"Sometimes the only way to prove your love… is to save your rival."
---
Seris lay still.
Her chest rose—barely.
Her breath—shallow.
Her spirit magic—drained down to threads.
Lucien clutched her tightly, blood smeared across his arms from the violent backlash of the soul-binding ritual.
He whispered over and over again:
"Stay. Please… just stay."
But Seris wasn't answering.
---
Kaela paced the chamber like a wolf in a cage.
"She's not responding," she hissed. "And we don't know what that ritual took from her. We don't know what it gave you."
Lucien didn't look up.
"I don't care what it gave me. She gave herself."
Kaela turned, rage brimming. "She nearly died, Lucien. And the person who caused all of this—"
She looked at Velra, standing in the doorway, silent.
"—is right there."
---
Velra said nothing.
Her dress was burned.
Her hands trembled.
Her eyes were red from crying—but not weak.
She stepped forward slowly.
"I can save her."
Kaela moved in front of her like a blade unsheathed.
"You think we'll let you touch her again?"
Velra didn't flinch.
"I don't want to fight."
"Funny," Kaela snapped. "You've been doing it with your body and your lies since the day you walked in."
Lucien's voice, quiet but sharp, cut between them.
"Let her speak."
---
Velra took another step. Her voice cracked.
"I know the shard twisted me. I let it. I was desperate. I wanted to keep him—to protect what I felt."
She looked at Seris. Broken and still.
"And she did the one thing I didn't."
Kaela growled, "Don't make this a redemption speech."
"It's not," Velra whispered. "It's an offering."
---
She held out her hand. In it—the last pulse of the Pale King's shard, now dim and nearly dead.
"I can use the remnant. Transfer the energy. Anchor Seris's soul to mine."
Kaela's eyes widened.
Lucien finally looked up.
"You'd bind her to you?"
Velra nodded. "Yes. If I die, she dies. If she lives, I lose every drop of power I have left."
Kaela stared at her like she was insane.
"Why would you do that?"
Velra's voice trembled.
"Because for the first time… I love someone more than I want to be chosen."
---
Silence.
Lucien closed his eyes.
Then whispered, "Do it."
Kaela spun on him. "Lucien—!"
"Do it," he repeated. "She's dying."
---
Velra stepped forward.
Dropped to her knees.
Placed her hand over Seris's heart.
And whispered an incantation no mortal should've known.
Dark light spun into her.
Her body jerked.
Blood burst from her nose.
The obsidian fragment dissolved into her spine.
Seris gasped.
Then—
Breathed.
---
She woke.
Barely.
Eyes fluttering open.
And the first word on her lips was:
"Lucien…"
He kissed her forehead, tears falling freely now.
"I'm here."
Kaela looked away, swallowing hard.
And Velra?
Collapsed.
---
Elsewhere – The Queen watched from her tower.
She turned to her High Oracle.
"She gave up the darkness?"
The Oracle nodded.
The Queen smirked.
"Good. Now let's see what happens… when the Pale King realizes his last piece just betrayed him."
---
"Sometimes the sharpest pain isn't a blade—it's watching him love someone else."
---
Velra was unconscious.
No longer corrupted.
No longer cursed.
Just a girl—a broken girl—who gave up her power to save the woman she envied most.
And she hadn't woken since.
Lucien stood beside her bed, brushing a strand of hair from her forehead. Her skin was cold but alive, her pulse faint.
He whispered softly, "…Thank you."
Behind him, the door creaked open.
And Kaela stepped inside.
---
She didn't speak.
Didn't charge in with fire.
Didn't scream like she usually would.
Just walked up, slow and tense, eyes unreadable.
Lucien didn't turn around. "I knew you'd come."
Kaela folded her arms, leaning on the door.
"Don't flatter yourself."
A pause.
"She saved Seris," he said.
Kaela nodded once. "I saw."
"She didn't have to."
"No. She didn't."
Lucien turned now.
And what he saw in Kaela's eyes was worse than anger.
It was distance.
---
"You should say it," he said quietly.
Kaela tilted her head. "Say what?"
"What you've been holding in."
A pause. Her jaw tightened.
And then—
"You make it really hard to love you."
---
Lucien flinched. Barely. But she saw it.
"You think I don't see what you're doing?" Kaela asked, voice low. "Seris gives you her soul, Velra gives up her magic, and I… I just stand here, always at your side. Always in the shadows."
"You've never been in the shadows."
