Kael's POV
Mordain's body twisted and grew, bones cracking and reshaping.
Black scales erupted from his skin. His arms lengthened into claws. His face stretched into something between man and monster—a nightmare made flesh.
"Three hundred years of cursed blood," he roared, his voice now layered with dozens of tortured souls. "Every drop I took from you during your 'treatments,' Kael. Every bit of your suffering, your emptiness, your immortality—I absorbed it all. And now I'm more powerful than you ever were!"
He slammed his fist into the ground, and the entire palace shook. Cracks spread across the floor like spiderwebs.
"Everyone out!" Iskra shouted. "The building won't hold!"
But Mordain was faster. He raised his clawed hands, and dark energy sealed every door and window. "No one leaves. No one escapes. You all die here."
Through our bond, I felt Seraphina's fear spike, then transform into determination. She was different now—glowing with divine power, immortal, no longer the frightened girl in chains. But underneath the goddess-light, she was still herself. Still the woman who'd laughed at my cruelty and called it honesty.
Still someone worth saving.
"Together," she said, taking my hand.
"Together," I agreed.
Our combined power—her divine magic and my transformed curse—flowed between us like liquid gold and silver. It felt right. Complete. Like two pieces that had always been meant to fit together.
We attacked as one.
Golden-silver light exploded from our joined hands, slamming into Mordain's chest. He staggered back, howling in pain and rage.
"Yes!" Ryn shouted. "Keep hitting him!"
But Mordain recovered too quickly. He lunged forward with impossible speed, his claws aimed at Seraphina's throat.
I yanked her aside and felt his claws tear through my armor, raking across my ribs. The pain was sharp and immediate—real pain, not the distant sensation I'd felt while cursed. It hurt. It was terrible.
It was wonderful.
"Kael!" Seraphina pressed her glowing hand to my wound, and healing warmth flooded through me. The cuts closed instantly. "Don't be reckless!"
"Says the woman who sacrificed her humanity an hour ago," I shot back.
Despite everything, she almost smiled. "Fair point."
Mordain circled us, his monstrous form blocking the only exit. Behind us, Iskra, Ryn, Mira, and the guards formed a defensive line.
"You can't win," Mordain hissed. "I've planned for every possibility. Every outcome. Even if you kill this body, I've scattered pieces of my soul throughout the palace. I'll just reform. Again. And again. Forever."
"Then we'll kill you forever," Iskra said grimly, raising her sword.
"You don't have forever." Mordain's laugh was horrible. "Look at the walls."
I did—and my heart sank.
Black veins were spreading across the stone, pulsing like living things. The same dark magic that had transformed Mordain was infecting the entire palace.
"When this building falls," Mordain said, "it will take the entire capital city with it. Thousands will die. And their deaths will feed my resurrection. So go ahead—fight me. Kill me. Destroy this body. You'll only make me stronger."
Seraphina's grip on my hand tightened. Through our bond, I felt her mind racing, searching for a solution.
"There has to be a way," she whispered.
"There is." Mira stepped forward, her face grave. "But you won't like it."
"Tell us," I commanded.
"Mordain is right—killing his body won't work. He's anchored his soul to the palace itself. To truly destroy him, we need to destroy his anchor." She looked at me. "That means destroying the Obsidian Palace. The entire structure. With us inside."
Silence.
"No," Seraphina said. "There has to be another way."
"There isn't." Mira's eyes were sad. "The palace has been his source of power for three centuries. Every stone is saturated with his dark magic. We collapse it all, or he wins."
"But everyone will die," Seraphina protested. "All the servants, the guards, the people still in the city—"
"Not everyone." Mira looked at me again. "Kael, you still have your immortality. It's changed, transformed by Seraphina's divine power, but it's there. If you channel all of it into a shield—every drop of your cursed blood, every year of your unnatural life—you could protect the city. Hold the destruction to just the palace."
I understood immediately. "It would kill me."
"Yes."
Seraphina spun to face me, her golden eyes wide with horror. "No. Absolutely not. We'll find another way."
"There is no other way," I said quietly. I felt calm. Strange. Three hundred years of existence, and only in the last day had I finally felt alive. "It's fitting, really. I spent three centuries hurting people. Now I can spend my death saving them."
