Chapter 118
*Jiselle*
The gate was breaking.
Not slowly. Not like a door creaking open or a fracture widening across time. It broke like a scream that had waited too long to be heard.
And the world listened.
The chamber trembled beneath our feet as the leyline erupted in pulses, the runes carved into the walls blazing to life. The ground split in jagged veins of raw energy. The air swelled with magic too old to name, too wild to contain. It was like the mountain had grown lungs–and was holding its breath before it collapsed.
And all of it centered on me.
The Veil Gate–the tear between worlds, between fate and choice, between what we were and what we could still become- was no longer humming softly. It howled. With every crack, every burst of light, it pulled at something buried inside my chest. Not the flame exactly. Not the tether. Something older.
The part of me that had once believed I was meant to burn.
I stood in front of it, eyes wide, skin slick with sweat, heart galloping.
I couldn’t tell if it wanted me to step through, or become it.
Nathaniel’s hand slipped into mine before I could tip forward.
Even through the roar of magic, I felt him.
Steady.
Real.
Alive.
I turned to him, the glow of the gate casting shadows across his face. His eyes were locked on mine–not with panic, not with pity. But with belief.
He didn’t have to say a word.
I knew the question in his silence.
What do you choose?
I looked back at the gate.
Its light shimmered in waves of white, violet, and flame, rippling like a second heartbeat in the air. Magic crawled up my spine, a familiar ache that made my muscles tense and my eyes burn. Power roared in my ears, whispering promises laced with memory.
Step through.
Restore the realms.
Rewrite the chains.
Rule what’s left.
It would be easy.
So easy.
To take it. To accept the version of me that Kael wanted. That the prophecy demanded. That the flame itself had tried to shape me into. A Sovereign. A queen. A weapon so powerful even the gods would kneel.
I could be that.
I could end this.
I could fix it.
The gate pulsed again.
Nathaniel’s fingers tightened around mine.
“Say something,” I breathed, barely hearing my voice.
“I trust you,” he said simply.
I turned toward him, chest aching.
“That’s not fair.”
1/A
Chapter 118
He smiled faintly, though it didn’t touch his eyes. “It’s the only fair thing I’ve ever given you.”
Another crack split the air behind us.
Stone trembled beneath our feet. Dust rained from the ceiling in slow spirals. The gate wasn’t just open–it was bleeding.
Time was running out.
“I don’t know what happens if I don’t go through,” I said.
“And you don’t know what happens if you do,” he replied. “So maybe stop trying to guess what the fire wants. What fate wants. What the past wants.”
His hand rose, thumb brushing beneath my eye.
“And just choose what you want.”
I closed my eyes, swallowing the lump in my throat.
“I want to live,” I whispered.
The gate hissed.
“I want to live… not as someone’s weapon. Not as someone’s redemption. Not to carry prophecy or punish the world for being broken.”
My voice trembled.
“I want to live. Fully. Imperfectly. Beside you.”
The silence that followed was deafening.
Even the gate quieted.
I stepped back from it, slowly.
The magic tried to cling to me. It wrapped around my calves like vines, like hooks. The flame inside my chest screamed- not in pain, but resistance. I felt it rise, panicked, a creature too long caged, afraid of being left behind.
“I’m not destroying you,” I whispered to it. “I’m setting you free too.”
My body arched as the magic tore through me one last time. A shockwave of flame burst from my back, splitting the chamber with light so bright it turned everything to shadow. My knees hit the floor. My scream echoed for miles.
But I didn’t break.
I released it.
The fire left me like a tide retreating–powerful, reluctant, but obedient. Not because I forced it.
Because I let it go.
And as it left, something else rose.
A pulse.
A tether.
Warm.
Golden.
Familiar.
The bond.
Not the old one–the fractured mate–thread from before the war, before the rejection, before the throne.
This was new.
Alive.
A promise, not a prophecy.
I turned, tears slipping down my cheeks, and met Nathaniel’s eyes.
He was on his knees beside me, his arms already open.
I fell into them.
He caught me without flinching.
The gate groaned behind us–one last long, sorrowful note–then began to fold in on itself. The flames dimmed. The cracks sealed. The runes faded.
Stone filled the wound in the mountain.
The Veil sealed shut.
Chapter 118
For good.
And in the quiet that followed, I realized the world hadn’t ended.
It had just begun again.
Nathaniel pressed his forehead to mine, his voice quiet but fierce.
“It’s done.”
I nodded, breath hitching. “It is.”
We sat like that for what felt like hours–wrapped around each other, pressed into the cool stone, our bond humming low and alive between us. Not burning. Not demanding.
Just present.
“Do you feel it?” I asked softly.
He nodded with a slight raise of his brow. “It’s not tethering.”
“It’s not supposed to,” I said softly. “It’s choosing.”
He smiled, and it was the first real one I’d seen on him in weeks.
The fire inside me–what was left of it–settled. No longer a storm. Just a spark.
I could live with that.
I leaned into his chest, my voice barely a breath.
“We were never meant to burn alone.”
