CHAPTER 19

Kael's POV 

I saw someone, but he died in my visions. The one whose blood soaked the Moon Queen’s blade.

The one whose death once felt like justice. Now it felt like a warning.

His voice was loud in my chest like a storm in a hollow cave. I stood there quietly as the golden-eyed shadow faded into the trees, leaving me cold and confused.

I should have run away after it. But I just screamed loudly, and all I could do was fall to my knees and whisper, “What’s happening to me?” I asked, but no one answered.

By dawn, I was moved to a small tent just beyond the Crimson walls.

It wasn't quite a prisoner, and not quite free.

My wrists weren’t bound anymore, but the eyes on me were much sharper than any chain. I could feel the guards watching even when they pretended not to.

Cato was behind this. He didn’t trust me—and I couldn’t blame him.

I didn’t trust myself either. As too many things didn’t make sense.

I remembered too much. And still not enough.

I had betrayed Aria. That much was true. But had I done it of my own will? Had I chosen it?

I didn’t know anymore.

My thoughts were like smoke. My emotions—tangled. Some didn’t even feel like mine.

But their pieces were coming back. Sharp ones.

Lilith’s hands. Her smile and even her spells.

I didn’t hear Cato enter. He walked like a soldier—quiet, efficient, and deadly.

I was sitting, crossing my legs on the ground, staring at the cracks in the floor, when the flap of the tent shifted.

“You’re awake,” he said.

“I haven’t slept in days.”

“Good. Maybe that means you’re not hiding anything.”

I looked up. His eyes were hard turning as stone, and his mouth was a flat line. He carried a leather satchel and a dagger.

“I’m not here to kill you. Yet,” he added.

“Comforting.”

He ignored my sarcasm. Then he bent and knelt down, and began to pull small silver discs from the satchel. Five in total, each etched with runes that pulsed with faint blue light.

“What are those?” I asked.

“Anchors,” he replied quickly. “They read magic. Aura. Truth.”

I sat straighter. “You think I’m lying.”

“I know you hide something,” he said. “I just want to find out whether it’s your fault or someone else’s.”

I didn’t argue. Maybe I wanted the truth more than he did.

He placed the runes around me in a loose circle and whispered something under his breath.

The air tightened. My skin prickled. Then, pain.

Not sharp like a blade. Deeper. Older. Like something inside me was being stirred.

I gasped as heat climbed up my spine and to my skull.

Cato narrowed his eyes. “There. Something is buried in your aura. Something unnatural.” He said.

I clenched my fists. “What does that mean?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he pressed his palm against one of the runes, and I felt it again—my chest pulled tight, like my soul was being unraveled.

Then I saw it. A thin thread of light rose from my sternum, twisting and writhing. And within that thread, there were black veins, like roots infected with poison.

Cato’s voice dropped to a growl. “It’s a manipulation curse.”

I froze. “No.”

“Yes,” he responded. “It’s not just your thoughts that were affected. Your emotions, your choices, your bond… someone has been steering you. Controlling you without making it obvious.”

The word bond nearly knocked the air out of me. “What?”

I thought of Aria, her face when she saw me. There's hatred in her eyes, very hurtful.

“Are you saying… I didn’t choose to reject her?”

“You chose it,” Cato said. “But under the influence. Your feelings were poisoned before you made that choice.”

I couldn’t speak. Because suddenly it all made sense.

I remembered the days after Aria was taken. I remembered wanting to find her—and then suddenly, not.

I remembered the pain I felt in my chest. The strange numbness that followed. The way Lilith held me when I wept, and how she always seemed calm, too calm.

Her potions. Her whispers. Her hands on my skin when I couldn’t think straight.

Lilith.

My stomach turned. “She did this,” I whispered. “Lilith. She said she was healing me.”

“She was binding you,” Cato snapped. “You think it’s a coincidence your bond with Aria died right after you started drinking her tea?”

My vision blurred.

“Lilith,” I said again, and this time it came out as a growl.

I gripped the sides of my head as more memories slammed back—

Her voice chanted in the dark, touching when I was weakest, and a circle drawn in salt beneath my bed. And behind it all… laughter.

Not hers. Something else.

Cato removed the runes slowly and shook his head.

“You’re lucky the spell was fragile. It’s breaking on its own now. But you’ve still got residue. Shadows.”

“What happens to me now?” I asked. “That depends on you.”I looked at him at the moment. “You believe me?”

“I believe you’re broken,” he said. “And not entirely by choice. That doesn’t make you innocent. But it makes you… worth watching.”

He stood.

“I’m placing you under guard in the outer ward without weapons. And no wandering. You just stay there. You earn trust.”

I nodded. “I won’t run.”

“If you do, I’ll shoot you myself.” He said without a glance.

“Fair enough.”

He paused at the tent flap. “One more thing.”

“What?”

“Tell her the truth. If you want any chance of undoing what you lost.”

I swallowed hard. “What if she doesn’t care?”

“Then you live with it,” he said. “Same as the remaining of us.”

Later that day, I was sitting down, crossing my legs by the outer wall, wrapped in a rough cloak, staring at the moon. The wind blew up the scent of pine and ash. And something else.

Her.

Even across the distance, I felt Aria stir. The bond between us wasn’t dead.

It was wounded. But alive.

And now that the curse was unraveling, I could feel things I hadn’t in months.

I felt her heartbeat, her dreams, and then, sharp pain. Like lightning through my chest.

She had felt me. Something in her had opened. Some part of her still feels me.

Back at the Crimson den, Aria woke up gasping.

She clutched her chest and sat upright, eyes wide.

Nessa stirred beside her. “Aria? What is it?”

Aria pressed a hand to her ribs. “I felt Kael.”

“In a dream?”

“No. In my blood. The bond—something’s changing.”

Her daughter whimpered softly. Aria held her close, whispering calmly.

But inside, she was shaking. Because if Kael’s pain had reached her…

Then maybe he was telling the truth. But in the outer ward, I wasn’t alone.

The wind had died. And I heard it again. A whisper.

“Still not free…” I turned.

The golden-eyed figure stood just beyond the firelight.

Crown of bone. Shadow for skin.

It smiled.

And I remembered something I’d buried long ago.

A battlefield. A woman screaming. Blood in my hands.

And her name is Solara.