structors. No explanation, no warning. Just a single word whispered: "Trial." She was barefoot, in her nightshirt, when they threw her into the Pyren Wing, the oldest, most cursed part of the Acade

etween them, his entire body catching fire in defense. Seren didn't think - she reacted. Magic erupted from her hands. Pure, white-hot light, exploding outward in a ring that knocked every attacker unconscious. When the smoke cleared, Kael was on one knee, panting. "What the hell are you?" She didn't know. But for the first time... she felt like something inside her had stopped sleeping. Kael stood slowly, bleeding from a wound at his side, one that sizzled against his flame-coated skin. "Why do you keep putting yourself in danger for me?" she asked. He didn't answer right away. He just looked at her. "Because you're the only one who's ever touched me without flinching." "You're not a monster," she said quietly. "That's where you're wrong," Kael muttered. "But maybe you're cursed enough to love one anyway." The soulflame circled again - but this time, it moved of its own accord. It touched both of them... and merged. Golden sparks leapt between their marks. Kael flinched like it hurt. Seren gasped like it healed. Their powers didn't cancel each other out - they connected. "There's a bond forming," Kael said softly. "Ancient. Dangerous." "So break it." "I can't. It's not up to me anymore." She stepped back. "What if I don't want to belong to anyone?" His eyes burned. "Then don't. But if you fall, I'll still catch you. Even if it costs me everything." The battle left the chamber in rubble. Seren's chest heaved with leftover magic, skin glowing faintly. Kael stumbled to a half-collapsed bench, his shirt long burned away, a gash still bleeding on his ribs. She knelt beside him, ripping the hem of her nightshirt to press against the wound. "You don't have to help me," he rasped. "I don't feel pain like you do." "You still bleed like anyone else." Kael turned his face slightly - not to her, but from her. "If you knew what I've done... what I'm supposed to become..." "What?" she asked, soft. "Some kind of monster?" He didn't answer. But his silence said everything. She noticed something then - burned into his collarbone, half-hidden by soot and blood: A sigil. Not just any symbol. A dragon's eye encircled in runes. Royal. Ancient. Forbidden. "That mark," she whispered. "It's in one of the Academy's locked tomes." Kae