"Kael, we're bonded." Tears streamed down her glowing cheeks. "If you die, it might kill me too. Or trap me in eternal pain. We don't know—"
"You're immortal now. Divine. You'll survive." I touched her face, wiping away a tear that burned gold against my fingers. "And you'll live the life I never could. Free. Powerful. Good."
"I don't want to be good without you!" She grabbed my armor, shaking me. "You can't do this. You can't make me lose you right when you finally learned to feel again!"
Through our bond, I felt her anguish like a knife to my chest. But I also felt something else—her deep, desperate, impossible love for a man she'd known for less than a day.
And I felt my own feelings rising in response. Not the hollow emptiness of three centuries. Not the tiny warmth that had confused me.
Real emotion. Raw and overwhelming.
"I love you," I said, and the words felt like the first true thing I'd spoken in three hundred years. "I don't understand it. I barely know you. But I love you, Seraphina. And because I love you, I have to protect you. Have to protect everyone."
"No." She shook her head frantically. "There has to be—"
Mordain chose that moment to attack.
He was faster now, adapting, learning. His claws raked toward Seraphina's back.
I didn't think. I just moved.
I pushed her aside and took the hit meant for her. Claws punched through my chest, piercing my heart.
The pain was indescribable.
"KAEL!" Seraphina's scream shattered windows.
I fell to my knees, blood pouring from the wound. Golden blood. Mortal blood.
"Finally," Mordain laughed, pulling his claws free. "The mighty emperor falls."
But I wasn't finished.
With my last strength, I grabbed Mordain's arm and channeled everything—every drop of immortality, every year of cursed existence, every ounce of the strange new power Seraphina had given me through our bond.
"Ryn," I gasped. "The evacuation spell. Cast it now."
Ryn's face went white. "Your Majesty, that spell requires—"
"A willing sacrifice. I know." I looked at Seraphina one last time. She was on her knees, reaching for me, her face twisted with grief. "I'm sorry. I wanted more time. Wanted to learn what love really meant. But at least I got to feel it once."
"Kael, please—"
I activated the spell.
Golden light exploded from my dying body, forming a massive dome that expanded outward, covering the entire city. Through it, I felt Ryn casting the evacuation magic, felt every person within the shield being transported to safety outside the capital.
Seraphina. Mira. Iskra. Ryn. All my guards. All the servants. Every single life in danger.
All of them vanished in flashes of light, teleported away.
Except me.
And Mordain, who I held in an iron grip.
"What have you done?" he screamed, trying to pull away.
"Trapped us." Blood bubbled in my throat. "The palace. You. Me. We're all that's left."
Above us, the black veins covering the walls began to glow red. The dark magic Mordain had spread was becoming unstable without him to control it.
The palace was about to explode.
"You fool!" Mordain shrieked. "You'll kill us both!"
"That's the idea." My vision was fading. "You wanted my cursed blood? Congratulations. You get all of it. Every drop. Including the part that explodes when the curse finally breaks completely."
His eyes widened in understanding. "No—"
"Yes."
I felt the moment my heart stopped beating.
Felt the curse shatter.
Felt three hundred years of compressed, twisted magic finally release.
The last thing I heard was Seraphina's voice in my mind through our bond, desperate and broken:
"I love you too, you stupid, noble, self-sacrificing idiot. Don't you dare leave me. Don't you DARE—"
Then everything went white.
I woke in darkness.
No—not darkness. Just... nothing. An empty void.
I tried to move but couldn't feel my body. Tried to speak but had no voice.
Was this death? After three hundred years of immortality, was this what I'd been avoiding?
"Not quite."
A woman's voice echoed in the void. Familiar, but not.
Light bloomed, and a figure materialized before me. She was beautiful—tall, regal, with silver hair that floated like starlight and eyes that held the wisdom of ages.
"Who are you?" I asked, surprised I could speak here.
"I am Thalia. The priestess who cursed you three centuries ago." She smiled sadly. "And I'm here to offer you a choice, Kael Dravonis."
"A choice?"
"Your sacrifice broke Mordain's power. Destroyed the palace. Saved thousands of lives. Even saved my descendant, though she'll never forgive you for it." Thalia moved closer. "You've earned your rest. You can pass into death now, free of your curse, your guilt, your pain. True peace after so much suffering."
