Yasar coughs, gasping, but he's still smiling. Of course he is. Even half-dead in the mud, he's won this round and he knows it.
"That's what I thought." He sits up slowly. "I'm insurance, cousin dearest. The only way to break it?" He spits blood. "Requires both of us. Shadow and shadow-fire. Together."
"I'll find another way."
"Good luck." Yasar climbs to his feet, swaying. "I've been searching since it was forged. There isn't one. Not without her consent. Not without both of us. Not without—" He pauses. "Pain that would make her beg for death."
We're both standing now, breathing hard. Two monsters in the storm, both pretending we're not.
"She kissed you first," I say, the words tasting like poison.
"She did." Yasar doesn't apologize. Doesn't soften it. "And yes—I kissed her back. Because magic was singing through both of us, and she's—" He stops. "She's magnificent, Kaan. Even you have to admit that."
"Careful, cousin." My voice drops to something cold, fetal. "You're describing my wife like you have any right to notice."
"Am I?" His smile turns sharp. "Because from where I stand, my life is tied to hers. Which means I'm the safest man in this realm. You can't kill me without killing her. Can't hurt me without hurting her. Can't do anything except—" He limps closer. "Live with the knowledge that part of her will always be bound to me. That binding gave her what you never could."
"And what's that?"
"A choice." Yasar's voice is firm. Final. "Even if it's just the illusion of one. She knows there's a door. An escape route. Someone else who could?—"
"Could what?" I take a step closer. "Steal her? Save her? Have her?"
"Give her options." He doesn't back down. "Something you've never done. Forced marriage. Forced bond. Forced to watch her child die because you chose her. At least the binding gave her back one thing—the knowledge she's not completely trapped with just you."
The truth lands like a blade.
"Forced bond. Forced to watch her child die because you chose her. At least the binding gave her back one thing—the knowledge she's not completely trapped with just you."
The truth lands like a blade.
"Fascinating logic," I say, and I'm almost impressed by how steady my voice sounds. "You bound yourself to my wife without her consent to give her... what was it? Options?"
"I get to feel her revulsion every time the binding forces attraction." His smile turns bitter. "I get to know she'd rather die than want me. I get to be the monster in her nightmare who can't even apologize because the magic won't let go." He spits blood. "Trust me. This isn't the victory you think it is for either of us."
"And what do you feel?" The question comes out sharper than I intend. "Through the binding. What does it giveyou?"
Something flickers across his face—there and gone. "Everything she doesn't want me to have. Her fear. Her grief. Her loneliness." His voice drops. "The way she aches for you even when she's furious. The way she touches her stomach sometimes and just... breaks." He meets my eyes. "I feel all of it. Every moment. And I can't do a single thing to help her."
The words hang in the air between us. Something in his voice—that raw edge of genuine suffering—almost reaches me.Almost. For a moment, I see it: the perfect trap of the binding, how it tortures them both. How neither of them chose this. My shadows still, just for a heartbeat.
Then I remember her face when she looks at him. The way the binding forces her toward someone who isn't me. The way she might have felt his lips on hers while I was bleeding on a battlefield, fighting for a realm that keeps finding new ways to betray me.
"Yasar."
He stops. Doesn't turn.
"You're right. You are another monster." My shadows writhe with dark promise. "But here's the difference between us. You think giving her options makes you noble. I know I'm a monster, and I don't fucking care." My voice drops to something cold, cruel. "She's mine. Binding or no binding. Your life is tied to hers or not. She's mine. And if I have to work with you to break Erlik's magic? Fine. We'll break it together. But the moment she's free?"
I let the threat hang.
Yasar turns slowly. His smile is sharp, knowing. "The moment she's free, what? You'll kill me?" He laughs. "By all means, try. I'll be waiting."
He limps away across muddy ground, leaving bloody footprints.
The crowd parts in silence.
I stand there, rain washing blood, watching him go. Fury and frustration warring in my chest.
