POV: KIERAN SOLIS
Timeline: The Eclipse Night
The sky bleeds.
That's the only way to describe it. As the moon slides across the sun, the light doesn't just fade—it turns red. Deep, arterial red that makes everything look like it's drowning in blood.
"I hate this," I mutter.
Beside me, Kaelis nods. "Same."
We're standing in the center of the clearing, back to back. Around us, the wards glow faintly—weaker now that the eclipse is starting. Behind us, Ravion and Nyx stand ready.
Ravion's shadows writhe around him like living things, stronger in the darkness. Nyx's water constructs float nearby, but I can see the strain on his face. The eclipse is affecting him already.
"They're coming," Nyx says suddenly.
I don't ask how he knows. I can feel it too.
That pressure in the air. Like a storm about to break.
"Positions," Ravion commands.
We spread out slightly. Kaelis to my left. Ravion behind me. Nyx behind Kaelis.
Four people. One fortress. Against an army.
"Remember the plan," Ravion says. "Stay together. Don't—"
Thunder.
Massive, earth-shaking thunder that makes my teeth rattle.
The sky cracks open.
Lightning—purple, unnatural lightning—strikes the ground fifty feet from us. Where it hits, the earth explodes. Dirt and stone spray everywhere.
When the smoke clears, she's standing there.
Asteria.
The Storm Goddess is tall—impossibly tall, at least seven feet—with dark hair that literally crackles with electricity. Her eyes glow purple. Her clothes are made of storm clouds that shift and billow around her.
She looks at Nyx and smiles.
"Hello, old friend," she purrs.
"Asteria." Nyx's voice is cold. "I was hoping you'd stay in whatever hole you've been hiding in."
"And miss this?" She gestures at the bloodred sky. "An eclipse. Your weakness. The perfect opportunity to finally prove I'm superior." Her smile widens. "I've been waiting centuries for this."
"Get in line."
More lightning. This time from the north.
And they appear.
Isolde.
She's different from the diplomatic visit. No more soft smiles or concerned mother act. Now she's dressed for war—black and silver armor that gleams in the red light, a crown of dark crystal, and magic crackling around her hands.
Behind her: twenty soldiers. All are deadly.
And beside her—
King Daemon.
He's dressed in crimson and black, sword already drawn, looking at me with eyes that promise violence.
"Well," Daemon says. "Isn't this cozy. Two princes. Two gods. All lined up for us."
"Hello, boys," Isolde says softly. "Did you really think running away would work forever?"
"We're not running anymore," Kaelis shouts back.
"No." Isolde's expression hardens. "You're not. Because this ends tonight. You're coming home. Both of you."
"We ARE home!" I yell. "This is our home! With them!"
"With kidnappers?" Isolde laughs. "With gods who claimed you like property? You call that home?"
"We call it choice!" Kaelis steps forward. "Something you never gave us!"
"I gave you everything!" Isolde's voice rises. "I gave you life! Purpose! Destiny! And you threw it away for what? Love?" She spits the word like poison. "Love is weakness. Love is death. I'm saving you from yourselves!"
"We don't need saving!" I shout. "We need you to LEAVE US ALONE!"
"Never." Isolde raises her hand. Magic flares. "You're my sons. My prophecy. My power. And you're coming home. Dead or alive."
"Alive preferred," Daemon adds. "But I'm flexible."
Ravion's shadows surge. "You're not touching him."
"Try and stop me, Dark King." Daemon grins. "I've been wanting to test myself against you for years."
"Today's your lucky day."
Asteria laughs. "This is going to be fun. Nyx, darling—shall we dance?"
"I'd rather drown," Nyx says flatly.
"That can be arranged."
Everything happens at once.
Asteria raises both hands. Lightning explodes from the sky—five massive bolts aimed directly at us.
Nyx counters with a wall of water that rises up, catches the lightning, turns it to steam.
But the effort makes him stumble. The eclipse is draining him.
Daemon charges forward, soldiers behind him.
Ravion meets them halfway, shadows erupting like a tidal wave.
The first soldier doesn't even see the shadow blade that pierces his chest. He drops.
The second tries to dodge but Ravion's too fast. Shadows wrap around his throat, squeeze, snap.
Two down.
Eighteen to go.
Isolde walks forward slowly. Deliberately. Magic swirling around her hands.
"Kaelis," she says. "Kieran. Last chance. Come peacefully."
"Fuck you!" Kaelis and I yell simultaneously.
Her expression goes cold. "Wrong answer."
She throws her hands forward.
Dark magic—actual visible darkness that's somehow different from Ravion's shadows—shoots toward us like spears.
I dive left. Kaelis dives right.
The magic hits where we were standing and the ground explodes.
I roll, come up running, and—
A soldier is right there.
He swings his sword.
I barely dodge. The blade whistles past my ear.
"Kieran!" Ravion's voice, distant over the chaos.
