Chapter 15 CHOICES AND CONSEQUENCES
I woke to screaming.
My own. Nightmare clinging like cobwebs, Kaelix dying in my arms, black veins consuming him while I watched helplessly, his last words "I love you" as life left his eyes.
"Elara." His real voice. Warm. Alive. "I'm here. I'm right here."
I held onto him like lifeline. Felt his heartbeat. Real. Present. Not dead yet.
Yet.
"Nightmare?" he asked quietly.
"You died."
"I'm not dead."
"Not yet." The words tasted like ash. "But soon. Days, you said. Maybe a week."
Through the bond, I felt his confirmation. Felt how tired he was. How much pain he hid.
"We'll figure it out," he said. Not believing it. Just saying words to comfort me.
I pulled back. Really looked at him in the pre-dawn light filtering through windows.
The black veins covered everything now. His face. His hands. His chest. Like someone had drawn a death map across his skin.
And my skin showed the same. Fainter. But spreading.
We were dying. Together. The bond sharing his curse until it killed us both.
"There has to be a way," I whispered.
"Maybe there isn't."
"Don't say that."
"Why not? We've tried everything. The original ritual failed. The rescue almost killed us. The modified ritual during the fight changed things but didn't break anything." His voice was flat. Accepting. "Maybe this is it. Maybe we just… make peace with it."
"NO." I sat up. Ignored how my head turn sharply. "No. I refuse to accept that. There's always a way. Always.
"
"Elara..."
"My mother learned things. During her imprisonment. About the curse. About breaking it." The words tumbled out desperate. "I'll talk to her. Get every detail. We'll find something."
"What if there's nothing to find?"
"Then we make something! We improvise! We fight until we can't fight anymore!" I grabbed his face. Made him look at me. "I didn't survive auction and ritual and assassination and war just to give up now. And neither did you."
Something shifted in his expression. Hope. Fragile but present.
"You're right," he said quietly. "You're right. We fight. Until the end."
"Until the end."
I kissed him. Desperate. Grateful he was still here to kiss.
Then I went to find my mother.
Aria sat in the healing gardens, looking small and breakable in morning light. Seventeen years of torture didn't wash away in one night.
The physical wounds had healed, Morwenna's healers were thorough. But the other scars…
Those would take longer.
"Mama?" I sat beside her carefully. Like she might spook. "Can we talk?"
She turned. Her eyes... my eyes; were haunted.
But she smiled. "Always, baby. What's wrong?"
Everything. The world. The curse. The dying.
"You said you learned things. In captivity. About Kaelix's curse. About how to break it."
Her expression shuttered. "I did."
"Tell me... everything. Please."
She was quiet for a long moment. Then:
"Seraphine talked. When she tortured me. When she thought I was too broken to remember. She told me about the curse. About how she designed it."
My stomach clenched. "And?"
"It's brilliant. Terrible. But brilliant." Aria's voice was clinical. Detached. The only way to discuss horror without drowning in it. "The curse doesn't just kill whoever Kaelix loves. It binds to soul bonds. To mate connections. It uses the bond itself as a conduit."
"So breaking the bond would break the curse?"
"No. Breaking the bond would kill you both instantly. The curse has anchored to it. Grown into it. You're too intertwined now."
"Then what? There has to be something!"
"There is. One option. One chance." She took my hands. "But the cost…"
"I don't care about cost. Tell me."
"A sacrifice ritual. During the Blood Moon. You willingly give up your immortal blood. Your Fae nature. Transfer it to Kaelix. The magic flows into him, breaks the curse from inside."
My mouth went dry. "What happens to me?"
"You become mortal. Fully human. Your Fae blood dies. Your magic fades. Your immortality…" She couldn't finish.
I finished for her. "Gone. I'd be human."
"Yes."
"For how long?"
"Average human lifespan. Seventy years. Maybe eighty if you're lucky. While Kaelix lives centuries. Millennia."
Seventy years versus forever.
Watching everyone I loved stay young while I aged and died.
"That's the only way?" My throat tightened and my voice wavered.
"The only way I know."
I stood. Paced. Tried to breathe past the panic clawing up my throat.
Seventy years. With Kaelix. Growing old while he stayed young. Dying while he lived.
Or we both died now. Together. In days.
Some choice.
"Don't tell him," I said suddenly.
"What?"
"Don't tell Kaelix. Not yet. He'll refuse. Try to stop me. I need… I need time to think."
