-a mix of searing heat and terrifying fragility-ignited a surge of fury in her veins.

"No," she growled. "You're not allowed to fall now. Not when we've come this far."

His lips parted, eyes struggling to focus on her. "You... awakened the Pact."

Before she could respond, a tremor rippled through the earth. The skies split open, bleeding crimson light as the Blood-Tied Gate began to form-massive obsidian pillars erupting from the ground, carved in languages lost to mortal minds. Seraphina turned, still holding Killian, and watched in horror as a vortex of memories, blood, and ancestral energy surged upward into the opening gate.

From its heart stepped a being cloaked in red fire and shadow. Its voice thundered like a cathedral collapsing.

"You have summoned me, Daughter of Flame. And so the choice must be made."

Seraphina rose, her eyes locked on the figure. "What choice?"

"The Gate demands sacrifice. The curse shall be broken... or the realm shall burn. You may choose one: your Alpha mate, or the Flame Crown of Immortality."

Killian stirred weakly. "Don't... listen..."

But the creature raised its hand, and a chain of fire wrapped around Killian's neck, hoisting him into the air. Seraphina screamed, unleashing a wave of power that shattered trees and scorched the battlefield. Yet the being didn't flinch.

"You cannot win with rage alone. You must invoke the Eclipse Pact in full."

Seraphina's eyes turned gold, her flames crystallizing into blades as ancient sigils formed around her body. The Pact was awakening-but incomplete.

A rush of footsteps sounded behind her. The Matriarch arrived, surrounded by the last of their loyal warriors. "Seraphina! The rebels are breaching the west tower. We need the Eclipse to seal them!"

"I can't leave him!" she cried.

Killian's voice rang in her mind-telepathic, flickering, but clear.

"Finish the battle. I'll hold on. I promise."

With a shaking breath, Seraphina turned her back on him and faced the battlefield. The bloodline gates surged wider, and from within, spectral wolves-avatars of fallen Alphas-emerged. They howled in unison, joining her.

"I invoke the Blood of the First Flame," she said solemnly.

Light exploded from her core. The skies dimmed as night folded in on itself, the moon turning black. The Eclipse had begun.

Her wings unfurled-not feathered but forged in flame and crystal. Each step she took burned sigils into the ground. Her voice carried over the battlefield, commanding rebel, loyalist, and spirit alike.

"This realm shall not fall. I am the Eclipse. I am the fire between fate and freedom."

The rebel army, led by the traitorous Lord Malric, charged at her, oblivious to the shift in magic. Seraphina moved with divine speed, slicing through time and space. Her blade-Ignis Lucem-sang with the voices of all her ancestors.

As she fought, every strike brought her closer to the heart of the Blood-Tied Gate. Behind her, Killian's body hovered motionless within the fire chains, now glowing a deep violet-the color of soul magic.

A scream shattered the air.

It was the Matriarch.

Seraphina turned in time to see her pierced through by a rebel spear, collapsing beneath the weight of betrayal.

"No!"

The shock splintered her concentration. The magic faltered. The chains around Killian tightened.

The Gatekeeper stepped forward. "The balance tips."

Seraphina dropped to her knees, torn between the dying Matriarch and Killian's fading soul. The sky overhead cracked like glass, and a voice older than the gods whispered:

"Choose now. Or lose them both."

And then-

A blinding flash.

A scream.

And everything went dark.

The blood-colored moon hovered like an eye of judgment, casting the battlefield in an otherworldly crimson glow. The broken land trembled beneath the weight of fate, and the air thickened with a magic so potent it tasted like iron and fire on the tongue.

Seraphina stood at the eye of the storm, her silver hair wild in the wind, soaked in blood and light. Around her, the guardians and loyal warriors of the Eclipse Pact battled against the grotesque creatures spawned by the Shadowborn. Their howls tore across the mountains, unholy shrieks that clawed at the soul.

But Seraphina heard none of it. Her eyes were locked on the half-shattered gate before her, the ancient Blood-Tied Gate, now awakened.

Cracks veined across the arch, pulsing like a heartbeat. The inscriptions in the Old Tongue shimmered between worlds-one line in celestial flame, the next in void-black ink. She could hear it whispering to her. Not in words. In blood. In fate. In truth.

A jagged voice boomed from the gate's base. "You who are cursed and chosen, do you offer the price?"

