Chapter 3

The last intact rune beneath the nursery floor was mine.

I pressed my bloody palm against it.

"Seraphina, don't."

Alaric stood in the doorway, one arm around Elara. She still wore my starlight robe, though dust now covered its silver hem.

"You've destroyed enough."

I released my magic.

The rune detonated.

A column of white fire tore through the nursery. The remaining walls split. Elara's new vanity, the broken shelves, and every last trace of the room collapsed into burning rubble.

The force threw me into the corridor.

Pain ripped through my damaged magic channels. Fresh blood soaked the back of my gray dress, but I pushed myself upright.

Alaric shielded Elara from the debris.

He didn't come to me.

That made leaving easier.

I returned to the guest room and packed one small bag. There was little worth taking. A plain dress. My family seal. A pouch of coins.

I left my wedding ring on the dusty table.

By the time I crossed the estate gates, night had fallen.

Rain struck my face in icy sheets. The road to the city gate had turned to mud, and each step sent pain through my abdomen.

Still, I kept walking.

Behind me, Alaric's estate burned against the black sky.

I had once called it home.

Now I wanted only to put its walls behind me.

The soul stone at my throat flashed.

Alaric's voice erupted inside my mind. "Where are you?"

I didn't answer.

The stone burned hotter.

"Elara fainted after your little display. Come back immediately."

A laugh scraped out of my throat.

Even now, he was calling for me because Elara needed something.

"She inhaled smoke." His demands pushed aggressively through the bond. "The priest says your blood could stabilize her magic. You will return, apologize, and give her what she needs."

My feet stopped.

Rain ran through my hair and down my face. Beyond the iron city gate waited the northern road—and freedom.

I tore the soul stone from my neck.

It was a small black crystal set inside a silver frame. On our wedding day, Alaric and I had each placed half of our souls inside it.

As long as it remained whole, he could always find me.

He could speak inside my mind.

If one of us was dying, the other could surrender magic or years of life through the bond.

Once, I had thought that was romantic. Now it felt like another chain.

I brought the cold crystal close to my lips. "Alaric, I'm ending our soul contract."

Silence.

Then his answer struck like thunder. "You will do no such thing."

"I wasn't asking."

"This is about the robe? The room?"

"It's about our dead child."

"There was no child!"

His certainty no longer hurt. It only made me tired.

"You destroyed half my estate, terrified Elara, and now you're threatening to break a sacred contract because you didn't get your way. Stop humiliating yourself and come home."

"I am going home."

"This is your home."

"No. It's the place where you murdered my baby."

The city gate blurred before me.

My knees buckled. I caught myself against the stone wall, leaving a streak of blood beneath my palm.

"Enough." Frustration lashed out from his end of the connection. "You've carried this lie far enough."

Another voice crashed through the soul stone. "My lord!"

The royal priest. He sounded breathless. Terrified.

"My lord, can you hear me?"

"What is it?" Irritation flared in Alaric's response. "Elara needs treatment."

"Not Lady Elara. Your wife."

I closed my eyes.

The priest's next words came through the stone in a desperate roar.

"Lady Seraphina was telling the truth!"

The bond went silent.

"The extraction drained almost all of her life source. The fetus tried to draw nourishment from her womb after her magic failed. The backlash killed the child during the ritual."

"No." The denial bled audibly out of the stone.

For the first time, his voice held fear.

The priest continued.

"She has been hemorrhaging for three days. Her magic channels are shattered, and the damage is spreading. If she isn't treated now, she will die!"

I heard Alaric breathing.

Nothing else. Then the soul bond ripped open.

His power surged through the crystal, hot and frantic. He was trying to find me. Trying to force his remaining years across our bond.

But it was too late.

The northern darkness shifted beyond the gate.

A tall man stepped from the rain, dressed in black armor. Shadows moved behind him like living wings.

Kieran. Lord of the Abyss.

His eyes swept over my bloodstained dress, my gray face, and the soul stone clenched in my hand.

"Seraphina." His voice cut quietly through the heavy rain. "Give me the stone."

Alaric's voice returned, stripped of every trace of command. "Don't break it."

I looked down at the crystal.

"Seraphina, wait. Let me give you my life source. I can save you."

"You didn't believe me."

"I didn't know."

"You chose not to know."

"Please." It was the first time I had ever heard Alaric beg.

I closed my fingers around the stone.

Kieran caught my wrist. "Breaking a soul contract by force could kill you."

"Leaving it intact will kill whatever is left of me."

Understanding passed through his eyes. He released me.

Alaric poured more power into the bond. "Seraphina, I command you to stop."

There he was. The man I had married. Still commanding me after taking everything.

I tightened my fist. The soul stone shattered.

Agony split through my chest. The broken contract tore free, ripping Alaric out of my soul.

Somewhere far behind me, he screamed.

Black crystal fragments fell from my palm into the mud, and the bond vanished.

For the first time in five years, my mind belonged only to me.

My legs gave way.

Kieran caught me before I struck the ground.

Through the rain, I heard Alaric shouting my name from a connection that no longer existed.

Then the darkness took me.