My hand, our hand, speared through Malachi's chest with terrible, final force.
But it was Kaelen's fire that cauterized the massive wound even as we made it, dragon flame so pure and hot it consumed the cultist from within, burning away corruption and flesh and bone and soul. Malachi had a single moment to look genuinely surprised, to understand that he'd lost, before he simply ceased to exist, reduced to ash that didn't even have time to fall before it was unmade entirely, scattered across dimensions.
Around us throughout the damaged Sanctorum, the remaining cultists fled in complete disarray, screaming incoherently about impossibilities and broken prophecies and the end of everything they'd believed.
We stood there in the immediate aftermath, surrounded by blood and ash and bodies, and I realized with a jolt that Kaelen was still partially manifest, still somehow present in our world. Still here, with me. His hand covered mine where it remained extended, both of us staring at the spot where Malachi had been standing mere seconds ago.
"You pulled me through," he said, and there was genuine wonder in his ancient voice, like a child discovering magic for the first time.
"I needed you." The words were simple, honest, undeniable.
He turned to face me fully, and even translucent, even only partially present, he was utterly devastating. That face I'd seen countless times in dreams made real at last, those golden eyes burning with something that transcended simple desire or possession, something deeper and more dangerous.
"Aria—"
I kissed him without thought or hesitation.
I didn't think, didn't plan, didn't consider the consequences or count the cost. I just acted, driven by instinct older and more fundamental than thought itself. My mouth found his, and despite everything, despite him being partially manifested through dimensional barriers that should be impossible to cross, despite the complete impossibility of any of this, he was solid enough to kiss me back, real enough to matter.
His hand tangled roughly in my hair, pulling me closer with barely restrained hunger, and I felt it, not just the physical kiss but everything beneath and beyond. Five years of connection crystallizing into a single, perfect moment of contact. Every drop of blood I'd fed the ravenous Gate, every dream we'd shared in the darkness, every moment of denial and desire and desperate longing compressing into this singular instant.
Dragon fire raced through my veins, but it didn't burn, didn't destroy. It sang, a harmony I'd never known I was missing, resonating with something in my blood that had been waiting dormant for this exact moment since the very first day I touched the Gate as a frightened child.
Through our connection, deeper and clearer than ever before, I felt the exact moment the Dragon's Ember seal didn't just crack or fracture.
It shattered completely, catastrophically, irreversibly.
The sound was beyond anything physical. It was the sound of reality itself restructuring, of ancient laws being rewritten, of impossible becoming inevitable. Pure power flooded the Sanctorum in visible waves, not the controlled pulse I'd felt before but a torrent, a tsunami, an ending and beginning combined and compressed into a single devastating release.
The backlash hit like the closed fist of an angry god.
Everyone still conscious in the Sanctorum, guards struggling to their feet, wounded cultists trying to flee, injured Keepersattempting to restore order, collapsed instantly, consciousness ripped away by the sheer overwhelming force of divine power unleashed after millennia of containment. Everyone except me.
I stood in the very center of the devastation, Kaelen's partial form flickering but still miraculously present, still holding me against him. And from the wounded Gate, golden fire poured like arterial blood from a mortal wound, flowing in rivers across the ancient floor.
"The seal," I whispered, hardly able to believe what I'd done.
"Gone," Kaelen confirmed, his form growing incrementally more solid by the second, more real, more present. "Completely destroyed. I can feel it, the chains are weaker now. Still there, still binding, but..." He looked at his hands in genuine wonder, flexing fingers that were becoming more substantial. "I'm partially free. After all this time."
The Gate screamed, an inhuman sound of agony and protest, its light cycling rapidly through colors that shouldn't exist in nature, hues that hurt to perceive. The crack that had been growing for weeks split drastically wider, and through it, I could see directly into the Threshold itself. See Flynn pacing like a caged predator, Thane standing with his massive fists clenched, Elias burning with phoenix fire.
See all of them looking back at us with expressions of shock, hope, and hunger that made my breath catch.
"What have I done?" The words came out small, overwhelmed, terrified.
Kaelen's hand found my face with surprising gentleness, turning me to look at him instead of the wounded, bleeding Gate. "You've chosen. Finally, fully chosen. No more hesitation, no more duty over desire."
"The Council will?—"
"The Council is about to have far bigger problems than your questionable loyalty," he interrupted.
He was absolutely right. I could already hear desperate shouting from the upper levels, could feel the Citadel itself groaning and shifting as magical foundations that had stood for centuries began to fail. The Dragon's Ember seal had been one of four fundamental pillars holding the entire structure together, binding power and reality in careful balance. Without it, everything was unstable, teetering on the edge of collapse.
"We need to—" I started, but Kaelen pressed his forehead to mine, the gesture almost tender.
"We need to prepare ourselves," he said quietly. "The other seals will fall now, now that one is gone. It's inevitable. Days, maybe less." His thumb traced my cheekbone with careful reverence, leaving trails of pleasant heat. "And when they do, when we're finally free, the world will burn if we're not ready for what comes next."
"Then help me get ready," I said, meeting his burning golden gaze. "Teach me. Show me how to survive what's coming."