Seraphina's breath caught. Her fingers tightened around the dagger she still clutched-Killian's dagger, slick with the blood of the bond they had sealed.

From the distance, a roar erupted-Killian's voice.

"Don't do it, Sera!"

He was staggering toward her, his armor torn, eyes burning with desperate fury. But his path was blocked-creatures lunged at him, and even weakened, he fought like the Alpha he was born to be. Every step he took toward her was a war against the impossible.

Seraphina turned back toward the gate.

"I offer what I must," she said.

"Then bleed."

The blood on the blade lifted into the air, suspended as if cradled by unseen hands. The gate drank it greedily, groaning as it absorbed the sacrifice. The ground split open in a jagged line, revealing a staircase descending into ancient shadow.

Suddenly, a pulse of magic exploded from the rift. Killian was thrown back, landing hard against the stones, coughing blood.

"Seraphina!" he roared, trying to rise.

But Seraphina was already descending.

The stone steps beneath Seraphina's feet pulsed with life, ancient and sentient, as if the gate itself were tasting her resolve. Each step she took echoed with the weight of history, vibrating through the bones of the realm.

Behind her, the battle continued to rage above, muffled now like a dying heartbeat.

As she descended deeper, the temperature dropped. Frost kissed her eyelashes. Shadows writhed along the walls, whispering names-hers, Killian's, the names of long-dead Alphas and forsaken Brides.

Then light.

A soft, violet flame emerged from nothing, hovering above an altar carved into the mountain's roots. Atop the altar sat a sphere of pure bloodstone, veins of silver and gold swirling within. The Heart of the Pact.

This was what the prophecy spoke of.

This was what could undo the curse-or seal their doom forever.

Seraphina stepped forward, her hand trembling. Her powers, still volatile from the fusion with Killian's soul mark, surged through her. The elemental forces-fire, frost, lightning, and something older-woke within her, roaring.

But she wasn't alone.

From the darkness beyond the altar, a figure emerged.

Tall. Cloaked in black and red. His face shrouded.

The ancient being who had called her Bride.

"You've come," he said, voice layered in time, like it belonged to a thousand mouths.

Seraphina's stance hardened. "You called me. What are you?"

He stepped forward. His eyes glowed like molten dusk.

"I am the last Flame-Binder. Keeper of the Pact. The one your blood was promised to."

Seraphina recoiled. "My blood belongs to no one."

"Yet it sings to me," he said, lifting a hand. "You opened the Gate. You accepted the sacrifice. Now the Pact must be completed."

Above, Killian broke through the ward the rift had created. His body burned with the force of his magic-half broken, but feral in purpose. He could feel her descending beyond reach.

"Seraphina!" His voice echoed down into the dark.

She turned back toward the altar. "You want the Pact?" she whispered, her voice trembling but fierce. "Then hear me: I bind myself not to chains or destiny... but to love. To choice. To Killian."

The flame around her exploded outward-silver fire laced with crimson lightning. The Heart of the Pact reacted, shattering in a pulse of raw magic.

And everything around her collapsed into a roar of light and pain.

---

Above ground, the entire battlefield convulsed. Warriors fell to their knees. The Shadowborn screamed, clawing at their heads as if something sacred was being ripped from them.

Killian screamed her name.

From the Gate, a burst of silver flame erupted skyward.

Then silence.

Dust.

And from the crater where the Gate once stood... Seraphina rose.

Floating.

Unconscious.

In her arms... a mark of fire, shaped like wings, burned across her chest.

And hovering behind her-

The Flame-Binder. Watching.

Waiting.

And smiling.

The silence that followed Seraphina's command was not peaceful-it was tense, charged like the moment before lightning strikes. The flames around her danced violently, responding to the emotions that coiled within her chest: rage, hope, defiance, and something older... something deeper.

Across the battlefield, time itself seemed to stall. The enemies who had once moved like a monstrous tide now hesitated, eyes wide with dread, shadows recoiling from the radiance she emitted.

The sky churned with storm clouds, pierced intermittently by crimson bolts of lightning. From the edge of the clearing, Lilith watched, her serpentine pupils narrowing as she muttered ancient incantations under her breath, summoning a wall of smoke to cloak her forces. But it was futile-Seraphina's light pierced the veil, unraveling the magic with a single glare.

Seraphina stepped forward, leaving behind a trail of blooming fire lilies in her wake. Killian's unconscious form lay cradled within a sphere of golden magic behind her, protected by an enchantment she had summoned instinctively-one drawn from the deepest part of her soul and the blood pact that now pulsed between them.