The soldier swings again. This time I'm not fast enough.
The blade catches my arm. Pain explodes. Blood.
"SHIT!"
I stumble back. The soldier advances, raising his sword for a killing blow—
Water erupts from the ground, catches the soldier, lifts him twenty feet in the air, and slams him down.
He doesn't get up.
Kaelis appears beside me, hands still glowing with water magic. "You okay?"
"I'm fine! That was amazing!"
"I know!" He looks shocked. "I did that on purpose! Without exploding anything!"
"Character development!"
"RIGHT?!"
Another explosion. We're thrown apart.
I hit the ground hard, rolling, ears ringing. When I look up—
Daemon stands over me.
"Hello, little prince," he says, sword pointed at my throat.
"Fuck off."
"Such language." He presses the blade closer. "You know, you're very pretty when you're scared."
"I'm going to throw up on you."
"Spirited. I like that." He leans closer. "Ravion will come for you, won't he? To save his precious husband. And when he does—" His smile is vicious. "—I'll kill him. Right in front of you."
"You can try."
"Oh, I'll do more than try."
Shadows erupt between us.
Daemon is thrown back thirty feet, slamming into a tree.
Ravion appears beside me, pulling me to my feet. His eyes are blazing red, shadows writhing around him like angry serpents.
"Are you hurt?" he demands.
"Just my arm. I'm okay."
"Stay behind me."
"Ravion—"
"STAY BEHIND ME!"
Daemon pulls himself up, looking furious but also... excited.
"There he is," he says. "The Dark King. Finally."
"You made a mistake," Ravion says quietly.
"Did I?"
"You touched what's mine."
"And?"
Ravion's smile is terrifying. "And now you die."
The shadows explode.
I've never seen Ravion fight like this.
Shadows form into weapons—swords, spears, whips—all of them striking at Daemon from different angles.
Daemon blocks, dodges, counters, but he's being pushed back.
"Impressive!" Daemon laughs, even as a shadow blade cuts his cheek. "But I'm just getting started!"
He raises his sword. It glows red.
Blood magic.
When he swings, the arc of his blade releases a wave of crimson energy.
Ravion's shadows catch it. Barely.
They're evenly matched.
This could go on for hours.
And we don't have hours.
I look around, trying to find Kaelis—
There.
He's surrounded by five soldiers. Fighting desperately. Water constructs keeping them at bay but he's tiring.
And behind him—
Isolde.
Walking slowly toward her son. Magic building in her hands.
"KAELIS!" I scream. "BEHIND YOU!"
He spins—
Too late.
Isolde's magic hits him square in the chest.
He flies backward, crashes into the ground, and doesn't get up.
"NO!" Nyx roars.
He abandons his fight with Asteria, races toward Kaelis—
Asteria doesn't let him.
Lightning strikes directly in front of him, creating a wall of electricity.
"Where are you going?" Asteria taunts. "We're not finished!"
"Get out of my way!" Nyx's voice is desperate.
"Make me."
She hits him with another bolt. This one catches him. He screams, drops to one knee.
The eclipse is making him too weak. He can't fight her like this.
Everything is falling apart.
Daemon and Ravion are locked in combat.
Nyx is losing to Asteria.
And Isolde—
She's walking toward Kaelis. Slow.
"Finally," she says. "After all this time. You're coming home, my son."
She reaches down, grabs Kaelis by the collar—
His eyes snap open.
Water explodes from the ground.
Not controlled. Not practiced. Just raw, chaotic power born from fear and fury.
The explosion sends Isolde flying backward. She hits a tree hard enough to crack the wood.
Kaelis staggers to his feet, hands glowing, water swirling around him in a protective sphere.
"I'm not your son anymore," he says. Voice shaking but determined. "I'm done being what you want me to be."
Isolde stands slowly. Blood on her lip. Murder in her eyes.
"Then you're dead to me."
She raises both hands. Magic darker than Ravion's shadows gathers.
This isn't restraint magic or capture magic.
This is death magic.
She's actually going to kill him.
"KAELIS!" Nyx screams, still trapped behind Asteria's lightning.
Kaelis stands his ground. Raises his hands. Prepares to fight his mother to the death—
I move without thinking.
Run across the battlefield, dodging soldiers, ignoring the pain in my arm, the fear in my chest.
I throw myself between them.
Between Kaelis and Isolde.
Between the son and the mother.
"DON'T!" I scream at her. "Don't do this!"
Isolde's magic wavers. For just a second, surprise crosses her face.
"Kieran?" she says. "You're—why are you—"
"He's my brother!" The words rip out of me. "My twin! My family! You want to kill him, you go through me first!"
"You would die for him?"
"YES!"
"Even though he's nothing to you? Just a stranger with your face?"