"Or?" Because there was always an 'or.'
"Or," Thalia said, "you can return. But not as you were. The curse is broken, your immortality is gone. You'd be fully mortal—aging, vulnerable, destined to die someday. And you'd return to a world where Seraphina has become something you can never be: divine, eternal, unchanging. She'll watch you age. Watch you grow weak. Watch you die while she remains forever young."
She tilted her head. "So what do you choose, Emperor? Peace in death? Or love in a mortal life that will break her heart when it ends?"
I thought of Seraphina's face. Her smile. Her courage. The way she'd looked at me like I was worth saving.
"I choose her," I said. "Even if it hurts. Even if it ends. I choose every moment I can have."
Thalia smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that."
She pressed her hand to my chest, and suddenly I could feel my body again—could feel my heart beating, my lungs breathing.
Could feel pain.
"She's calling for you," Thalia said as the void began to fade. "You'd better hurry. She's about to do something very stupid to try to bring you back."
The darkness shattered like glass.
I gasped awake to find myself lying in a field outside the capital, surrounded by rubble. In the distance, where the Obsidian Palace had stood, there was nothing but a smoking crater.
And beside me, Seraphina knelt with a dagger pressed to her wrist, tears streaming down her face.
"If I die," she was saying to herself, "maybe our bond will pull me to wherever he is. Maybe I can—"
"Don't," I croaked.
She froze. Looked down at me. Her eyes went wide.
"Kael?" she whispered. "You're... you're alive?"
"Apparently." I tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. Everything hurt. "And if you try to stab yourself, I'm going to be very angry."
She dropped the dagger and threw herself at me, sobbing into my chest. "You idiot! You complete and utter idiot! I thought I lost you!"
"I know. I'm sorry." I held her tight, breathing in the scent of her hair, feeling the warmth of her body. Alive. We were both alive. "But I'm back. And I'm not going anywhere."
"You better not." She pulled back to glare at me through her tears. "Because you told me you loved me and then immediately died, and that's the worst possible timing for a first 'I love you.'"
Despite the pain, I smiled. "Then let me say it again, properly this time. I love you, Seraphina. And I'm going to spend every remaining day of my mortal life proving it."
She kissed me then—fierce and desperate and full of joy.
Around us, survivors began to gather. Iskra. Ryn. Mira. They stared at the smoking crater where the palace had been, then at us, then broke into cheers.
"The Emperor lives!"
"The Empress saved us all!"
"Mordain is destroyed!"
But I barely heard them. I only had eyes for Seraphina, who was smiling at me with that same sad, brave smile I'd fallen in love with.
"You know," she said softly, "you're mortal now. You'll age. Die. While I stay like this forever."
"I know."
"It's going to hurt. When you're gone."
"I know that too." I touched her glowing cheek. "But I'll take fifty years of hurt over three hundred years of nothing. Every time."
She laughed through her tears. "You really are an idiot."
"Your idiot."
Behind us, Mira cleared her throat. "Not to interrupt this touching moment, but we have a slight problem."
We turned to look at her.
"The palace is destroyed. Mordain is dead. The curse is broken." Mira gestured to the ruins. "But in all the chaos, someone escaped. Someone who's been lurking in the shadows, waiting for this exact moment."
"Who?" Seraphina asked.
Mira's face was grim. "Your father. Duke Ashford. He was in the palace making secret deals with Mordain. And now he's gone—along with something very dangerous."
"What did he take?" I asked.
"A piece of the curse." Mira pointed to the crater. "When your curse shattered, it released fragments of raw dark magic. Your father managed to grab one. And with it, he can—"
A messenger ran up, gasping for breath. "Your Majesties! The southern provinces! They're marching on the capital with an army! Duke Ashford is leading them!"
I looked at Seraphina. She looked at me.
"Can we ever catch a break?" she asked.
"Apparently not." I forced myself to stand, ignoring the pain. "Looks like we're going to war."
"Together?" she asked, taking my hand.
"Always together."
And as we stood there, mortal emperor and immortal empress, facing an army led by her father with stolen dark magic, I realized something:
For the first time in three hundred years, I was exactly where I wanted to be.