CHAPTER XLIX
"Born of Shadows, Bound by Fate"
Celeste's POV
The room had gone quiet — too quiet.
Only the wind whispered against the black marble walls, and even that seemed to hold its breath.
Olivia and Ivory stood before me, their eyes heavy with something deeper than memory. It wasn't just sorrow. It wasn't just fear.
> It was the weight of a truth long buried… and finally ready to be spoken.
Olivia was the first to break the silence, her voice low, careful, almost afraid of what it might awaken.
> "Cel," she said softly, "there's something you need to know… something about Cael. About where she comes from."
I felt my chest tighten.
A storm was coming. I could feel it.
> "Many years ago," Ivory began, "before the darkness… before the curse… our Mother Fairy, Lumina, was expecting her child. She was radiant then, full of life, full of light."
"But her husband… Father Pixie Archer," Olivia continued, "he was afraid."
Afraid?
My brows furrowed, but I didn't interrupt.
> "You see," Olivia whispered, "King Spark of Lunaria Noir — and his son Finnian — had asked Archer to perform black magic. A forbidden ritual. One meant to protect Finnian… to make him untouchable."
Ivory stepped closer, her voice now trembling.
> "Father Archer agreed. He loved them — Spark was his brother in bond, and Finnian was like a son to him."
"And so," Olivia said, "they began the ritual. Dark. Dangerous. Unholy."
> "But fate… doesn't wait for permission."
That day, as they stood surrounded by forbidden runes, their hands stained in blood and shadow, something happened.
> "Mother Fairy Lumina walked in — unknowing, unprepared," Ivory said, her eyes glassy.
"She saw the black magic mid-act… and the shock — it triggered pain."
"Her liver failed right there in the room," Olivia whispered. "And Father Archer — he panicked. He ran to her side."
The ritual broke.
The circle shattered.
And the unfinished magic…
> It didn't stop.
It called something.
> "Drakon came."
The name sent chills down my spine.
> The King of Evil Spirits.
The Harbinger of Rot.
The one even shadows feared.
"He was furious," Ivory said, her fists clenched.
"He saw Father Archer's hesitation as betrayal. As weakness. As insult."
And right then — without mercy — Drakon killed him.
> In front of everyone.
Without pause.
Without regret.
But he wasn't done.
> "He cursed the unborn child," Olivia murmured, her voice shaking.
"He summoned Vorgath — the most feared spirit of ruin — and took fragments of her… dark, broken fragments… and planted them in Lumina's womb."
> "And that's how Caelum was born."
Not just of light.
Not just of fairy lineage.
> But of shadows.
Of war.
Of a spirit never meant to walk this world.
I stared at them, my mind spinning.
No… not spinning.
Collapsing.
> "And the moment she was born," Ivory continued, "King Spark — who had dared toy with fate — was struck by a curse."
"He fell into endless sleep," Olivia added. "Trapped in paralysis. Alive… but unable to move. Speak. Feel. Forever watching the world… but never again touching it."
> "Finnian?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
"He ran," Ivory said.
"To the human world.
To escape the consequences of his own darkness."
"And the moment the queens of Fairyland learned the truth," Olivia said quietly, "they turned on Cael. They called her cursed. Unworthy. Dangerous."
> "They rebelled."
And then she said the part that made my heart stop.
> "But just before they could strike her down… the Gods came."
Yes.
The Gods themselves.
Not to punish.
Not to destroy.
> But to protect the child born of contradiction.
The child of fate and failure.
The one destined to either ruin the realms…
Or redeem them.
Caelum.
> My Caelum.
Born with the shadow of Vorgath in her soul.
Born from the rupture of love and fear.
Born to break — or to save.
> And now I understood.
Her silence.
Her rage.
Her refusal to love or be loved.
> She wasn't just protecting herself.
She was protecting everyone from what she believed she carried inside her.
But they were wrong.
They were all wrong.
Because in all that darkness… I had seen her light.
> And now I knew:
She wasn't born of evil.
She was forged by tragedy.
And I would love her harder — stronger — more fiercely than any curse or prophecy dared to challenge.
Because she didn't need to be saved.
> She needed to be believed in.
And I would carry that belief like fire in my veins.
> For her.
For us.
For the future we were still brave enough to fight for.
