Chapter 131: We're Not Doing The Ceremony - Callista's POV

The way he went still when I said it told me everything about how much he hadn't been expecting that. This wasn’t the stillness he used when he was managing the demon. He was so still I wasn’t sure he was even breathing.

I gave him a moment to take in what I had found.

My throat was still raw from six days of disuse and crying internally. My limbs felt distant, just like they did after rapidly shifting. Thankfully, my mind was clear, clearer than it had been in months, actually. Coming out on the other side of this vision felt like having a fever break and finally getting relief.

"Two," Riven said finally, his voice cracking.

"Two," I confirmed.

"There are two demons,” he clarified.

“There have always been two since the beginning,” I said softly, watching his face as I spoke. “That was the design from the beginning. They have to feed, so there is one in each vessel.”

He thought about that for a moment and nearly collapsed. “That’s why when the Alpha King’s heir would pass, there was typically a second one somewhere out there. They’ve always come in batches of two.”

“They work in tandem, feeding off each other’s strengths and amplifying each other until they reach a point that one alone could ever reach.” I paused and looked at the door. “This is why Raze’s demon just lost it before I…had the vision. They’re connected and always have been.”

He looked at the space between us for a moment, reorganizing his thoughts. I knew this was a lot and that it would take time to process. It’s one thing to find out you hold a demon, but knowing your father did this to you to keep his position and now that they always come in two is more than some could handle.”

"Like calls to like," he drawled. "That's what I told you in the woods. When Raze lost control, I felt mine respond."

"Yes, because they're two halves of the same summoning. Separating them into two bodies was deliberate. It made them harder to identify, harder to treat, and it meant that even if one vessel died, the other would carry enough of the combined strength to eventually reach completion alone." I stared at him, trying to organize everything I had found out. "But it also created a vulnerability."

His eyes came back to mine.

"They need each other to complete the transfer," I said, my voice steadier than I felt. "One demon alone can't do it. The transfer to the intended target only works if both demons act simultaneously, from both vessels, at the point of completion." I let that settle for a moment. "Which means if one of them is severed before completion—"

"The other can't complete it either," he said softly.

"The whole summoning collapses," I added. "Both demons lose their anchors."

He stared at me. "And they die."

"Disperse," I said carefully, because the vision had been specific about this and I wanted to be specific too. "They were never alive in the way we're alive. They're constructed from grief, intention, and old magic. When the structure that holds them fails, they don't die so much as they—" I searched for the word. "Unravel."

Riven was quiet for a moment. "How do we sever one?"

I had known this question was coming since the moment I understood what the book was showing me. I had spent the last portion of the vision readying myself for the answer, turning it over and looking for a different interpretation that would make it simpler than it was.

There wasn't one.

“That’s where it gets fuzzy. A fully realized true mate bond, sealed under the full moon, creates a barrier around the host. It won’t kill the demon, though,” I whispered. “I have to trap it within our bond and even then, I don’t know. We’re the first Moon Marked couple, so it has to work.”

"So the ceremony," he rasped. "If we complete the ceremony—"

"Your demon gets sealed inside the bond between us," I said in a hushed tone. "And Raze's demon loses the connection it needs to reach completion. They both unravel."

He looked at me for a long moment. "That sounds almost too simple. After all we’ve survived, it doesn’t feel real that this is the answer.”

“It would have been good if Raze had a Moon Marked mate,” I laughed softly. “Maybe that would help us.”

“What’s the catch?” He asked, his voice trailing off. “I know there’s one.”

“The bond has to be sealed completely. That means if this fails…”

I couldn’t even finish the sentence.

“You would die,” he breathed. “Unless you had someone on standby to break the bond.”

That thought sat with me for a moment, because I had already decided before that I wasn’t going to die and neither was he.

“Yes,” I said finally. “Technically. If the seal fails, and the demon finds a way to fracture the bond, then everything collapses. There are still risks.”

He understood what that meant. I watched a puzzled look cross his expression.

“We’re still at the same outcome as the beginning,” he breathed. He stood up from the chair, dragging his hands through his hair. “We’re not doing the ceremony.”

"Riven—"

"No." His voice was very quiet and very final. "I’m not putting you on the wrong side of a risk like that. Not for the ceremony, the demon, or any of it. We can’t.”

“The demon reaches completion and then you’re going to kill everyone,” I said plainly. “You and I have come too far to give up. We’re meant to be together. Raze will also be free.”

“Raze and I will find another way to be free.”

“There isn’t another way,” I snapped, throwing back the covers onto the bed and standing. “I was in that vision for six days. This is our only hope. If you let the demon win, then I die regardless. How many times do we have to go through this?”

“Until I…get it through my head,” he said, his voice pure anguish. “I’m trying to save you, but I don’t know how.”

He looked at me as I gripped his face in my hands.

“Then marry me beneath the full moon in…what, less than five weeks?”

He grinned, though it was pained. “Yes.”

“Good. Then marry me on my birthday,” I said, my heart shuttering. “We can still find a way to live happily ever after.”

“And if we don’t?” As he asked, he leaned into my touch, rubbing his cheeks against my hands. “Death may be all that waits.”

“Shut up,” I said sharply. Before he could blink, I stood on my toes and pressed my lips against his.