She raised her hand, and the ground responded.

With a low rumble, glowing glyphs surged from the soil like roots of molten gold, expanding in a circle that rippled outward. Trees bent away from it. Shadows hissed. The glyphs converged in a ring beneath her feet-The Gate.

"The Blood-Tied Gate is no longer sealed," she whispered, her voice not entirely her own. "The path of the forgotten flame opens."

At her words, a vortex of magic cracked the earth beneath her. From the chasm emerged a shimmering structure-part ethereal, part obsidian bone-a gate bound by ancient chains etched with silver fire. The very air grew heavy as its power awakened.

Suddenly, the chains shattered with a blinding pulse. A roar, otherworldly and primal, shook the trees, and a figure stepped through the portal.

He was tall, with skin the color of twilight and eyes that burned like suns. A crown of thorns floated above his head, rotating slowly, bleeding starlight. His presence was both holy and terrifying. He looked at Seraphina... and smiled.

"You summoned me, Bride of Flame," he said, his voice layered with echoes of countless lifetimes.

Seraphina's breath caught. "You are-?"

"I am the Guardian of the Pact," he replied. "And the harbinger of endings."

The battlefield erupted in chaos.

Lilith screamed a command, and the remaining army surged forward. The sky fractured with spells, claws, and curses. But Seraphina stood firm, and the Guardian raised his arm.

With a gesture, time bent again.

Dozens of enemies froze mid-charge, their forms encased in crystal stasis. A select few slipped through, but Seraphina met them head-on, her body moving with impossible speed and grace. She was no longer a girl discovering her power-she was flame incarnate.

Each swipe of her blade carved trails of phoenix fire. Every step ignited sigils of strength and protection. Her enemies tried to overwhelm her with numbers, but her power refused to wane.

In the midst of it all, Killian stirred.

Inside his sphere of light, he groaned, the mark on his chest glowing faintly. Visions assaulted his mind-Seraphina in flames, his mother calling his name, the voice of the ancient being who had whispered his destiny. He gasped and sat up, breaking the seal with sheer will.

"Seraphina," he whispered, his body trembling. "She's..."

He stood, and the moment his feet touched the ground, a second vortex of energy erupted. The earth split, revealing a hidden pool of obsidian beneath his feet. The water steamed and hissed, mirroring his rage and love. Something awakened within him.

Killian screamed-and his body ignited in silver flame.

Wings of spectral smoke burst from his back, and his eyes turned into twin storms. His aura merged with Seraphina's like the sun colliding with a star. Their bond flared into existence, visible to all. A pulse spread through the battlefield.

Lilith stumbled back, clutching her chest. "No... It's not possible! The Prophecy... the curse-!"

Killian's voice boomed across the land. "You cursed me... bound me in blood and darkness. But you forgot who I truly am."

Seraphina turned, eyes wide. Their gazes met, and a spark bridged the distance between them.

"Let's finish this," he said, walking toward her, his hand outstretched.

She took it.

Together, they stepped forward-and the ground beneath them exploded into a nova of red and gold.

The Guardian of the Pact raised his hands. "Let judgment begin."

The earth quivered beneath Seraphina's feet as the sky above them began to split into violet shards. Killian's body lay motionless beneath the remnants of the gate, but the blood bond tethered between them flickered-faint, but unbroken. A flicker of hope, a whisper of life still anchored within him. She refused to believe that the bond would deceive her. It couldn't.

She stepped forward, cradling her palm over her heart, chanting the incantation she had learned from the Flameborn Tome: "By blood unbroken and fate entwined, awaken the flame of the bonded line."

The runes in the stone circle flared with blinding crimson, searing through the darkness like molten veins. One by one, they lit around her, forming a perfect sigil. Behind her, the survivors of the pack - warriors bruised, some broken - formed a protective ring, shielding her as if she were the kingdom's last ember of salvation.

And maybe she was.

The enemy forces had retreated for now, driven back by the explosion of magic that erupted when Killian had struck the Blood-Tied Gate with the relic blade. But the true war was far from over. That gate wasn't merely a boundary-it was a prison. And something ancient had stirred on the other side.

A groan.

Not Killian's.