"Elara..."
"Please, Mama. Just… give me time."
She studied me with those too-knowing eyes. Then nodded slowly. "Alright. But not long. The Blood Moon rises in two weeks. You'll need to prepare."
Two weeks to decide if I'd give up everything for him.
Two weeks to choose between dying now or dying eventually.
No pressure.
I spent the day avoiding Kaelix.
Hated myself for it. But I couldn't face him. Couldn't pretend everything was fine when I was contemplating giving up immortality.
Training with Morwenna was brutal. She pushed me harder than ever, like she knew I needed the distraction.
By sunset, I was exhausted enough to almost forget.
Almost.
I found Kaelix in our chambers. He'd been sleeping, the curse made him tire easily now. But he woke when I entered.
"You've been avoiding me," he said. Not accusing. Just stating fact.
"No..."
"Don't lie. The bond doesn't let you. I felt your avoidance all day." He sat up. "What happened? What did your mother tell you?"
Damn these soul bonds. No secrets. No privacy.
"She told me about the curse," I admitted.
"About how to break it."
"And?"
"And it's complicated."
"How complicated?"
I couldn't lie. He'd feel it. So I told him. Everything. The sacrifice. The mortality. The seventy years versus forever.
His face drained of color, then flamed bright with heat, an uncontrollable storm of fear and anger burning across his skin.
Then something beyond color.
"Absolutely not," he said flatly.
"Kaelix..."
"NO. You are not giving up immortality for me. End of discussion."
"It's not your decision!"
"Like hell it isn't! We're mates! Soul bonded! I get a say!"
"You get an opinion. Not a veto."
"This is different!" He stood. Shadows gathering. Angry. "You're talking about dying!"
"In seventy years! That's a lifetime!"
"It's NOTHING compared to millennia! You'd be throwing away thousands of years!"
"To save you! To save us!"
"There has to be another way..."
"There isn't! This is it! The only option!" I was shouting now. Didn't care. "So you have a choice. Let me do this and live. Or refuse and watch us both die in days. THOSE ARE YOUR OPTIONS."
"That's not fair!"
“NOTHING about this is fair!” I sobbed, my tears burning trails down my cheeks. “Being sold like I’m nothing... that wasn’t fair. The curse, the bond, even falling in love with you while we’re both bleeding out... none of it makes sense. None of it should happen. But I’m doing it anyway.” I barely held back a crack in my voice. “Because love… love means fighting when everything tells you to give up. It means holding on even when the world is breaking apart around us.”
He stared, his breath ragged, eyes dark with shadows, haunted by the impossible, by the pain we shared but couldn’t escape.
Through the bond, I felt everything. His wrath. His terror. His desperate need to protect me even from myself.
"I can't watch you die," he said finally. Voice breaking. "Even in seventy years. I can't."
"And I can't watch you die in days. So I guess we're both scared."
"That's not the same thing."
"Yes, it is. You're asking me to let you die to spare you future pain. I'm asking you to let me sacrifice to spare you immediate death. Both are terrible. Both hurt. But one of us gets to live."
"That's not living. That's surviving."
"Then we survive. Together. For as long as we get." I crossed to him. Took his hands. "Please. Let me do this. Let me save you."
"By destroying yourself?"
"By choosing what matters more. You. Us. Our time together." I met his eyes. "I'd rather have seventy years with you than an eternity without you. Don't you understand? You're worth it. We're worth it."
Something crumbled in his expression. "You're the most stubborn, impossible, infuriating woman I've ever met."
"Is that a yes?"
"It's an 'I'll hate myself for this but I can't watch you die in days either.'" He pulled me close.
"Those seventy years. We make every single one count. Every day. Every moment. We live. Really live."
"Deal."
"And when you're old and gray and still beautiful, I'll be right there. Holding your hand. Loving you until your last breath."
"Promise?"
"I swear it on everything I am." He kissed me. Desperate. Grateful. Terrified. "I love you. More than immortality. More than anything."
"I love you too. That's why I'm doing this."
We held each other as the sun set. Two people who'd found each other in hell and decided heaven could wait.
Two weeks.
We had two weeks to prepare for a ritual that would either save us or kill us.
Two weeks to make peace with choices that had no good answers.
Two weeks before everything changed.
But we had each other.
And that had to be enough.
It would be enough.
Because the alternative, losing him now; wasn't something I could survive.
So I'd give up immortality. Give up everything.
And pray that love was worth the cost.