Kaela laughed once. Cold.
"Then why do I feel like I'm watching you belong to everyone but me?"
Lucien stepped forward. "Kaela—"
She raised a hand.
"I'm not mad that you kissed her. Or her. Hell, you kissed death and didn't blink."
A pause.
"I'm mad that you never kiss me like you mean it."
---
Lucien was silent.
But Kaela wasn't finished.
"I'd die for you. Fight for you. Burn every kingdom that raises a sword against you."
Her voice cracked.
"But I can't keep being the one you turn to after the world breaks you. I want to be the reason it doesn't."
Lucien stared at her.
Eyes soft. Silver. Shimmering.
"…Then don't leave me."
Kaela's heart stuttered.
Lucien reached out.
And this time—
He kissed her.
---
Not a kiss of chaos.
Not a kiss of apology.
A kiss like she was his first thought, not his fallback.
Kaela melted against him.
And when they parted, her voice was barely a whisper.
"…Took you long enough."
---
Elsewhere – A storm beyond the borders
A shadow stepped into a ruined chapel, bone armor glinting, twin blades at his back.
His eyes?
Silver. Like Lucien's.
But colder.
Emptier.
The Pale King stood in the snow beside him.
"My last card."
The man nodded.
"Lucien still breathes?"
"Yes," the King said. "But not for long."
---
The assassin drew his blades.
"I'll kill him."
"No," the Pale King said, smiling.
"You'll remind him."
---
"You can outrun your fate. But not your blood."
---
Velra dreamed of blood and bells.
The sound of chains.
The taste of obsidian.
And a crown of ice—melting in her hands.
She stood in a white field.
Alone.
Until a figure emerged from the snow.
Tall. Dressed in bone-black armor.
His voice carried through her dream like a song of knives:
"You'll betray him again, you know."
Velra turned to run.
But the figure was already behind her, whispering:
"Just like I did."
---
She gasped awake.
Gasped like she was drowning.
The ceiling above her blurred and solidified.
She saw light.
And a shadow beside her bed.
Lucien.
He was asleep in the chair, arms crossed, head tilted back.
Velra stared at him, heart racing.
And the first words she managed were:
"…I'm still here?"
Lucien stirred. His eyes opened instantly.
When they met hers—
He smiled.
"You're alive."
She blinked. "Why are you here?"
He laughed softly. "Because you saved someone I love."
Velra's lips parted.
"…So you stayed for her?"
Lucien leaned forward.
"No."
He touched her cheek gently.
"I stayed for you."
---
Meanwhile – Palace Ramparts
Kaela stood above the snowfields, her coat flaring in the wind.
She didn't speak.
But she felt it.
Something approaching.
Something wrong.
---
Seris arrived behind her, now walking slowly but alive. Her color had returned, her steps more stable.
"Feeling better?" Kaela asked, not turning.
"I'm breathing."
Kaela smirked. "That's more than some of us get."
Seris leaned on her staff beside her.
"What is it?"
Kaela pointed toward the far horizon.
"You see that?"
Seris narrowed her eyes.
And saw the rider.
One rider.
Alone.
Cloaked in shadows and bone, with two curved blades glowing across his back.
And as he got closer—
They saw it.
His face.
His eyes.
Lucien's eyes.
---
Inside – Lucien froze.
His hands trembled against Velra's fingers.
She looked at him. "What's wrong?"
He stood up.
Silent.
Tense.
"I know that feeling," he whispered.
He walked to the window—
And saw him.
---
Flashback – Years Ago
A memory pierced Lucien's mind.
A boy.
A training field.
Two swords.
Two brothers.
"You'll never beat me, Luc," the older said.
Lucien had smiled.
"Then I'll bleed trying."
---
Back in the present—
Lucien whispered:
"…Caelum."
Velra sat up, eyes wide. "Your brother?"
Lucien nodded.
"He died in the wars."
Kaela burst into the room.
"Then he got better."
---
Outside – The man dismounted.
Kaela and Seris descended the steps, weapons drawn.
The man removed his hood.
Smiling.
"Ladies."
Kaela stepped forward. "You know who we are?"
He smirked. "Of course."
"I came to see my baby brother."
Seris's magic flared. "Lucien doesn't have a brother."
"Then you should ask him why I died screaming his name."
---
Lucien stepped onto the snow.
Eyes locked with the man across the field.
And the man whispered—
"Hello, little brother."
---