The sound was lower, metallic, reverberating through the stones of the earth. Then, a hand - skeletal, charred, and clad in armor not seen in any current realm - pushed up through the fractured seal of the gate. Another followed. A figure rose, cloaked in shadowfire, its eyes burning like twin suns consumed by rage.

Seraphina turned slowly, her breath catching.

The being towered over them, its presence older than war itself. It bore the sigil of the First Alpha-the lost progenitor said to have been sealed away for defying the Moon Queen herself.

"You opened the door," the ancient Alpha rasped, voice echoing with thunder and ice. "Now blood must be paid in full."

Seraphina raised her hand instinctively, summoning a golden whip of fire that coiled in the air like a serpent. "Then I'll give you fire, not surrender."

But the ancient Alpha wasn't alone.

One by one, more figures emerged - spectral forms, glowing with ancient power, their features obscured by centuries of torment and shadow. The Nightbound Legion - cursed warriors bound to the forgotten side of the gate, damned to remain trapped until the bloodline of the gatekeepers fractured.

Killian had fractured it.

Not destroyed it - but opened just enough.

Seraphina's magic roared to life. She let go of all fear, all restraint. Her gown melted into armor of flame and shadow, a crown of fire forming behind her head as her wings-yes, wings-erupted in a burst of gold-embered light. Massive, regal, dragonic in silhouette but glowing with angelic intensity. The prophecy was unfolding.

"Stand back," she whispered to the pack.

She raised both hands, drawing magic not from the realm, but from within her bond with Killian. His heartbeat-weak but defiant-resonated through her bloodstream.

"By pact of eclipse, by flame of union, I summon the Sealed Flame."

A column of golden fire spiraled down from the broken heavens, striking Killian's body. Time seemed to slow. His wounds glowed. Bones knit. Skin stitched. His lips parted in a shallow breath.

But the ancient Alpha saw it.

"No," he growled, "You cannot bring him back. Not before the toll is taken."

He lunged, sword drawn, but Seraphina spun in midair, summoning a barrier of crystalline light that shattered the tip of the blade into a rain of silver shards. Still, the being pushed forward, undeterred.

The battle erupted.

The Nightbound Legion clashed with the remnants of the Eclipse Pack. Swords met claws. Magic clashed with magic. Roars tore the sky.

And through it all, Seraphina danced like flame incarnate, cutting through enemies with precise, elegant fury. With each strike, she whispered his name: "Killian. Killian. Killian..."

And then-his voice.

Behind her.

Rough. Pained. But undeniably him.

"Seraphina."

She spun. He stood-blood-soaked, armor cracked, but alive. His hand lifted, enveloped in fire-black aura, and in a single motion, he caught the ancient Alpha's next strike mid-air.

The world paused.

"I'm not dead yet," Killian snarled, "and she's not alone."

Together, they unleashed the Eclipse Pact.

Killian's left eye gleamed with the mark of the Moon Goddess. Seraphina's right with the flame of the First Witch. Their joined palms erupted into a nova of energy that spread across the battlefield, knocking back even the Nightbound with a force that tore open the clouds themselves.

But even that wasn't the end.

The ancient Alpha stumbled, bleeding darkness, yet he smiled. "You've awakened me... and sealed your fate."

From behind him, the gate shattered - fully this time - and something began to crawl out. Not a being, but a force. An abyssal tide, blacker than death, screaming with every lost soul ever slain by an Alpha's wrath.

The world trembled.

Seraphina and Killian turned together, hands still clasped, eyes wide as the true enemy revealed itself.

The crimson mist swirled faster around Seraphina's ankles as she stepped deeper into the blood-soaked courtyard, the vortex of ancient energy tugging at her soul like invisible threads of fate. The ground beneath her feet trembled, not from instability, but from anticipation-as if the earth itself was awaiting her decree. A circle of runes, hidden for centuries beneath the stone, pulsed with her heartbeat, illuminating with each step she took forward. This place, once forgotten, had been waiting for her.

Killian's breath had steadied but remained shallow, a tether keeping her grounded. The spectral chain still coiled around his form shimmered faintly, its links no longer forged from simple magic but from time itself-each one carrying echoes of his ancestors' vows, curses, and bloodshed.

Behind her, the remaining rebels-those foolish enough to defy the Alpha's pact-fell to their knees as Seraphina's aura expanded, woven now with not just elemental power but with celestial dominance. Her voice, when it came, echoed in every direction-not shouted, but spoken with such profound authority that even the air dared not disobey.

