Sera's POV
Kaine's life force goes dark in my mind, and the world stops making sense.
The bond between us—the eternal, unbreakable bond—goes cold and empty.
He's dead.
Which means I should be dead too.
But I'm not.
I'm standing in the middle of chaos, dimensional tears ripping through reality, alternate Dorians fighting each other, and I'm still breathing even though my bonded mate just died.
"KAINE!" I scream, running to where he fell.
He's not moving. Not breathing. His silver eyes are open but empty, staring at nothing.
I press my hands to his chest, desperate, and golden light pours from my palms without me thinking about it. Healing energy. The same thing he used on me earlier.
"Come back," I beg. "Please come back. We have an eternal bond. You can't die. You CAN'T!"
But nothing happens. The light fades. He stays dead.
Through my tears, I see one of the alternate Dorians notice me. He breaks away from the fighting and starts walking toward me, the Codex in his hands.
"How interesting," this Dorian says, tilting his head. "You're still alive even though your bond mate died. That shouldn't be possible."
"Stay away from her!" Lyric shouts from her chair, still tied up but struggling against the ropes.
Dorian ignores her, crouching down beside me. "Unless... oh, this is fascinating. You're not just bonded to him. You're bonded to the concept of him. The eternal bond transcends individual death."
"I don't understand," I sob.
"You will." He reaches for me with one hand, dark energy gathering around his fingers. "Let me show you what you really are—"
A shadow blade bursts through his chest.
Dorian gasps, looking down in shock at the blade made of pure darkness. Behind him, Kaine stands, very much alive, very much furious.
"Don't," Kaine says coldly, "touch her."
He yanks the blade out and Dorian collapses, dead.
I stare at Kaine in disbelief. "You died. I felt you die!"
"I did die." He pulls me to my feet, checking me for injuries. "For about thirty seconds. Then the bond yanked me back. Apparently eternal bonds don't accept death."
"You can't die?" Hope and confusion mix in my chest.
"I can die. I just won't stay dead as long as you're alive." He glances at the chaos around us—the fighting Dorians, the dimensional tears, the destroyed apartment. "We need to close these portals before more things come through."
"I don't know how! I lost control!"
"Then we figure it out together." He takes my hand, and the bond flares back to life between us, warm and strong and golden.
Through it, I feel his certainty. His trust in me.
I close my eyes and reach for my Realm Walker power. It's wild, chaotic, but it's mine. I can control it.
I see all the dimensional tears as golden threads, fraying and loose. One by one, I grab them and pull them closed.
The alternate Dorians start disappearing, sucked back to their own realities. They scream and fight, but the portals close anyway.
Finally, only one Dorian remains—the original one, unconscious on my floor where Kaine stabbed him.
The apartment falls silent except for our heavy breathing.
"Is it over?" Lyric asks weakly.
"Not yet." Kaine walks over to Dorian and checks his pulse. "He's alive. Barely."
"Good," I say coldly. "I have questions for him."
Kaine looks at me with something like respect. "So do I."
I rush to Lyric and work at the ropes binding her. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"
"I'm fine. Terrified, but fine." She looks at Kaine, then at me, then at the scorch marks on my walls. "Sera, what the hell is happening to your life?"
"Long story. Very long story." The ropes come loose and Lyric stands, rubbing her wrists.
"I want the long version. All of it." She looks at Dorian's unconscious form. "Who is that psycho?"
"Kaine's evil brother."
"Of course he has an evil brother." Lyric laughs a little hysterically. "Why wouldn't he?"
Thorne appears through a portal, weapons drawn. "I felt the dimensional disturbance—" She stops, seeing the destruction. "What happened?"
"Sera opened the multiverse," Kaine says simply.
"She WHAT?"
"By accident!" I add quickly. "It was an accident!"
Thorne stares at me. "You opened the multiverse. By accident. Do you have any idea how powerful you'd have to be to—" She cuts herself off, looking at the still-glowing Codex on the floor. "He tried to copy your power."
"Yes. But Lyric stopped him." I smile at my best friend, who looks both proud and confused.
