"She chose," he rumbled, the words heavy with significance. "Not prophecy. Not manipulation. She chose of her own free will."
"The patterns are accelerating." Elias drifted between us, his phoenix nature making him seem less solid but more present, as if he existed in multiple moments simultaneously. "I see the threads converging. Days, not weeks. Perhaps hours before the next seal breaks."
Through our connection, I felt Aria stumble, exhaustion hitting her as the adrenaline faded. She'd channeled more power than any mortal should be able to survive, pulled me partially through dimensional barriers that had stood for a thousand years. Her body was trying to process the impossible, and it was taking its toll.
"She's going to collapse," Thane said, concern threading through his voice.
"No." I could feel her pushing through it, that iron will that had let her maintain the Gate for five years despite knowing something was wrong. "She's going to face them."
And she was. Through her eyes, I saw Natalia approaching, grey robes billowing behind her like storm clouds. The High Keeper's face was carved from winter stone, but I caught the flicker of something else in those cold eyes.
Not surprise. She'd anticipated this possibility. But calculation, already adapting, already planning how to use this development.
"You kissed the monster," Natalia said with deadly calm.
The words were spat at her, but Aria didn't flinch. Through our connection, I felt her spine straighten, her chin lift. My fierce, impossible Keeper who wasn't a Keeper anymore.
"I kissed the dragon prince," Aria corrected, and the distinction mattered. "Not a monster. A prisoner I've been torturing with my blood for five years."
The slap came fast, Natalia's hand cracking across Aria's face with enough force to split her lip. Through our bond, I felt the sharp bloom of pain, tasted copper on my own tongue.
Rage flooded through me, dragon fire roaring to be unleashed. The chains burned as I pulled against them, the remaining seals groaning under the strain. If I could have manifested in that moment, Natalia would have been ash before her next breath.
"You've betrayed everything," Natalia said, voice still terrifyingly controlled. "Your mother would be?—"
"My mother was murdered." Aria's words cut through the air like blades. "Poisoned with moonbell extract to make it look like magical exhaustion. Because she started asking the same questions I did."
Natalia went very still. Through Aria's eyes, I saw the minute shift in the High Keeper's expression. Not denial. Confirmation.
"You knew," Aria breathed. "You killed her."
"I preserved the Order," Natalia replied without a trace of remorse. "As I will continue to do, despite your corruption."
Guards surrounded them now, weapons drawn but uncertain. They'd seen what Aria had done to Malachi, watched her channel divine fire with an ease that should have been impossible. They feared her now, and fear made people dangerous in unpredictable ways.
But before anyone could act, before violence could erupt, another voice cut through the tension.
"Stand down."
Master Theron stepped from the shadows, and Aria's shock hit me like lightning. He was supposed to be dead. She'd mourned him, used his death as catalyst for her search for truth.
"Hello, Aria," the old scholar said, and his voice carried infinite weariness. "I apologize for the deception, but it was necessary. The Council needed to believe I was eliminated."
"The Council?" Aria's voice cracked. "You mean?—"
"There is more than one council, child. More than one group with interest in the Gate's fate." He moved closer, and the guards parted for him with obvious reluctance. "The Order of Truth has existed as long as the Keepers themselves, preserving real history, waiting for the moment someone would be strong enough to hear it."
Through Aria's eyes, I saw him pull out a familiar tome, the Chronicle of Betrayals, the one that should have crumbled to dust.
"A copy," he explained. "The real one did dissolve, as intended. But we've preserved its contents for centuries, waiting." His gaze moved between Aria and the broken Gate. "The dragon prince manifested. The seal shattered. You've begun the unmaking."
"She's begun nothing but her own destruction," Natalia snarled, but Theron raised a hand.
"She's begun what was always inevitable. What Pandora herself prophesied." He opened the book to a marked page. "The daughter who chooses chains of love over chains of duty. Who bears their marks willingly. Who opens what was meant to be opened."
"Enough." Natalia's control finally cracked, raw fury bleeding through. "Guards, take the corrupted Keeper to?—"
The Gate screamed and as one they all turned and ran back to it. To us.
