The air in the train station turned thick and metallic, like the moment before lightning strikes.
The spirit's form wavered in the cold glow — a woman of smoke and flame, her presence both ethereal and suffocating. Her eyes were molten silver, and every shadow in the room bent toward her.
"Kael," she breathed, voice rippling like a forgotten prayer. "My son."
Kael took a step back, hand instinctively going for his blade, though what good steel could do against a ghost, he didn't know. "You're not real," he said quietly. "You died when I was a child."
Her expression softened into something that might've been sadness — or mockery. "I died, yes. But my essence was bound. Your father sealed me in the heartstone — the same power he stole from me to build his empire."
Lira's eyes widened. "He trapped you?"
Kael's jaw tightened. "He said you were a danger to everything living."
His mother — the Shadow Witch, the last of the true Bloodborn — smiled faintly. "And yet here you stand, wielding the same darkness."
Kael felt the pulse of shadow in his veins, answering her call like a loyal beast. He forced it down. "You don't belong here."
"Neither do you," she whispered. "This city rejects you because it fears what you are. But you were born for more than the Varyn throne, Kael. You were born to finish what I began."
The station trembled. The runes beneath her form glowed red now, feeding on her voice. Lira stumbled back as the ghost's power reached toward Kael — a current of raw, ancient energy that sang in his blood.
"Take my hand," his mother said. "And I will give you the truth."
Kael hesitated. For a moment, the lost boy inside him wanted to obey — to finally have the answers he'd been denied all his life. But Lira's voice broke through.
"Kael, don't!"
He turned to her — and saw terror in her eyes, not for herself, but for him. It was enough.
He stepped back, refusing the offer. "No more lies. No more chains."
The spirit's face hardened. "You would deny your birthright for her?"
Lira stiffened. "What does that mean?"
Kael didn't answer, but his mother's laughter filled the void — cold and beautiful. "She doesn't know, does she? The girl with the stolen soul?"
Lira's breath caught. "What—"
The spirit raised her hand, and symbols flared around Lira like a halo. Kael saw them — the same sigils that marked the Bloodborn.
"No," he whispered. "That's not possible."
"Oh, it is," the spirit said softly. "The council hid her from me. The empath you protect is a vessel — half of what was taken from me when your father betrayed me. Her soul completes yours, Kael. That's why you found her. That's why you feel her."
Lira stumbled back, shaking her head. "No. No, I'm not—"
Kael stepped forward, but she pulled away. "Don't touch me!"
"Lira, listen—"
"I'm just someone who got caught in your curse!"
The heartstone pulsed violently again, reacting to her emotions. The spirit smiled, her form beginning to fracture. "You can deny me, Kael, but the bond will not be broken. When the moon bleeds over Nocturne, the Blood Oath will awaken — and both your souls will burn."
The light exploded. Kael shielded Lira as the ghost's form disintegrated into ash and smoke. The heartstone shattered completely, its fragments vanishing into the air.
Silence fell — heavy, suffocating silence.
---
They didn't speak for a long time. The storm outside had faded into a dull roar, thunder echoing like a fading heartbeat. Kael sat against the wall, staring at the space where his mother had stood.
Lira finally broke the quiet. "What did she mean — about the bond?"
Kael exhaled slowly. "The Blood Oath was an ancient rite. A merging of souls between Bloodborn — power and life bound as one. It was forbidden because if one dies, the other follows."
Lira swallowed hard. "And she said it's already… active?"
He nodded. "It starts with resonance — when one's magic answers the other's. You felt it too, didn't you? When I used my power?"
She hesitated. "The way it burned? Like my veins weren't mine anymore?"
"That's how it begins."
Lira sank to the ground, wrapping her arms around herself. "So I'm cursed because I helped you?"
Kael's voice was quiet. "No. You're cursed because you're like me."
The words hung between them — heavy and unspoken.
She looked up at him, anger flashing in her eyes. "Then undo it. Break it."
"I can't."
"Then find someone who can."
"There's no one left who would dare."
Lira stood, trembling. "You don't get to decide my fate, Kael."
He rose to meet her gaze, his tone low but steady. "And you don't understand what happens if we don't control it. If the bond ignites fully, your soul won't just link to mine — it'll feed it. I'll drain you without meaning to."
Her breath hitched. "Then maybe I should leave."
His eyes darkened, emotion flickering in the storm-gray depths. "You can try. But the farther you run, the stronger it pulls."
---
The lights in the station flickered, and Kael felt the shift before he heard it — boots on concrete, voices through the tunnels.
Marra's voice.
"Kael Varyn! Drop the act and come out — the Council has eyes everywhere!"
He cursed under his breath. "They found us."
He turned to Lira. "Stay close."
She glared. "You just told me to leave."
"That was before they decided to kill you too."
Marra emerged first, flanked by two guards. Her face was hard as stone. "You made a mess, boy. Revenants dead, wards broken, forbidden magic unleashed — your father would've been proud."
"Cut the performance," Kael said coldly. "You're not here to arrest me."
"No," she admitted. "I'm here to warn you. The Council voted. You're to be hunted — both of you. They called it a containment order."
Lira stiffened. "Containment?"
Marra's gaze softened briefly when it landed on her. "You're part of him now. And that makes you a threat."
Kael's shadow surged involuntarily. "They can try."
Marra stepped closer. "Listen to me, Kael. You can't fight them alone. There's a faction — old loyalists of your mother — hiding in the catacombs beneath the city. They call themselves The Forgotten. They can help you harness what's inside you before it consumes you both."
"Why tell me this?"
"Because I owe your father more than silence. And because if the Blood Oath awakens before you learn control…" She looked at Lira. "She dies screaming."
Silence. Then Marra handed him a small data chip. "Coordinates. Go before the moon rises tonight."
She turned to leave but paused at the tunnel's mouth. "And Kael — whatever you think your mother wanted, it wasn't peace."
---
When she was gone, Lira spoke without looking at him. "The Forgotten. You think they'll really help us?"
"I don't know," Kael said. "But they're our only chance."
He glanced at her, and for the first time, she didn't look afraid — just tired, defiant.
She met his gaze. "Then let's go. Before the city decides we don't deserve to."
Kael nodded once. The shadows at his feet stirred like wings as they moved into the tunnel. Above them, the moon rose — faint, pale, and bleeding into crimson.
And somewhere deep below the city, something ancient began to wake.