"I just fell on him. With my chair."
"It worked." Kaine picks up the Codex carefully. "We need to destroy this. No one should have access to this kind of power."
"Agreed." Thorne starts binding Dorian with magical chains that glow purple. "What do we do with him?"
Before anyone can answer, Dorian's eyes snap open.
But they're not his eyes anymore. They're completely black, empty voids.
"Too late," a voice says through Dorian's mouth—but it's not his voice. It's thousands of voices speaking as one, ancient and terrible. "The Codex has already been opened. The spell has already been spoken. The bargain has already been made."
"What bargain?" Kaine demands.
Dorian's body sits up despite the chains, moving like a puppet. "He traded his body for knowledge. His soul for power. And now he belongs to us."
"Who are you?" I ask, fear crawling up my spine.
"We are the Void. We are the space between dimensions. We are what watches from outside reality." The black eyes turn toward me. "And we have been waiting for a Realm Walker to open the doors wide enough for us to enter."
Ice floods my veins. "The multiverse tears..."
"Were perfect gateways. You invited us in, little Walker. And now we're here to stay."
Dorian's body stands, breaking Thorne's chains like paper. Dark energy radiates from him, making the air itself crack and splinter.
"Kill the vessel," Kaine says immediately.
"You can't kill us." The Void laughs through Dorian. "We're not alive. We're not dead. We simply are. And now we're inside your reality, we can spread. Possess. Consume."
It reaches toward me with one hand, and I see the truth—this isn't Dorian anymore. It's something wearing his body like a suit.
Kaine moves between us, shadows forming weapons. "You want her? Go through me."
"We will." The Void smiles. "We'll go through all of you. One by one. Body by body. Until this entire realm belongs to the darkness between stars."
The apartment starts shaking. The walls crack. Reality itself is beginning to break down around the Void's presence.
"We need to leave!" Thorne shouts. "Now!"
She opens a portal, grabbing Lyric. Kaine grabs me. We all jump through just as my apartment implodes into shadow.
We land back in the Veil Court, gasping.
"What was that thing?" Lyric demands.
"The Void," Thorne says grimly. "Entities that exist outside reality. They've been trying to enter our dimension for eons. And Sera just opened the door for them."
"I didn't mean to!"
"Doesn't matter. They're here now." Kaine looks shaken, actually shaken. "And they can possess anyone. Anything. They could already be spreading."
As if to prove his point, alarms start blaring throughout the Veil Court.
A guard runs in, his eyes wide with panic. "My lord! The Celestial Order is at the gates. They're demanding to speak with you immediately. They say—"
He stops. His eyes go black.
"They say hello," the guard speaks in that terrible multi-voice.
Then he attacks.
Kaine destroys him with one blast, but it's too late. The Void is already here. In the Veil Court. In the heart of immortal power.
"How many?" Thorne asks, weapons appearing in her hands.
"Unknown," Kaine says. "Could be dozens. Could be hundreds."
"So what do we do?" I ask.
Kaine looks at me, and through the bond, I feel his terrible realization.
"There's only one way to stop them," he says quietly. "We have to close the doors. All of them. Every dimensional tear in every realm."
"That would take weeks!" Thorne protests.
"We don't have weeks." Kaine takes my hand. "But Sera might be able to do it. All at once. She opened them. She can close them."
"That much power would kill her," Thorne says flatly.
"Not if I anchor her through the bond." Kaine squeezes my hand. "We're eternal. We can survive it together."
"Or you both die trying," Thorne finishes.
More alarms sound. More guards are turning, their eyes going black.
"Sera," Kaine says urgently. "It's your choice. We try to seal every dimension at once and maybe die, or we let the Void consume everything and definitely lose."
I look at Lyric, terrified but brave. At Thorne, ready to fight. At Kaine, willing to risk everything.
Then I look inside myself, at the Realm Walker power that caused all this chaos.
"Let's close the doors," I say.
"Together," Kaine confirms.
"Together."
We join hands, our bond flaring gold and white and silver.
And I reach out with my power to every dimension, every realm, every reality.
I grab all the threads at once.
And I pull.