People begin to talk quietly, impatient.
I lace our fingers. “I’m not leaving, Serenya. I may not have chosen this in the beginning, but I swear to you, thisiswhat I want.”
Serenya’s fingers tighten gently around mine. I squeeze back, steadying myself with her strength, then close my eyes.
I call out to the goddess.
The world stops. Serenya’s breath stills beside me.
Blinding, gold-white light pours from the heavens, coalescing into a figure before me.
Phynnera.
Her presence steals the air from my lungs, and my knees nearly buckle.
“My child,” she says, her voice both thunder and whisper, “you have carried my spark since the day you wereborn. I gave you my blessing once, and it has shaped you and guided you, even as you forgot. Now, you stand where you’re supposed to be. You shall have the immortality of the fae back as my gift to you. And with it, your truth.”
Before I can ask, the world tilts.
Memories flood me. Mine…yet not. A blade flashing in moonlight. Serenya’s cry as I fell. A vow whispered in the dark. Her lips on mine. Her tears on my skin. The field of flowers, the cave. All the dreams I thought were only dreams. They were real.
Kallan.
I am…No…IwasKallan.
My knees crash against the marble as I gasp for air. A thousand lives colliding into one, two selves forced together until I can no longer tell where one ends and the other begins.
Phynnera lays her hand upon my brow. Her touch sears, yet steadies. “No more divided selves. You are both Koen and Kallan. You are mine…and hers.”
Then the goddess is gone.
The silence breaks.
Time surges back, and I try to stand. But agony detonates inside me. Fire tears through every nerve, searing, ripping, unmaking me. I choke and collapse forward, clutching my chest, Serenya’s hand slipping from mine.
Her scream pierces the air, echoing mine. She crumples to the floor in pain. Our magic rips free, wild and violent. My gold and her shadow twist together until they slam into one another. The palace shudders with the force.
Gasps ripple through the hall. Whispers hiss from everyside.“This has never happened before. How do we stop it?”
But I can’t focus on anything beyond the storm between us.
Lines of fire etch into my skin. Where once glowing fractures of raw magic had spread, now black and gold spirals race up my arms, binding, burning, and searing me to her.
Across the chamber, Serenya sobs as the same marks blaze along her arms, as if the goddess herself carved us from the same soul.
The bond snaps into place. A tether, deep and unshakable, stretches from my soul and anchors in hers. Her fear, her pain, her fierce, unrelenting love flood into me as if they are my own.
One of my eyes sears cold. My vision fractures, then clears.
Serenya lifts her head. Her wide eyes lock on mine, her lips parting in horror and in wonder. She feels me, and I feel her.
------------? ? ? ? ?------------
Serenya
I stand beside Koen, his hand warm in mine. I give it the smallest squeeze, and he returns it. It’s steady and grounding, everything I didn’t know I needed. His eyes close.
He abruptly rips his hand from mine. His body bows, and he stumbles a few steps before crashing to the floor with a scream that splits me in two.
