The air shimmered as I stepped through the barrier, the residual magic parting like a curtain of light and smoke. I could feel Kai now—not just his magic, but him. The steady, familiar heat that had always anchored me, even in the darkest places.
He stood in the middle of a circular chamber, lit only by floating embers. His back was to me, but I didn't have to speak. He turned the second I crossed the threshold.
"Anna," he breathed, striding toward me.
I expected him to touch me, pull me into his arms—but something in my eyes must've stopped him. He slowed, stopping just a breath away, his voice uncertain. "Are you alright? What happened? Where were you?"
I couldn't hold it in anymore. The visions. The pain. The weight of a curse passed down through bloodlines and lies.
"I saw her," I said softly. "Janie."
His brow furrowed. "Jaz's ancestor?"
I nodded, tears burning at the edges of my eyes. "She wasn't the victim of the curse, Kai. She was its beginning. She made the choice. She rigged it to repeat—generation after generation. She betrayed his bloodline to protect her own."
Kai went still, as if my words had taken the air from the room.
"The bond we thought was fate—me being tied to you, Jaz cursed to the edges—none of it was natural. It was engineered."
His voice was hoarse. "And you saw this?"
I nodded. "All of it. She used the blade to forge the curse, sealed it in blood, and made sure one woman would always choose between two brothers. And always… choose wrong."
Kai looked down, his fists clenched at his sides. "She used you."
"She used all of us."
A long silence followed. I stepped closer now, voice softer but no less sure. "Kai, I need you to understand something—this bond between us, it's real. It's always been real. But so is the pain Jaz has carried. And it wasn't born from jealousy—it was born from what was stolen from him."
Kai looked at me then—really looked at me—and I saw the flicker of something wounded behind his eyes. Not anger. But sorrow.
"I never wanted you to be caught between us."
"I know." I touched his hand, letting our fingers intertwine. "But I'm not going to be caught anymore. I'm going to break the curse. I'm going to end the cycle—and I need you to stand with me, not in front of me."
Kai stepped forward finally, resting his forehead against mine. "Then we end it together. Whatever it takes."
A tear slipped down my cheek. "I don't want to lose you."
His voice broke. "Then don't. Just don't lose yourself either."
"Then we end it together. Whatever it takes," Kai said, his voice no longer trembling—but full of promise.
I nodded, breath catching as the weight of everything we'd survived pressed against the moment. He was right here—yet so much had tried to separate us. And still, something fragile and ancient lived in the space between us, begging to be healed.
I leaned in first. Our foreheads already touching, my lips brushed his—soft at first, like the echo of a memory. He didn't hesitate. His arms slid around me, pulling me closer with a need that mirrored my own. The kiss deepened, full of everything unspoken—fear, love, guilt, and longing.
"Anna," he whispered against my mouth, "whatever happens next, know this... I was never whole until I found you."
"I know," I whispered back, voice trembling. "I feel the same."
He took my hand and, without a word, led me from the chamber. Down a quiet corridor, past shifting stone walls and flickering sconces, to a room carved into the heart of the sanctuary—secluded, warm, silent. The air smelled faintly of cedar and old magic.
He closed the door behind us.
There was no need to speak anymore. He cupped my face in both hands, eyes locked to mine. His kiss this time was different—slow and reverent, like he was memorizing me. I answered with the same fire, my hands curling into his shirt, pulling him closer until there was nothing between us but heat and heartbeats.
Clothes slipped away in silence. There was no rush—only discovery. Only the weight of love made real through touch. He traced the curve of my back like he was learning a forgotten language, and I ran my fingers through his hair, grounding myself in the feel of him, in the truth of him.
The room faded. The curse, the visions, the fate that loomed—we left it outside the door.
Here, there was only us.
When our bodies finally met, it wasn't desperate—it was whole. Every movement slow, deliberate, a conversation of skin and soul. The way he whispered my name, the way he held my hand as if anchoring me to this life... I would remember it even if the world broke around us.
And when we finally collapsed against each other, breathing heavy, wrapped in tangled sheets and moonlight, I knew with painful clarity:
This love—this union—was not a weakness in the curse. It was the key to breaking it.
