Elara woke with a scream.
The sound tore through the still air like glass shattering in the dark. For a moment she didn't know where she was… only that her body burned while the room around her lay draped in frost. The sheets were tangled around her legs, damp with sweat. Her breath came in broken gasps. The taste of blood lingered on her tongue… metallic, sharp, and frighteningly familiar.
Lucien was already beside her. He moved silently, but his eyes betrayed something close to fear. The lamplight caught the faint red gleam within them as he reached toward her.
"You saw it again, didn't you?" he asked softly.
Elara nodded, her voice trembling. "I… I was there. A room filled with mirrors and blood. There was a woman… she looked like me. And you…" Her throat closed before she could finish. "You were the one holding her."
Lucien didn't answer. His expression hardened, and he turned away toward the window. The night outside was thick with fog, pressing against the glass like breath. The moon hung behind it… a pale ghost smothered by mist.
"That woman was named Eveline," he said finally. His voice was calm, but beneath it lay something fractured. "Centuries ago. Before I became what I am now."
Elara sat up, clutching the blanket around her shoulders. Her heartbeat refused to slow. "Why am I seeing her? I don't understand."
"You shouldn't be." His tone roughened. "The bond shouldn't be this strong yet."
"The bond?"
Lucien turned back to face her. His gaze glowed faintly crimson, catching the light like embers under glass. "When you pulled me from the earth, your blood touched mine. The spell that bound me… part of it transferred to you. Our souls are no longer separate."
She stared at him, the chill creeping deeper into her bones. "You mean I'm cursed too?"
"In a way," he admitted. "But it's more complicated than that. The curse feeds on emotion… on memory, pain, love. It links us through everything we feel. The stronger your heart pulls toward mine, the deeper the bond becomes."
Elara looked down at her trembling hands. "Then I should hate you," she whispered. "That would make it weaker, right?"
Lucien smiled faintly. It wasn't joy… it was resignation. "You could try."
He stepped closer, and the distance between them seemed to dissolve. The air thickened with a strange current… cold yet humming with energy. She could feel his presence like a pulse just beneath her skin.
When he stopped, their faces were only inches apart. For a heartbeat she couldn't tell if it was her pulse or his that echoed in her chest.
"When I was dreaming," she murmured, "you looked human. Alive. You weren't this."
Lucien's gaze softened. "I wasn't always a monster. Once, I was a man who made a foolish promise to a dying witch. I wanted to save someone I loved… and instead, I became her curse."
Elara swallowed hard, forcing the question past her lips. "Eveline. She's the woman in my dreams, isn't she?"
He nodded slowly. "She was my wife. And the one who sealed me beneath the earth when she realized what I had become."
The words hit like a blade to her chest. She wanted to deny the ache building inside her, but it wasn't only hers. Beneath the fear coiled something older… a sorrow that pulsed faintly from within the bond itself.
"Lucien," she whispered, "I think I felt her die."
Lucien's head snapped toward her, disbelief shadowing his features.
"I saw it happen," she said, trembling. "The fire… the blood… the way you screamed for her. It felt real, Lucien. I could feel the flames around us. I could feel your grief."
His expression darkened, and his voice dropped to a whisper. "That memory isn't mine anymore. I buried it long ago."
"Not anymore," Elara breathed. "It's mine now."
Silence settled over them, thick and suffocating. The crackle of the fire sounded distant, like something remembered rather than real. Lucien turned back to the window, his shoulders tense beneath the dim light. "If you carry my memories," he murmured, "then the curse has already chosen you."
Elara rose to her feet, her fear slowly hardening into something sharper. "No. I won't be chosen by something evil. I'll find a way to break it."
Lucien met her gaze, and for the briefest moment, the centuries of sorrow behind his eyes seemed to flicker with something else… almost tenderness. "If you break it, Elara… it may break you too."
She took a step forward. "Then let it try."
A faint smile touched his lips… the kind that carried more grief than comfort. "You remind me of her when you speak like that."
"I'm not her," Elara said quietly.
"I know." His voice was soft. "That's what makes this dangerous."
Thunder rolled in the distance, low and mournful. The fog outside glowed faintly with the promise of an oncoming storm. Lucien turned back to the fire, its light painting shadows across his face. For the first time in centuries, he looked uncertain… almost human.
Elara wrapped her arms around herself. Every breath seemed to echo with him now. She could feel when his heart quickened… when his thoughts darkened.
The connection between them was alive, pulsing beneath her skin like a second heartbeat.
"What happens," she asked quietly, "if one of us dies before the curse ends?"
Lucien's eyes lifted to hers. The answer was already there, silent and heavy.
"You'll die with me," he said finally.
Her lips parted, but no sound came. The truth settled over her like frost. She looked away, unable to meet his eyes. "Then we both have a reason to fight it."
Lightning flashed beyond the window, briefly illuminating the fog. In that white glare she saw the faint outline of Lucien's reflection beside hers… two figures caught between light and shadow.
He turned away before the thunder answered. "Get some rest," he said quietly. "Dreams have teeth tonight."
Elara lay back down, though sleep seemed an impossible thing. The air was cold again, yet her body burned with the memory of his nearness. When her eyes closed, she saw flickers of another life… Eveline's laughter echoing through marble halls, Lucien's hand reaching through fire, the promise that had doomed them both.
And beneath it all, a whisper. Her own voice, yet not hers… speaking words older than memory.
The bond remembers what love forgets.
Lucien sat silently by the fire, watching her breathing steady as sleep finally claimed her. The mark on her wrist glowed faintly red, pulsing in time with his own heartbeat. He knew she was too brave for her own good… too alive for a curse born of death.
Outside, thunder rolled again across the valley. The storm moved closer, stirring the forest into restless motion. For the first time in ages, Lucien almost smiled. The mortal girl had no idea how dangerous her defiance truly was.
But for the first time since the curse began, he found himself hoping she would win.