"Open," she whispered to the gate.

A thunderous boom ripped through the veil of silence as the stone-carved Blood-Tied Gate creaked open-not from force, but recognition. The ground split along the runes, revealing a radiant chasm from which a stairway of crimson crystal emerged. It led downward, deeper into the forgotten womb of the earth.

Killian stirred again, a flicker of gold returning to his eyes as the first steps of that stairway shimmered with power. "You... you broke the bond," he rasped.

"No," Seraphina said, lowering herself to his side, cupping his cheek as divine warmth rippled through her fingers. "I became it."

A blast of dark lightning tore the sky open-reminding them the battle was not yet over.

From the tear descended a new horror: not a soldier, not a beast, but a being of shade and starlight. A creature born from fractured oaths and corrupted prophecy. He bore the sigil of the ancient betrayer upon his brow, and his smile was carved from centuries of malice.

"You shouldn't have opened it," he said, voice like splintered glass and velvet. "You've awakened more than the gate, Bride."

Seraphina stood, drawing Killian's sword-not with her hands, but with her will. The blade hovered beside her, gleaming with fire and frost. Her body ignited in spirals of light, her dress turning into a gown of wind-woven silk and ember-threaded lace. Wings-not angelic, but primal-emerged from her back. Feathers formed from shadow and sun, each one inscribed with forgotten glyphs.

"You're right," she said. "I awakened myself."

With a flick of her wrist, the blade shot toward the creature, clashing against the spear of dark energy he formed midair. Their clash shook the remnants of the castle walls, splintered time itself in the space between seconds.

The world slowed.

A whisper rode the wind.

"The Blood-Tied Bride commands the fate of the cursed."

---

In the chasm below...

Where the stairway led, the heart of the Blood-Tied Gate pulsed-its core a great sphere of crystallized blood surrounded by four thrones. Each throne hovered, empty, representing the primal forces once bound to the oath: Flame, Ice, Moon, and Void.

Killian, carried by unseen force, now floated into the chasm as the thrones began to whisper. Not words, but emotions-rage, sorrow, love, betrayal. His body writhed, caught between ancestral duties and his love for Seraphina.

Suddenly, the throne of Flame ignited.

A voice-female, regal, older than the forest's roots-spoke from within the fire.

"The Alpha's blood must pay... unless the Bride claims him as her equal."

Seraphina heard it from above, her breath hitching.

The creature she battled laughed. "Choose, Bride. Power... or him."

The blade wavered.

Killian groaned.

The thrones demanded.

---

Seraphina closed her eyes-and in the silence, her heartbeat answered all.

She leapt from the courtyard into the chasm, wings slicing the air like blades. Time seemed to stop as she descended-not falling, but ascending into destiny. Her gown caught flame, her aura twisted into silver and crimson threads. When she reached Killian, she reached into his chest-not physically, but magically-touching his soul.

"I don't choose one," she whispered to the thrones. "I make a new pact."

At once, the chasm exploded in light.

Each throne shattered into dust-then reformed-not in isolation, but as a circle. And in its center, where once stood only stone, rose a single throne carved from obsidian and phoenix bone. The Bride's Throne.

Seraphina stepped into it.

Killian opened his eyes fully. The mark on his chest-the Alpha's sigil-now bore the glyph of the Bride.

They were no longer separate.

They were bound.

And the skies screamed.

The creature howled, retreating-but not before hurling a final curse.

"You may have forged your own bond, but the Eclipse comes... and your pact will be tested."

As he vanished into shadow, the final piece of prophecy echoed from the void.

"The Eclipse Pact is made... but the Crimson Howl is coming."

The storm above Seraphina's head coalesced into a churning vortex of blood and ash, the sky screaming with a vengeance not of this world. Her body trembled, not from fear but from the divine rage of something older than time itself coursing through her veins. The seal etched into her back glowed like molten gold, the glyphs unraveling in radiant streams across her skin and spiraling into the air.

Killian's unconscious form remained suspended in the cage of corrupted bone, but Seraphina felt the faint rhythm of his pulse-each beat a tether to her sanity. Her eyes, now a haloed white, focused on the enemy before her: the Betrayer, once a revered High Alpha, now a disfigured god-wraith feeding on chaos.

