"Get your shit together," I muttered under my breath.
Taeyang glanced back but said nothing. He’d gone quiet since Yuna’s goodbye. I saw the way he reached for his chest when she wasn’t looking. He wasn’t fooling anyone—not me. We were all cursed by this fate. Denial didn’t unwrite the bond.
Seori pressed her palm to the arch of ancient stone before us, the gateway to the Demon Realm opening like a mouth ready to swallow us whole. Her face was grim, set with fury and something deeper—grief. But not for herself.
For Rheon.
He was the only one who’d found his mate and cherished her from the start. And now she was about to risk everything to break his curse.
The bond makes you foolish. It makes you brave.
It makes you burn.
I flexed my fingers, still remembering the way Minji’s voice trembled when she said I destroyed things. She wasn’t wrong. I did. I do.
But as we stepped into the shadows of the Demon Realm, I swore to myself—
If I destroy anything again, it won’t be her.
Taeyang led the way through the obsidian gate, his jaw tight, shoulders tense like he was already preparing for war. Seori followed close behind, her pulse thrumming like a war drum I couldfeelthrough the bond she carried with Rheon. Even half the world away, that connection blazed like a star.
I lingered behind them both, just long enough to glance over my shoulder.
Minji. Her name ghosted through my mind.
She wasn’t mine.
Not yet.
But the mark on my chest said otherwise. And I was starting to wonder if fate didn’t give a damn about what we wanted.
Seori
The Demon Gate
The veil tore open with a hiss.
One moment, we were standing at the edge of the mortal realm, the air still heavy with ash and heartbreak. The next, the world split at the seams, and a dark wind screamed through the opening like a beast set free.
I didn’t flinch.
Taeyang stepped through first, his silhouette swallowed by shadow. Jisoo held the tear open, his fingers glowing faintly with corrupted angelic runes, eyes flicking toward me once. A silent nod. Then I followed.
And the world changed. My boots hit scorched stone. Heat pulsed up from the blackened earth like a living thing, tasting my skin, testing me. The sky overhead wasbruised red, streaked with veins of lightning that danced like serpents. It smelled of iron and ash and something older—the scent of rage that had never been soothed.
The Demon Realm.
It was beautiful in the most terrifying way. Mountains hung in midair, suspended by dark magic. Rivers of fire carved through canyons shaped like gaping jaws. Cities twisted upward like spires of bone and obsidian, lit by orbs that pulsed with soul-light. Everything bled menace. Everything breathed hunger.
But the strange thing… was that I felt nothing.
No nausea. No choking. No fear clawing up my throat like the books described. The miasma of the Demon Realm was supposed to overwhelm mortals, crack their minds like glass under a hammer. And yet… I stood still. Breathing. Steady.
I felt the weight of it, sure. Like a great silence pressing against my bones. But it didn’t hurt me. It almost… welcomed me. From ahead, Taeyang slowed. His dark eyes scanned me once, sharply. Then again.
I caught it.
The flicker of confusion.
