Chapter 16 THE THIRD WAY
The door exploded.
Literally exploded, wood splintering, hinges screaming, magic crackling through the air like lightning. I snapped back, came alive with a quick intake of breath, heart hammering, vines already breaking free from my fingertips before my brain caught up.
Kaelix moved faster. Shadows surged, defensive and lethal, wrapping around whoever dared...
"WAIT!" Lysander stumbled through the wreckage, hands raised. His robes were smoking. His hair stood on end. And his eyes...gods, his eyes were wild. Manic. "I found it! I found another way!"
The shadows retreated slowly. Kaelix's voice was deadly quiet. "You destroyed my door."
"I found another way to break the curse!"
Everything stopped.
My heart. My breath. Time itself.
"What?" The word barely made it past my lips.
Lysander jolted forward, nearly tripping over rubble. He clutched a book to his chest like it was his firstborn child. Ancient didn't begin to describe it, the leather binding looked ready to crumble, pages yellow-brown and brittle.
He dropped it on our bed. Dust exploded everywhere.
"Here. Look. It's all here." He flipped through pages frantically. "Another ritual. Different from the blood sacrifice. This one...this one lets you keep everything. Your magic. Your immortality. Both of you live. Forever."
I grabbed the book before he could tear it apart. The text swam before my eyes, old dialect, older script. But my Wild Court magic translated automatically.
And what I read made my stomach drop.
"Oh."
Just oh. That's all I could manage. Because the words were clear. Brutally, impossibly clear.
Union of flesh and magic under Blood Moon. Soul merger through physical consummation. True mates joined completely. Shadow and Wild becoming one.
Heat flooded my face. Then my neck. Then everywhere.
"You're saying..." I couldn't finish.
"The ritual requires physical union," Lysander said. Professional. Clinical. Like he wasn't describing, like we weren't talking about... "Consummation of the mate bond. During the Blood Moon. Your magics must merge at the moment of completion. If successful, the curse shatters. If not..."
"We die." Kaelix's voice was flat. "Both of us. Instantly."
"Yes."
I stared at the page. At the illustrations that left absolutely nothing to imagination. At the words that kept repeating: perfect trust, perfect love, complete vulnerability.
"So we're betting our lives on sex." My voice sounded strange. Distant. "On whether we can... while channeling deadly magic... and not die."
"When you put it like that..." Lysander started.
"How else should I put it?!" The words exploded from me. "You want me to lose my virginity while performing dark magic and knowing one wrong thought kills us both!
That's... that's..."
"Your only other option," Lysander said gently.
"The blood sacrifice. Giving up your immortality. Dying in seventy years while Kaelix lives millennia."
The reminder hit like cold water. Right. The alternative was worse. Maybe.
"I need..." I stood. Paced. The room was too small. The air too thin. "I need to think."
"You have one day," Lysander said. "The Blood Moon rises tomorrow night. After that, we wait another month. And by then..."
By then we'd be dead. The curse would finish what it started.
One day to decide. To prepare. To make peace with dying while having sex or dying while watching everyone I loved stay young forever.
Some choice.
"Leave us," Kaelix said quietly.
Lysander bowed and left. The destroyed door hung crooked on one hinge. Privacy was a joke.
I kept pacing. Five steps to the wall. Turn. Five steps back. My mind raced faster than my feet.
"Elara." Kaelix's voice was soft. Careful. "Look at me."
I couldn't. If I looked at him, I'd have to acknowledge what we were discussing. What we'd have to do.
What I'd have to do.
Gods, I'd never even, the ritual didn't count, I was unconscious for most of it, drowning in magic and terror. I didn't remember anything except pain and silver blood.
This would be different. I'd be aware. Present. Choosing it.
With my life depending on doing it right.
"Elara." Kaelix was suddenly in front of me. Hands on my shoulders. balancing. "Breathe."
"I'm breathing."
"You're hyperventilating." His thumbs rubbed small circles. "In through your nose. Out through your mouth."
I tried. Failed. Tried again. My chest felt tight, lungs refusing to cooperate.
"I can't do this," I whispered.
"Then we don't."
"But the alternative..."
"Is you alive. Even if it's only seventy years. That's better than you dead tomorrow because I couldn't..." His voice cracked. "Because I couldn't make it good enough. Safe enough. Because you were scared and the magic failed and..."
"Stop." I grabbed his face. Made him look at me. "Stop catastrophizing. You don't know it'll fail."
"I don't know it'll succeed!"
"Then we try!" The words came out fiercer than intended. "We try because the alternative is me growing old while you stay young. Me dying while you live forever. Me leaving you alone. Is that what you want?"
His expression shattered. "Of course not."
"Then we do this. We fight. We bet everything on love being stronger than death and fear and... and inexperience."
"You shouldn't have to bet your first time on a death ritual."
"No. I shouldn't. But life isn't fair, is it?" I tried to smile. Failed. "At least this way, if we die, we die together. Not decades apart. Not with you watching me age and fade. Together."
