Jisoo.
Watching me. Like he always did.
And for the first time… I let him.
--------???--------
The gate was alive.
That was my first thought as the obsidian arch pulsed with dark red veins of magic, reacting to Rheon’s outstretched hand like it had been waiting for him.
And maybe it had.
The moment we stepped through, the world changed.
It wasn’t just the sky — bruised red and churning like a wound that would never close — or the jagged spires of blackened stone rising like bones from the earth. It was the air. Theweightof it.
The miasma hit like a wave.
Thick. Suffocating. Cold and hot all at once.
Yuna gasped beside me, staggering back and clutching her chest. I reached for her, but my knees buckled before I could get a word out. It was like breathing fire and drowning at the same time.
My vision swam. My mark burned. The magic here hated us — rejected us.
We weren’t supposed to be here. My legs gave out. I hit the ground hard, gasping as my vision dimmed.
So this is how I die… in a place I never belonged.
Then — warmth. It wasn’t Yuna’s hand, or even light.
It was power.
Dark, ancient, furious — and completely focused.
Rheon.
A burst of shadow wrapped around us in a perfect sphere, sealing the miasma out like an angry god had drawn a line between us and the rest of this cursed world. The pressure lifted. I could breathe again.
I blinked through the haze and looked up.
He was kneeling, one hand outstretched, his fingers curled with effort as the shield pulsed with threads of black and violet flame. He wasn’t even looking at us. His entire being was locked onto the horizon.
“She’s close,” he said, voice hoarse.
Yuna coughed, cradling her chest.
“How… how are you not—?”
“She’s my mate,” he said simply. “This world was once mine. But now… it answers to her blood.”
I turned my gaze to him. Sweat glistened on his brow. His jaw clenched as the flames of his magic burned brighter, pushing the poisonous air further back.
And still, he held the barrier.
For us.
For her.