The world outside faded—the war, the curse, the weight of memory—until only the two of us remained, suspended in this fragile, burning stillness.
Kai's eyes searched mine as if to ask one last time: Are you sure?
I answered him not with words, but with the urgency in my kiss.
Our mouths met again, deeper this time—need rising beneath the surface like fire beneath ice. His hands slipped beneath the fabric of my top, fingertips grazing along my ribs, sending a tremor through me. I gasped softly into him, heart pounding, body aching to be known—not possessed, but remembered.
He lifted me slowly, reverently, carrying me to the bed like I was both a queen and a relic of something sacred.
The magic between us didn't fade. It wrapped around us like silk, amplifying sensation—every brush of skin, every whispered breath, every heartbeat echoing between our bodies.
He undressed me slowly. Not out of hesitation, but out of devotion. His lips traced the line of my throat, then lower, to the center of my chest where the blade's energy pulsed faintly beneath my skin. He kissed that place—not the power, but the part of me that carried it.
"You're not a curse," he murmured, fingers trailing down my waist. "You're the choice I would make every time."
My response was a moan laced with his name. I pulled him down to me, fingers tangled in his hair, hips arching to meet him. His bare skin met mine with a gasp—hot and electric.
He made love to me slowly at first, as though the act alone could rewrite the threads of fate. But the deeper we went, the more it consumed us—a dance of tongues and limbs, of whispered promises and breathless confessions.
Each time he whispered "Anna," it wasn't just my name—it was an anchor, a vow, a memory that lived in his blood.
I cried out as we moved together, not just from pleasure but from the release of centuries of restraint, longing, and soul-bound ache. The rhythm between us built—like a storm breaking over sacred ground—and when we finally shattered together, I felt the blade inside me tremble.
It responded—not with violence, but with light. As though it too recognized what this was. Not lust. Not fate. But love chosen freely.
The room had fallen into a hush. Kai's breathing had slowed beside me, his arm still draped across my waist. Our bodies, finally still, shared a warmth that wasn't just physical—it was soul-deep. Safe. Real.
And then—something shifted.
A sudden pulse throbbed in my chest—not from my heart, but from deeper. Older.
The blade.
Its hum grew louder—sharper. No longer calm or reflective. It beat like a war drum now, each thud echoing through my bones.
I sat up sharply, breath caught in my throat.
The air had grown electric. The room around us dimmed, the walls shivering with a low magical resonance. The blade wasn't just stirring. It was awakening.
Kai stirred, eyes opening instantly. "Anna?"
But I was already slipping away.
Vision – The Shattered Temple
I stood in the ruins of what once must've been a sanctuary. Columns lay broken, symbols carved into black stone now fractured and bleeding light. Overhead, a red eclipse cast shadows across everything.
And at the center—the blade. Floating. Burning. Alive.
Its voice rang inside my skull. "The bond is complete. The path is open. The bloodline remembers."
I stepped toward it, the ground breaking apart beneath my feet, and suddenly—
Jaz appeared in the vision, drenched in ash and blood, eyes wild with urgency.
"Anna! Can you hear me?" his voice tore through the space like lightning. "She knows you're trying to break it. Janie's curse—it won't let go without a price."
"Then I'll pay it," I whispered.
But Jaz shook his head, stepping forward. "You don't understand. It's not just about you anymore. The cycle has begun. There's another—someone hidden, born of the rift she opened. A shadow born to protect the curse."
My blood ran cold. "Another what?"
"Another you," he said. "Or what she made from you."
The vision shattered—like a mirror splintering under heat.
Back in the Room
I gasped awake, Kai already at my side, holding me by the shoulders.
"Anna—what happened?"
My hands trembled. The mark above my heart, where the blade's energy lived, was glowing—faint but undeniable. "It's begun," I said breathlessly. "The blade's awake. Jaz was right. There's something else out there—something tied to me. A second piece."
Kai's eyes darkened. "A shadow?"
I nodded. "And it's not just a threat to us. It's a part of me… twisted. Created to keep the curse alive."
"Then we find it," he said, already standing, already preparing. "And we end it. Together."
But something told me this next step wouldn't just be a hunt.
It would be a confrontation—with the version of me Janie created. The version who believes the curse must survive.