He pulled me close. Buried his face in my hair. His heart thundered against my cheek.
"I'm terrified," he whispered.
"So am I."
"What if I hurt you? What if you're scared and the magic senses it and..."
"Then we'll deal with it. Together. Like we do everything."
We stood there for a long time. Just breathing. Just existing. Tomorrow we'd either break the curse or die trying.
Tonight we just had to survive our own fear.
"Okay," Kaelix said finally. "We try this. But on one condition."
"What?"
"If at any point you want to stop... if you're scared or hurt or uncomfortable... we stop. Immediately. Curse be damned. I won't hurt you. Not for any ritual."
"If we stop mid-ritual, we die."
"Then we die. But I won't traumatize you to save myself."
Something warm bloomed in my chest. "You really mean that."
"Every word."
I pulled back. Met his eyes. "Then let's prepare. We have one day. Let's use it."
The ritual chamber was different this time.
No stone platform. No chains. No sense of impending murder.
Instead: black silk sheets. Candles everywhere. Flower petals, night-blooming jasmine and wild roses, scattered across the floor. Runes carved into the walls, dormant but waiting.
It looked romantic.
It felt terrifying.
"The runes activate at midnight," Lysander explained. He wouldn't meet my eyes. Embarrassment radiated from him. "They amplify your magics. Help them merge. But you must maintain physical contact throughout. If you separate before the words are spoken..."
"We die. Got it." My voice was too sharp.
"Anything else?"
"The ritual requires absolute honesty. You must share your true names. Your deepest fears. Complete vulnerability." He finally looked at me. "Can you do that?"
Could I? Could I bare my soul to Kaelix while also baring my body? While channeling magic that would kill us if I wavered?
"I'll have to," I said.
After Lysander left, I stood in the center of the chamber. Alone. Trying to imagine tomorrow night. Trying to prepare.
Failing spectacularly.
"You're thinking too loud."
I turned. Kaelix stood in the doorway, watching me with those silver eyes.
"I'm terrified," I admitted.
"So am I."
"You? You've done this before. You know what to expect."
"Not like this. Never like this." He crossed to me. "Every other time was meaningless. Physical release. Nothing more. But you?" His hand cupped my face. "You're everything. And I'm terrified I'll hurt you. Scare you. Fail you."
"What if I fail you? What if I can't... what if I'm not good enough..."
"Impossible."
"You don't know that!"
"I know you. I know you do everything with your whole heart. This will be the same." His thumb brushed my lips. "And I'll be there. Every moment. Making sure you're okay. Making sure it's good. Making sure you feel loved, not used."
Tears burned my eyes. "This is so unfair."
"I know."
"My first time should be special. Not a death ritual."
"I know."
"But this is what we have." I swallowed hard. "So let's make it special anyway. Let's make it about us, not the curse. Can we do that?"
"We can try."
We spent the afternoon preparing. Not physically. Mentally. Talking about fears and hopes and what tomorrow would bring.
"I need you to promise me something," I said as evening fell.
"Anything."
"If I freeze up. If I'm too scared. If the pain is too much." I forced myself to meet his eyes.
"Don't push through. Don't prioritize the ritual over me. I need to know you'll stop if I ask."
"I already promised that."
"Promise again. Because I'm terrified I'll be too scared to speak. Too embarrassed to admit I'm hurting. I need to know you'll watch for signs. That you'll check in. That you won't just... assume I'm okay."
His expression went fierce. "I will check. Constantly. Probably annoyingly. And the first sign you're uncomfortable, we stop. Even if the magic kills us. You matter more than any curse."
Relief flooded through me. "Okay. Okay. I can do this."
"We can do this."
That night, we didn't sleep.
Just lay together in the dark. Holding each other. Memorizing the feel of safety before tomorrow's danger.
"Elara?" Kaelix's voice was soft.
"Yeah?"
"Whatever happens tomorrow... I love you. I need you to know that. Not because of the bond. Not because of the ritual. Just... because you're you. And you've made me feel again. Hope again. Live again."
My throat tightened. "I love you too. Even though you bought me to kill me."
"Are you ever going to let that go?"
"Probably not. But I love you anyway."
He laughed; soft, broken, beautiful.
"Tomorrow," he whispered.
"Tomorrow, everything changes."
"Or I won’t make it through."
His eyes held a truth I couldn’t deny.
"Together," he promised.
"Always together."
We fell asleep tangled in each other’s arms, two souls on the edge of oblivion.
Tomorrow would bring magic, war, and death lurking in every shadow.
And maybe, just maybe, one of us wouldn’t survive the dawn.
But tonight... tonight, all we had was this fragile moment.
The quiet dark.
The terrible certainty that whatever came, it would tear us apart.
And somehow, impossibly, that was all I had left.
Because soon, one of us would be gone.
And nothing would ever be the same again.