Chapter 3

A bone-deep ache dragged my consciousness out of the dark.

I forced my heavy eyes open and glanced at the teleportation sigil on my wrist.

Countdown: Zero.

Today was the day.

A sudden, hollow tearing sensation ripped through my lower abdomen. I gasped, my fingers digging into the bedsheets.

"Elara!" Lyra collapsed beside my bed, trembling violently. "I thought you were dead."

"I'm fine," I rasped.

"No," Lyra choked out on a sob. "Elara... you lost the baby."

The Apathy Curse had erased every drop of romantic love I had for Ignis, but it couldn't block this visceral, physiological trauma.

A brutal cramp seized my chest, as if a hand had crushed my heart. I curled into a tight ball, tears spilling over my cheeks unstoppably. My chest heaved violently as I gasped for air, unable to form a single word.

I had carried his child, and now it was gone.

Before I could even breathe through the despair, the heavy oak doors splintered open with a deafening crash.

Ignis strode in, his golden reptilian eyes burning with a ruthless fury.

"You sicken me," he snarled, towering over my bed. "Why did you poison Seraphina?!"

Numbness washed over me, the curse's cold logic overriding my panic. "What?"

"Don't play dumb! You used a shadow hex on her at the hunting grounds. You killed our egg, and now she's dying."

"I didn't poison anyone. Her egg was a fake," I said flatly.

"Liar! The royal healers confirmed her mana core is rotting from star-fire. The only cure is pure Star-Magic heartblood. Your blood."

It hit me then. He wanted to drain my life force to save my child's murderer.

"No," I said coldly.

"I wasn't asking."

Black flames forged into a spiked iron collar in his hand. He snapped it abruptly around my neck. The metal spikes bit deep into my flesh.

"Ignis, stop!" Lyra lunged at him. "Are you insane?! She just—"

"Get out of my way!"

Ignis unleashed a brutal wave of kinetic force, slamming Lyra into the stone wall. He followed it instantly with a high-tier silencing rune, cutting off her scream.

"Speak again, and I'll cut out your tongue!"

He yanked the chain. I hit the hard stone floor, my fresh wounds tearing wide open.

He paraded me through the corridors. Purebloods stared in shock as their King dragged his fated mate like a dog, leaving a long trail of blood across the pristine marble.

He kicked open Seraphina's doors. She lay on a velvet chaise, looking strategically frail.

"Ignis..." she whimpered, shrinking back as if terrified. "Don't punish Elara. I know she killed our child out of jealousy... but if you force her to give blood... she'll resent you forever."

Ignis immediately dropped my chain and pulled her into his chest. Then, his eyes froze over as he glared at me. "Kneel! Confess your crimes, and extract your heartblood!"

I lay on the floor, looking up at the man I had nearly died for. I couldn't even muster a single ounce of hatred.

"Fine," I said.

Let this be the final severance of our soul bond.

Without a second thought, I formed a blade of raw starlight with my fingers and drove it directly into my own chest!

Through an agonizing, bone-shattering pain, I violently ripped out a cluster of my purest core heartblood.

My cultivation plummeted instantly. My face drained of all color.

Ignis stared at my deathly pale face and the bloody welts on my neck. His pupils constricted. A sudden, unfamiliar wave of panic and pity flared in his chest, and his hand twitched, reaching out for me instinctively.

But Seraphina let out a perfectly timed, agonizing groan, snapping his attention back to her.

I didn't spare him another glance. I used the absolute last of my strength to stand up, turned my back, and walked away.

The next morning, Ignis returned to the royal chambers after stabilizing Seraphina.

He walked into my room, expecting to hear a tearful apology. Instead, he found the room completely empty. Every single trace of me had been scrubbed clean.

"Elara?"

A suffocating panic clamped down on his throat.

"The Priestess... she left this," a terrified servant stammered.

The servant handed him a small glass vial containing the absolute last drop of my heartblood.

A tiny note rested beside it: "Paid in full. Goodbye."

"No," Ignis muttered, his breathing turning erratic. "She wouldn't leave her mate."

The sound echoed like an executioner's axe inside his mind.

The fated soul bond was violently, permanently severed.

Ignis forcefully vomited black, corrupted dragon blood. His mana core shattered, the violent backlash dropping him to his knees on the spot.

It finally hit him. I had left the Dragon Realm. I had left him.

Bloodshot eyes wild, he forced down his body's agonizing backlash and violently hijacked Lyra's communication signal. "Where is Elara?!" he roared. "Where did she go?!"

Lyra's hologram appeared. Her eyes were red, but her smile was viciously mocking.

"She's gone. She went to the Elven Realm to be married."

"Oh, and I forgot to tell you," Lyra hissed. "Yesterday, while you were dragging her by the neck in chains, forcing her to bleed for Seraphina... your fated mate was bleeding out from a miscarriage."

Ignis's expression completely shattered. Frozen in place, he free-fell into an absolute, suffocating abyss.