The immortal's bride

The girl's name was Elira.

She sat quietly in Aelia's chamber, her thin fingers clutching a warm mug of tea. Her eyes were still wide from fear, but her voice trembled with determination as she finally spoke.

"They've been watching me for weeks," Elira whispered. "The Shades. They don't come near the others. Only me."

Aelia knelt beside her. "You said something about a mark. Do you know what it is? Can you show me?"

Elira hesitated. Then, slowly, she rolled up her sleeve.

There, just above her elbow, was a faint silvery symbol—like a crescent moon split down the middle, glowing faintly under her skin. It pulsed as though it were alive.

Aelia's breath caught. She had seen that shape once—in a book Kael had forbidden her to touch, hidden behind wards in the palace's locked library.

"This… this shouldn't be on you," she murmured, brushing her fingers over it. "It's an ancient sigil. One only given to beings connected to the Realm of Veilfire."

"Is that where I'm from?" Elira asked, voice barely audible. "I don't remember anything before the orphanage. Just flashes. Fire… and a voice calling my name."

Aelia swallowed. "You might not be human, Elira. At least… not entirely."

Instead of panicking, Elira nodded like she already knew.

"I thought maybe you'd understand," she whispered. "You're not like the others. You hear things. Feel them."

Aelia looked toward the door. She could still feel the weight of Kael's words earlier—how he'd carved space between them with cruel precision.

But there was someone else who might help. Someone who never recoiled from her questions.

---

That night, under the shadow of the west tower, Aelia met Thorian again.

He was waiting just beyond the walls, hidden among the twisted vines and shattered columns of the old garden. The moon bled silver through the thick clouds above, painting everything in ghostlight.

"You came," he said softly.

"I had to."

She didn't tell him about how she had crept past two guards, or how her pulse had thundered the whole way there. She only knew that being near him felt like breathing after drowning.

She held out her hand, and Thorian's face shifted in shock as the symbol shimmered above Elira's skin in a drawn sketch.

"She's marked," Aelia said. "Veilfire-born."

Thorian's brows drew tight. "That mark hasn't been seen in hundreds of years. Only the ancient bloodlines carried it. She must be descended from a guardian — one of the protectors of the veil."

"But why would the Shades try to take her?"

"Because Veilfire blood can either strengthen the barrier between worlds… or shatter it," he said, voice grim. "If the mark awakens fully, and she doesn't know how to control it, the wrong hands could use her to tear open the boundary between this realm and the next."

Aelia felt the ground tilt under her. "Kael knew. He must've known. That's why he's been watching me, too. Why he won't let me leave."

Thorian took a step closer, lowering his voice. "Aelia, I think you're tied to this more than you realize. The Shades are growing bolder. The mark on Elira might just be the beginning."

He paused. "And the fact that it reacted to your presence—"

"What?"

He nodded. "You said it glowed when you touched it? The sigil only does that when it senses a bonded power. Whatever she is… you are too."

Aelia stepped back, her hands shaking. "I can't— I don't want this. I didn't ask to be bound to some forgotten magic or—"

"I know," Thorian said, gently reaching for her hand. "But you're not alone anymore."

Her eyes lifted to his, and for a heartbeat, the noise of the palace, of the realm, of Kael — all of it fell away.

It was just the two of them, in a broken garden, under a silver moon.

"You're not like him," she whispered. "He says I was brought here to save the realm. That I'm a tool, nothing more."

"You're not a weapon," Thorian said, his voice laced with a quiet fury. "You're a flame. And flames burn through chains."

He reached for her other hand, his fingers wrapping around hers. Not possessive. Not desperate. Just real.

Aelia closed her eyes. Her heart beat too fast.

But she didn't pull away.

---

In the shadows, someone watched.

Kael stood far above on the battlements, cloaked in silence. His eyes glowed faintly in the dark, unreadable.

He had followed her.

And though his hands stayed clenched behind his back, the stone beneath his feet cracked.

Not because he saw her with Thorian.

But because he finally understood:

The fire inside her was awakening.

And it no longer answered to him.

---