The battlefield around them had transformed into a cathedral of ruin. Shattered stone columns twisted into jagged spires, while the remnants of ancient altars bled silver light. Screams echoed from both sides-wolves and witches alike losing themselves to carnage. But Seraphina heard only the silence between Killian's heartbeats. Her mate's life was still hers to claim. Still hers to save.

With a cry that shattered the last of her hesitation, Seraphina drove her hands into the earth. Cracks radiated outward, illuminating the ground in intricate runes of red and violet. Magic pulsed from her core like a second heartbeat. The gate-the true Blood-Tied Gate-opened not beneath the world, but within her soul.

"By the first vow, by the eternal flame, and by the tether of our bonded blood," she intoned, her voice ringing with ancient authority. "I summon the Guardians of the Forgotten Pact!"

The ground trembled violently as three towering figures rose from the blood-lit crevasse. One bore the crown of winds, wings wide and glimmering like broken moonlight. Another walked in fire, skin forged in ember and eyes that dripped magma. The third was cloaked in mourning fog, a spectral warden from beyond the veil. The Elemental Guardians had answered her call.

The Betrayer snarled. "You are not the Bride of the Gate. You are a mistake!"

"I am the Gate," she whispered, power swirling around her in ribbons of flame and lightning. "And you, old god, are unwelcome in my realm."

In a flash, she launched forward, each step leaving burning sigils in her wake. The fire guardian struck first, hurling a wave of blistering heat that turned the battlefield into molten glass. The wind guardian followed, a tempest forming around Seraphina as her body blurred with impossible speed.

The clash was cataclysmic. The Betrayer's tendrils of dark magic met Seraphina's incandescent fury, the resulting shockwave throwing entire war parties to the ground. Elara, Killian's mother, shielded the wounded behind a barrier of protective charmstones, eyes wide as she watched her son's mate unleash divinity.

Seraphina raised both hands toward the heavens. "All blood remembers," she chanted, the sky responding with a celestial hum. "All blood answers."

Lightning arced from the clouds and struck her chest. Instead of falling, she absorbed it, her veins glowing with radiant threads. Her dress tore into ceremonial armor woven from her own energy. Behind her, translucent wings of light unfolded, vast and arching like those of a battle-seraph.

The Betrayer lunged, a storm of black mist in humanoid form. He struck with jagged claws and whispered curses that unraveled the minds of lesser beings. But Seraphina stood firm. She caught his arm mid-air, and with a scream that ripped the sky, she called on the ancestral fury locked within her bloodline.

"Now you burn," she whispered, eyes glinting with white fire.

The flames surged from her skin, licking up the Betrayer's arm, devouring corruption like dry kindling. He howled, the sound a symphony of tormented souls, but Seraphina didn't relent. Not even when the world cracked beneath her feet.

From the shadows, Kael-the Guardian of Ice, long banished from the realm-appeared. He was the last key. The prophecy's hidden edge.

He stepped forward, his voice cold and certain. "Do it now, Seraphina. The Seal of Binding is nearly broken. Open the heart of the Gate."

The Guardians formed a triangle around her, channeling pure elemental force. Seraphina stood at the center, her hair dancing like a crown of flame, the air around her fracturing with crystalline sound.

"I invoke the Pact of Eclipse," she whispered, and a second sun exploded behind her-an illusion born from the convergence of celestial magic and forgotten bloodlines.

The Betrayer faltered.

Now.

Seraphina moved like light. She surged through the battlefield, past crumbling towers and collapsed shrines, until she stood directly before Killian's cage. Her palm pressed against the corrupted bone, and the magic recoiled as if burned.

"You don't die on me," she whispered, pressing her forehead to the cage. "You're still mine, Killian Duskbane."

A single tear fell.

It struck the bone with the sound of a bell tolling across dimensions.

In an instant, the cage shattered.

Killian fell forward into her arms.

His eyes fluttered open.

"Seraphina?"

But he wasn't alone inside his body.

A darker presence coiled behind his eyes-a forgotten soul bound to his bloodline now rising because the Gate had opened. The final guardian, the most dangerous spirit of all, was waking inside him.

Seraphina held him tight, even as his body convulsed.

"What did you do, love?" he gasped.

And then his body went still. But his eyes... his eyes turned crimson.

Not Killian.

Not fully.

And from the horizon, a chorus of roars rose-the last army of the Betrayer had arrived. Beasts forged in blood and shadow. The final wave.

Seraphina rose slowly, her expression unreadable.

Behind her, the Blood-Tied Gate shimmered open.