Chapter 6 6 - The Pact Beneath the Blood

Lila stood in front of the mirror in her room, her fingers tracing the faint outline of the mark just beneath her collarbone. It shimmered faintly under the dim light, pulsing like something alive. She hated it. She hated what it meant. Vessel. Key. Target. Monster?

What did it make her now?

Adrian hadn't said another word after his confession last night. He had retreated into himself-brooding, silent, burdened. But Lila hadn't. She'd spent the night trying to understand.

How could she be at the center of something so ancient and dark?

And worse-why did a part of her feel it? Like it wasn't new. Like some part of her had always known.

There was a knock at her door.

She turned. "What?"

"It's time," Adrian's voice came from the other side.

"For what?" she asked, dryly.

"To begin."

---

The woods behind the manor were darker than usual. Not just from the thickness of the trees, but from the heaviness in the air. Magic. Lila could feel it-curling like smoke around her skin. Thick. Lingering.

Adrian walked ahead, dressed all in black. He wore no coat despite the cold. His shirt clung to him, the muscles of his back taut beneath the thin fabric. Lila hated that she noticed. Hated that even now, as she questioned everything, some primal part of her ached when he was near.

He stopped at the base of a stone altar, half-buried in moss and surrounded by ancient runes.

"This is where it began," he said. "And where we'll either seal the pact... or break everything."

She folded her arms. "You're not exactly reassuring."

He looked at her, his expression unreadable. "The Circle will come for you again. You're not ready. Not without this."

"This what?"

Adrian stepped forward and reached into the folds of his coat. He pulled out a small dagger. Its blade was obsidian black, curved like a fang, and it shimmered with that same pulsing red glow that haunted her dreams.

Lila backed up. "Oh, no. No way. You are not stabbing me with that thing."

"It's not for stabbing. It's for bonding."

"Oh. Great. Blood magic. Because this couldn't get any weirder."

Adrian ignored her sarcasm. He stepped closer, holding the blade between them.

"This is a Shadowbound Blade. It links power. Memory. Life."

Her breath caught. "So... what, you're trying to tie me to you?"

He didn't smile. "Not to me. To the Guardian you saw in your dream. His name was Kael. The last of his kind. And the only one with enough power to stop what's coming."

"You want me to bond with some dead man?"

"He's not dead," Adrian said quietly. "He's chained. Sealed. But not gone."

She stared at him. "And what happens if I do this?"

"You'll gain access to his memories. His strength. His pain."

Lila swallowed. "And if I don't?"

"Then Lucan and the Circle will take you. Rip you open. Use your blood to summon what even Kael couldn't defeat."

There was silence between them.

She looked at the dagger. At the strange hunger in Adrian's eyes-something more than protection. Something like guilt.

"You knew this day would come, didn't you?" she asked.

"Yes."

"And you didn't warn me."

"I couldn't," he said. "The more you remembered on your own, the stronger the bond. You had to feel it. Choose it."

Lila stared at him for a long moment.

Then, slowly, she reached out-and took the blade.

---

The pain was immediate.

The moment the obsidian tip touched her palm, the mark on her collarbone flared to life, searing through her like a brand. She dropped the dagger with a gasp, falling to her knees as the world around her shifted.

Darkness.

Chains.

Fire.

And then-a voice.

"Finally..."

Her breath hitched.

She was no longer in the woods. She was in a chamber-stone walls, ash swirling in the air like snow. A man knelt in the center, his body bound by blackened chains that glowed with embers. His face was obscured by shadows, but the power radiating from him was unmistakable.

Kael.

"You are the seventh," he said, voice deep and ancient. "And the last."

Lila stood shakily. "This isn't real."

"It is," he said. "It always has been."

He lifted his head, and though his face was hidden, she felt his gaze-hot and heavy and terrifyingly familiar.

"You carry the blood of fire," he said. "And the choice is now yours."

She looked at her hand. The wound was gone, but her palm still burned with energy. "What choice?"

"To awaken me-or to let me sleep."

"If I wake you..." she whispered, "what happens?"

Kael's voice was like thunder in her ears. "Then the world burns. But perhaps... it burns for the better."

And suddenly, Lila realized-he wasn't a savior.

He was a weapon.

And she was the key to unleashing him.

---

She jolted awake on the forest floor. Adrian was kneeling beside her, pale and frantic.

"You were out for nearly twenty minutes," he said. "What did you see?"

"Chains," she rasped. "Fire. Him."

Adrian's jaw clenched. "Did he speak?"

"Yes."

Adrian looked away. "Then the Circle will move fast. They'll feel the bond awakening."

Lila sat up. Her head throbbed with a thousand thoughts.

"I don't trust him," she said. "Kael. There's something wrong."

"There is," Adrian said. "Because he was never meant to be free."

Lila stared at the dagger, now lying cold in the dirt.

And for the first time, she realized-she wasn't just part of the story.

She was the one who could end it.

Or start something far, far worse.

---