Alle Kapitel von THE NIGHT MY MATE BURNED ME ALIVE : Kapitel 81 – Kapitel 90

The child inside Seraphina opened her eyes.​A sharp, microscopic tremor rippled beneath her ribs, instantly locking her limbs into rigid paralysis. The black Dragon Mark across her chest had fractured, but rather than fading into nothingness, the jagged pieces hovered in the air above her skin like shards of dark glass, suspended in a thin, humming seam of white fire.​“Mother.”​The voice echoed not from the air around her, but up from her own marrow, impossibly clear and impossibly close.​Seraphina slammed both hands over her breastbone, her breath catching in her throat. “I’m here.”​Beyond the shimmering fabric of the Veil, the ancient woman smiled, her features softening with a predatory relief. “Finally.”​Kael planted his boots firmly against the shaking stone, stepping hard between Seraphina and the boundary. “Who are you?”​The woman didn't deign to look at him, her gaze pinned entirely on the woman bleeding light behind him. “My daughter has been waiting a very long time.”

​Seraphina froze as a small, unmistakable pressure pressed against the inside of her ribs. Five tiny fingers. A palm no larger than a coin, mapping the contour of her heart with startling clarity. Her breath caught hard in her throat.​"Elara?" she whispered.​The tiny hand curled into a fist. Seraphina’s knees buckled under a sudden wave of vertigo, but Kael caught her by the waist before she hit the stone floor.​"Seraphina!" he shouted, his face tight with alarm.​"I can feel her," she breathed, her voice trembling past recognition.​Kael looked down at her chest, then back to her wide, terrified eyes. "Feel who?"​"My daughter."​The words had barely cleared her lips when a blinding, agonizing tear ripped through her core. Seraphina screamed, a raw sound of pure shock as white fire erupted from the Dragon Mark beneath her collarbone, racing across her skin like liquid lightning. The very ground beneath their boots fractured, sending a shockwave of grit bouncing across the stone fl

Seraphina stared into the vast, absolute void bleeding outward from the threshold, her chest refusing to expand as the air locked entirely in her throat. For several agonizing seconds, rational thought dissolved into pure, frozen panic.​“You were imprisoned?” Her voice sounded remarkably small, swallowed almost instantly by the crushing immensity surrounding them.​Aurelith gave a slow, solemn nod. “Yes.”​“Inside my own soul?”​“Yes.”​Seraphina’s gaze snapped toward Elara. The little girl was pressed so close behind her that her small fingers had twisted white into the fabric of Seraphina’s dress. She shifted her focus back to the shadowy figure standing opposite them, a cold knot twisting in her stomach. “Then what is she?”​Aurelith’s eyes shifted across the gloom to Veyra. “The woman you called Veyra was once a fragment of you.”​“No,” Seraphina breathed, stepping back as Veyra’s expression twisted into a snarl.​“Don't listen to her,” Veyra hissed, but Aurelith ignored the inte

Seraphina could not move. The single, impossible word hung in the vaulted stone chamber, vibrating against her eardrums long after the echoes had died: Father.​Elara stared past the rippling, silver-blue tear of the Veil, her small chin lifted, silver eyes fixed on a shape no one else could see. Beside her, Kael's fingers slowly uncurled from the hilt of his sword, his posture stiffening as the ambient pressure in the room plummeted.​“Who is she talking to?” Kael asked, his voice low and tight.​Seraphina shook her head, the motion rigid. “I don't know.”​The voice came again from the shimmering void—gravelly, warm, and entirely too close to the surface of her own memory. “I've been waiting for you.”​The Veil pulsed, the boundary between realms thinning until the stones themselves seemed to sweat. A silhouette materialized out of the glare, shifting from a formless blur into the clean lines of a man. Tall, broad-shouldered, with dark hair swept back by the draft pouring through the

Caelan's words had barely left his mouth when the broken crown began to shake in his hand.At first, the movement was so faint that Seraphina thought it was the trembling of her own arms. Then the metal gave a sharp, brittle chime.Caelan looked down.A thin crack had appeared across the remaining piece of the ancient Dragon Crown. Silver light leaked through it, spilling between his fingers.Seraphina tightened her hold around Elara.“What did you do?”Caelan didn't answer.The air above the Veil split with a sound like glass being dragged across stone.Kael stepped in front of Seraphina, his sword already in his hand. “Stay behind me.”“No.”He glanced back at her. “Seraphina—”“I've spent too long letting everyone decide where I stand.”Kael held her gaze for a moment, then shifted his grip on the sword. “Then we stand together.”The Dusk-born Seraphina moved to their other side, Sword of Dusk hanging low beside her leg. She stared at the widening crack above the Veil.“Something i