"The Curse of the Moon and the Promise of the Heart"
Celeste's POV
As the firelight flickered and the wind curled against the edges of the marble tower, I sat frozen, my breath caught between disbelief and awe. My lips parted as I asked the question that now burned in me like a second heartbeat:
> "What happened… after the Gods came?"
Ivory's gaze sharpened — not cold, but reverent. She was not just remembering a tale…
She was reliving a moment history itself had tried to bury.
> "When the Gods arrived," she began slowly, "everything stopped.
Even the rebellion… even time itself, it seemed."
The palace had trembled. The very air had thickened.
And the Queens — powerful, ancient, proud — had fallen to silence.
> "The Gods told the Queens to halt," Olivia continued, her voice quiet and sure, "and they turned to Mother Fairy Lumina.
They said, 'This child… Caelum… she has committed no sin.'"
> "'Her soul is still pure.'"
But not everyone agreed.
Ivory looked at me then, eyes soft with something that almost resembled guilt.
> "Your mother… Queen Elyon… she stood up. She questioned the Gods themselves."
I flinched.
> "She said… 'This child may not have sinned yet, but she will. She's dangerous. She is a threat.'"
A silence stretched between us — long, deep, filled with the echo of prophecy and fear.
Then Ivory continued.
> "And the God — the All-Seer — looked at her with nothing but patience, and said…"
> 'Fear not, Queen Elyon. I will send a soul born of your own womb…
One who will be of pure heart, and made to love Caelum truthfully and fiercely.'
> 'That love will tether Caelum to light. That love will keep her from ever becoming what you fear.'
And in that moment, something deep inside me trembled.
> Because I knew.
He had been speaking… of me.
I was the soul he sent.
The promise forged in the sky long before I had a name.
The bond meant not to save me — but to save her.
But before I could even grasp the weight of that… another voice rose.
Sharp.
Venom-laced.
Cold enough to freeze the sun.
> "And then Vorgath came," Olivia whispered, her voice turning to stone.
The wind in the room seemed to drop with the mention of that name — as if even the air remembered her.
> "She emerged from the broken shadows. Proud. Unapologetic."
And with a sneer carved from centuries of hate, she said:
> 'No soul can save Caelum.'
'No love can purify her.'
'Because when she turns twenty-one… I will already be part of her — fused to her soul, her body, her magic.'
My heart beat louder.
> "Vorgath confessed then," Ivory said, her voice trembling with the memory.
"She revealed the deal… the one Father Archer made long ago with Drakon to protect Finnian."
> "And then… she said something no one could un-hear."
> 'The child Lumina gave birth to was never hers.'
'Her baby died… three months old. And the one she raised?'
'That was me. I entered her womb during the ritual — a piece of me born inside Caelum.'
I gasped, shaking my head.
Caelum… was never meant to be a curse.
She was taken.
She was manipulated.
She was used.
But the Gods… they had not stayed silent.
> "The All-Seer looked at Vorgath and said, 'I know everything. I always have.'"
Then he raised his hands toward the stars, and a wind howled through the heavens.
> "And he cursed her," Olivia whispered, eyes wide, as if she could still feel the tremor of divine wrath.
> 'Vorgath… the day you break the heart of the girl born to love Caelum — Celeste —
You will die.'
> 'Not in silence. Not in peace. But under the full moon… your soul will perish. And you will be trapped — lost in the human realm… forever.'
The room felt like it exhaled, and I — I couldn't breathe.
> "That's the curse," Ivory said quietly, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"The curse not on Cael… but on the darkness inside her. The part trying to consume her."
And I understood.
> This wasn't just about destiny.
It was about love.
The pure kind. The ancient kind.
> The kind that could change fate — or break it.
And then… Olivia said the final truth.
> "Only someone who loves Caelum with their entire heart can bring her back.
Back from the human realm.
Back from the edge of ruin.
Back from herself."
> "And that someone… is you, Celeste."
The wind outside roared like a vow.
And I whispered to it — not in fear, but in promise.
> "Then let it come."
"Let the darkness rise."
"I will love her through every storm."
Even if she is lost.
Even if she forgets me.
Even if Vorgath tries to tear her from herself.
> I will not stop.
Because the Gods chose me.
And I choose her.
Every time.
Every lifetime.
Forever.
To be continued…