"He's not a stranger!" I'm crying now. Can't help it. "He's my twin! My other half! He understands me in ways no one else can! And if you think I'm going to let you hurt him—" My voice breaks. "—then you don't know me at all."
Silence.
Even the battle seems to pause.
Isolde stares at me. At us. At her two sons standing together against her.
"You choose him," she says slowly. "Over me. Over family. Over blood."
"You're not family," Kaelis says, standing beside me now. Our shoulders touching. United. "Family doesn't try to kill you. Doesn't control you. Doesn't treat you like property."
"Family loves you," I add. "And you don't love us. You love what we represent. What we can do for you."
"I gave you everything—"
"You gave us NOTHING!" Kaelis shouts. "Nothing but expectations and prophecies and destinies we never wanted!"
"We found our own family," I say firmly. "People who chose us. Who love us for who we are, not what we can do for them."
"Then you're both fools," Isolde says coldly. "And fools die young."
She releases the magic.
Death magic. Aimed at both of us.
We're going to die.
At least we're together.
I grab Kaelis' hand. He squeezes back.
Brothers facing death.
The magic hits—
—water.
A massive wall of water that appears from nowhere, catches the death magic, absorbs it.
Behind the wall, Nyx stands. Bleeding.
"You don't touch them," he gasps.
"You're too weak!" Asteria laughs from behind him. "You can barely stand!"
"Don't care." Nyx's eyes glow. "They're mine. Both of them. And you—" He looks at Isolde. "—you're done."
He raises both hands.
The sky opens.
Not with lightning. With water.
Rain. Torrential rain that appears from nowhere, summoned by a god who's pushing past his limits, past the eclipse, past everything.
The water isn't just falling. It's attacking.
Forming into spears, hammers, walls, weapons.
Asteria tries to counter with lightning but there's too much water. Her electricity disperses harmlessly.
The soldiers are swept away. Drowning in ankle-deep water that's somehow holding them down.
Daemon is forced to abandon his fight with Ravion, using his sword to create a shield against the water assault.
Isolde is pushed back. Step by step. Her death magic useless against an ocean's worth of fury.
"This is impossible!" she screams. "You're too weak! The eclipse—"
"Eclipse is ending," Nyx says.
I look up.
He's right.
The moon is sliding past the sun. The red light is fading. Normal sunlight is returning.
And with it—
Nyx's full power.
The rain intensifies. The water constructs multiply.
"Retreat!" Isolde screams to her forces. "RETREAT NOW!"
Asteria grabs her arm. Purple lightning crackles.
"This isn't over!" Asteria shouts.
"Yes it is," Ravion says.
He's standing beside Nyx now. Shadows and water working together. Creating a prison of darkness and liquid that advances on them.
"Go," Nyx says coldly. "Before I decide to drown you both."
Isolde's eyes find us. Me and Kaelis.
Standing together.
"You'll regret this," she says.
"We won't," Kaelis replies.
She and Asteria vanish in a flash of lightning and magic.
Daemon is the last to go. He looks at Ravion with pure hatred.
"Next time," he promises.
"There won't be a next time," Ravion says. "Come near my husband again, and I'll kill you. Slowly."
Daemon sneers but he's already backing toward where Isolde was. His own escape portal forming.
"This isn't over!" he shouts.
Then he's gone.
The remaining soldiers—the ones not drowned or unconscious—flee.
And then—
Silence.
The rain stops. The water recedes. The sun emerges fully from behind the moon.
The eclipse is over.
We won.
KAELIS' POV
I'm shaking.
Can't stop shaking.
My mother just tried to kill me.
Actually tried to kill me.
With death magic.
And Kieran—
"You're an idiot," I say to him.
He's still holding my hand. "What?"
"You jumped in front of death magic for me! You could've died!"
"So could you!"
"I was ready to die!"
"So was I!"
"That's not—we can't both—" I'm crying. "Don't do that again!"
"Don't almost get killed again!"
"I'LL TRY!"
We're shouting at each other. And then we're hugging. Holding onto each other like we're drowning.
"You're my brother," Kieran chokes out. "I couldn't let her hurt you."
"You're my brother too," I manage. "My twin. My—my family."
"Family," he agrees.
Strong arms wrap around both of us.
Nyx and Ravion. Pulling us both into a group embrace.
"You're both idiots," Ravion says, but his voice is shaking.
"Brave idiots," Nyx adds.
"Still idiots."
"We know," Kieran and I say together.
We stand there in the aftermath. Four people who became a family. Who fought together. Who survived together.
"Is it over?" I ask quietly.
"For now," Nyx says.
"She'll come back," Ravion adds. "Isolde doesn't give up."
"Then we'll fight her again," Kieran says firmly.
"Together," I add.
"Together," they both agree.
The sun is fully visible now. The red sky is gone. Everything looks normal again.
But nothing is normal.
We just survived a war.
And we're going to survive whatever comes next.
Because we're not alone anymore.
We have each other.