Chapter 37 “The Prince Who Should Have Been”
Elera lies limp in my arms, her head resting against my shoulder, her hair spilling over my chest like fallen starlight. Her breathing is thin — too thin — and every rise of her chest feels borrowed.
The sanctum is quiet in the way graveyards are quiet.
The shadow is gone.
But the echo of its scream still rings inside my skull.
“Aiden,” my mother whispers, stepping toward us, her hands trembling. “Let me see her.”
I curl around Elera instinctively. “Don’t touch her yet. She needs to breathe. She needs—”
My voice breaks. I don’t finish.
Because I don’t know what she needs.
Magic? Rest? Protection? A miracle?
The Seer kneels beside her, staff humming faintly. “Your Highness… she repelled the entity with pure soul-force. That kind of magic should be impossible for a mortal.”
“She isn’t just mortal,” I snap. “She’s my mate.”
“Yes,” the Seer says quietly. “And that is exactly why it wants her.”
The queen stiffens. “Enough. What was that… thing? Tell us the truth, Seer.”
The Seer’s eyes flicker to me — and I see pity. That terrifies me more than anything the shadow could do.
“You all know the legend,” she begins slowly. “The First Prince. The child who passed before drawing breath.”
“It wasn’t a legend,” Mother murmurs, staring at the floor. “It was my greatest grief.”
The Seer nods. “But his soul never crossed the threshold. The veil claimed it. And something in the veil twisted it into hunger.”
My throat tightens. “So the monster that attacked her… was my brother?”
“No,” the Seer whispers.
“Not a brother.
A reflection.
A fragment of what he could have been. What you could be — if stripped of heart, soul, and purpose.”
A cold shiver runs all the way down my spine.
Elera stirs faintly, her fingers twitching. My heart seizes.
“Sweetheart?” I lean close. “Can you hear me?”
Her lips part, barely moving.
“It… spoke to me…”
My wolf bristles instantly. “What did it say?”
She winces, as if the memory burns. “It told me… it wasn’t done. That it would take what belonged to it.”
Her gaze shifts weakly toward my chest — toward the bond-mark glowing faintly beneath my ribs.
My mother gasps. “It wants the bond?”
“No,” the Seer says grimly. “It wants to replace him.”
The air leaves my lungs.
“Replace me,” I echo hollowly. “Take my life. Take my path. Take my mate.”
The Seer nods. “It is not merely a shadow — it is an echo of a destiny denied.”
The queen’s voice breaks, raw and human. “Why didn’t anyone tell us this was possible?”
“Because it shouldn’t be,” the Seer says. “Nothing should survive the veil.”
Elera suddenly grips my wrist — weak, shaking, but desperate.
“Aiden…”
Her voice trembles.
“You have to leave me here.”
For a second, the world stops.
Then I shake my head violently. “No. Absolutely not.”
“Aiden—”
“No.”
It comes out as a growl.
She swallows hard, eyes glassy with exhaustion. “It’s following the bond. It’ll track you — your heartbeat. Your magic. Your blood.”
I cup her cheek gently. “Let it come. I’ll kill it.”
“You saw what it did,” she whispers. “It became you.”
My voice drops, sharp and low. “It will never be me.”
Her eyes flutter closed again, breath growing shallow. “If it reaches me while I’m weak like this… it could take the bond. The Seer said so.”
I look at the Seer, pleading for her to deny it.
She doesn’t.
“It is possible,” she says softly. “If the entity touches her heart-thread in this state… the bond will unravel.”
My vision swims.
Lose her?
Lose the bond?
Lose the part of me that woke when she did?
No.
Never.
I rise to my feet with her in my arms. “Then I’m not leaving her side. Not now. Not ever.”
The Seer shakes her head. “You misunderstand — leaving her is the only way to protect her.”
“I will not abandon her!”
“Aiden—”
She raises her staff, and the sanctum walls pulse with ancient runes.
“Your presence draws the entity. Your very heartbeat is a beacon. If you stay, you doom her.”
The queen steps forward, eyes shining with tears.
“Aiden, your love may kill her.”
That sentence hits harder than any blow.
I stagger back, holding Elera tighter, as if they’re trying to take her away from me.
“She would never ask that of me,” I whisper.
Elera coughs softly. Her voice is barely a breath.
“Aiden… I am asking.”
My knees weaken.
“Don’t,” I whisper. “Don’t say that. Not you.”
Her fingers brush my neck, trembling. “Live. Please. Because if you die… I’ll die too. And I can’t— I can’t lose you.”
Her voice cracks, and it shreds something in me.
I kneel on the sanctum floor, holding her against my chest. “I won’t run from this. I won’t leave you alone in the dark.”
Her forehead presses weakly against mine. “I’m not afraid of the dark. I’m afraid of losing you.”
I bite down a sob that feels like it tears through bone.
“I’m yours,” I whisper fiercely. “And I’m not going anywhere.”
She shakes her head weakly. “If you stay… he’ll kill you. And then he’ll take me. Don’t you understand? He wants your life. He wants everything you have.”
A horrible thought strikes me.
“What if it’s not just following my heartbeat?”
The Seer’s eyes widen. “What do you mean?”
“What if it’s feeding on it?”
Silence.
Cold, suffocating silence.
Then the Seer breathes, “Then you are in far more danger than she is.”
My mother gasps. “Your life-force— the bond— it must be draining—”
But I barely hear them.
Because Elera’s eyes flutter again, unfocused, unfocused.
“Aiden…” she whispers.
“Promise me you’ll survive this.”
“I refuse,” I whisper, voice breaking. “Because surviving without you is not surviving.”
Her breath stutters.
The door slams open.
Liam bursts into the sanctum, sword in hand, eyes wild. “I felt the wards break— is she—?” His gaze lands on Elera in my arms. His face drains of blood.
“Aiden… is she dying?”
I hold her closer.
“She will not die,” I snarl. “Because I am not letting her go.”
Liam steps closer — not to me, but to her. There is heartbreak etched across his face so raw it almost hurts to see.
“Aiden,” he whispers, “the entity is reforming outside the palace. We don’t have time.”
I rise slowly, Elera held tight against my chest.
Every person in the sanctum watches me.
Waiting.
Hoping.
Fearing.
The Seer steps forward. “Prince Aiden… make your choice.”
And I know—
Whatever I choose will either save her life
or end it.