The Sanctum doors slammed shut with a thunder that shook dust from the rafters.
Ariaxa lunged forward just as they sealed, her palm hitting cold stone hard enough to sting.
“Kaedan!” she shouted.
Silence.
Thick. Heavy. Smothering.
She slammed her fist into the door again.
Once.
Twice.
A third time.
“Kaedan, open this door!”
Nothing.
Not even the hum of his magic.
Not even the pulse of the bond.
It was like he was trying to silence himself across it.
Her blood boiled.
“Kaedan!” she screamed, pounding until the stone turned red from her knuckles. “This is not how you protect me!”
Inside, she heard a muffled thud — something hurled across the room. A guttural breath. A choked, broken voice:
“Go away.”
Ariaxa froze.
He’d never spoken to her like that.
“Kaedan,” she whispered, pressing her forehead to the wood, “don’t do this.”
“Leave.”
She felt the words inside her bones.
Not anger.
Fear.
Bone-deep, soul-deep, terror of losing her.
The bond pulsed — weak, muffled by whatever spell he’d cast on the door.
Ariaxa backed away, shaking, breath thin with fury and heartbreak.
“Fine,” she spat. “If you want to hide, then hide. But don’t think for a second I’m going to let some curse decide our fate.”
She turned on her heel and marched down the hall, the bond tugging weakly after her like a wounded animal.
***
Ariaxa stormed into the Moon-Shadow Archive, the oldest part of the imperial library.
Torches flickered nervously as she passed.
Scrolls piled high.
Ancient books bound in cracked leather.
Shelves older than the palace itself.
She tore through records, flipping pages so hard they nearly ripped.
“Sunborn curses… ancestral vengeance… binding rituals…”
She hissed, tossing another useless scroll aside.
“Nothing about breaking a curse tied to love.”
But she refused to stop.
Paper scattered around her feet, manuscripts thrown open on the tables.
Then—
A book half-buried under a fallen tapestry caught her eye.
Gold-thread binding.
The Sunborn crest embossed on the front.
Ariaxa’s heart pounded.
She snatched it up and flipped through—
“Myth of the Eclipse Bond…
Sunborn Ascension…
Breaking Blood-Curses…”
Her breath lodged in her throat.
There — in elegant, ancient script:
Only Sun-blooded heirs can unmake Sun-blooded curses.
Light must answer for Light.
Blood must answer for Blood.
A bond forged in eclipse may shatter fate.
Ariaxa’s entire body went still.
Her pulse roared in her ears.
She whispered to the empty room:
“It has to be me.”
Not Kaedan.
Not the Prophets.
Not the mages.
Her.
The curse could only be broken by one thing:
A Sunborn heir powerful enough to rewrite the fate written in blood.
Ariaxa closed the book, trembling with determination.
“Kaedan,” she whispered, “you don’t get to push me away.”
Ariaxa stood before the Sanctum again.
Her hand pressed against the door.
The bond hummed weakly, like Kaedan was pushing it away from her.
She narrowed her eyes.
No more knocking.
No more begging.
No more letting him decide alone.
Golden light flared across her skin.
The bond mark pulsed beneath her gown, bright as sunlight burning through clouds.
“Kaedan,” she said evenly, “I’m done being locked out.”
She lifted both hands—
Sun-magic surged outward—
And the Sanctum doors exploded inward in a burst of radiant fire.
Stone cracked.
Wards shattered.
The air trembled.
Kaedan staggered back as the door blew off its hinges and slammed into the far wall.
He looked feral — hair wild, shirt half-open, eyes rimmed red like he hadn’t slept in days. Shadows clung to him like second skin.
“Ariaxa,” he rasped, “you shouldn’t be here.”
“Too bad,” she shot back, storming in.
He backed away, shaking.
His voice cracked. “The closer you come… the stronger the bond pulls… the faster it completes—”
“Good,” she snapped.
He froze.
“Ariaxa—”
She marched right up to him, grabbed his face in both hands, forcing him to look at her.
“I’m not afraid of the curse.”
“You should be,” he whispered, voice breaking. “You don’t understand—every moment I want you, every second I care for you—your risk grows. Fate bends to kill you. It always will.”
Her fingers tightened on his jaw.
“You think I don’t know that?” she snapped. “You think I don’t feel the fear clawing at you through the bond every time you breathe?”
His breath hitched.
He tried to pull back.
She wouldn’t let him.
“Let me go,” he whispered, voice cracking, “before loving me kills you.”
Ariaxa shoved him backward until his shoulders hit the wall.
“Listen to me,” she snarled. “I choose you. Curse or no curse.”
He trembled.
“Ariaxa—”
“I am the only one who can break it,” she said, voice shaking with anger and truth. “A Sunborn heir. Me. Not you.”
Shock flickered across his face.
She stepped closer — chest pressed to his, her breath ghosting his lips.
“You don’t get to decide for both of us,” she whispered fiercely. “You don’t get to bury yourself alive and leave me out here.”
His hands clenched at his sides, muscles rigid.
“Ariaxa…” he breathed, voice shredded.
The bond pulsed—
hard—
hot—
violent.
Her magic flared against his chest.
His shadow curled around her waist.
The room crackled with heat and tension.
Kaedan’s breath hitched.
He leaned forward—
Their lips hovered a hair’s breadth apart.
Ariaxa’s breath trembled.
His eyes darkened, hungry, devastated.
He almost—
Almost—
But then—
He jerked back like burned, chest heaving, hands shaking uncontrollably.
“I can’t,” he choked out. “Not if it risks your life.”