Seraphina's POV
I woke up to chaos.
Shouting. Running footsteps. Bells ringing frantically throughout the palace.
I bolted upright in bed, my heart racing. For a second, I forgot where I was. Then I saw the glowing plants on my balcony, the books lining the walls, and remembered.
Noctwyth. Caelan's kingdom. Where I'd accidentally merged two entire realms last night.
"Oh no," I whispered.
My door burst open. Lyra rushed in, her hair wild and her eyes wide with panic.
"Get up! Get dressed! We have a serious problem!"
"What happened?" I scrambled out of bed. "Is it the realms? Did something go wrong with the merge?"
"Yes and no." Lyra threw a dress at me. "The merge completed overnight. Both realms are now one. But that's not the problem."
"Then what is?"
"People are appearing. Everywhere. Mortals from your realm are waking up in Noctwyth. Shadow beings from our realm are waking up in Asteria. And everyone is panicking."
My stomach dropped. "How many people?"
"Thousands. Maybe hundreds of thousands." Lyra helped me into the dress with shaking hands. "The palace is surrounded by confused mortals who followed the magic trail here. They all want to see the Starborn. Some are angry. Some are scared. Some want to worship you."
"Worship me?" My voice came out as a squeak.
"You reshaped reality, Seraphina. You merged two worlds. People either love you or hate you right now. There's no in between."
I felt sick. "Where's Caelan?"
"Trying to maintain order in the throne room. But he needs you. Now."
We ran through the corridors. Through every window, I could see crowds gathering outside the palace. Hundreds of people—mortals in their simple clothes mixed with shadow beings in their dark armor. Some were shouting. Some were crying. All of them looked lost.
What had I done?
We reached the throne room, and I stopped dead.
It was packed with people. Nobles from both realms arguing loudly. Caelan sat on his throne, his face hard as stone, trying to answer a dozen questions at once.
Then he saw me.
Relief flooded through our Soul Bind so strongly it made me gasp.
"Seraphina." He stood immediately. "Come here."
The crowd parted as I walked toward him. I felt their eyes on me—judging, analyzing, fearing.
When I reached the throne, Caelan took my hand and pulled me up to stand beside him.
"This is Princess Seraphina of Asteria," he announced, his voice carrying through the room. "The Starborn. And my bonded mate."
Shocked whispers filled the room.
A man in noble clothes stepped forward—mortal, from his clothes. "Your Majesty, is it true? Did this girl really merge our realms?"
"She saved both realms from a Void Eater," Caelan said firmly. "The merge was an unintended consequence."
"Unintended?" A woman shouted from the back. "My children woke up in a shadow realm! They're terrified!"
"My shop disappeared!" another voice yelled. "It's just gone!"
"The sun isn't rising properly!"
"The moon isn't setting!"
More voices joined in, until the throne room was deafening with complaints and accusations.
I wanted to run. To hide. To disappear.
But then I felt it—Caelan's hand squeezing mine. His emotions through the bond: steady, strong, supportive.
I wasn't alone.
I stepped forward, and somehow, my voice carried over the noise.
"You're right to be angry."
Everyone went silent.
"I did this," I continued, my voice shaking but clear. "I merged the realms. I changed everything. And I'm sorry for the chaos it's caused." I took a breath. "But I won't apologize for stopping the Void Eater. If I hadn't used that magic, if I hadn't merged the realms, that creature would have destroyed both worlds completely. Everyone here would be dead."
"How do we know you're telling the truth?" someone challenged.
"Because I was there," a new voice said.
Everyone turned.
Commander Thorne walked into the throne room, and behind him came dozens of people—both mortals and shadow beings—who'd witnessed last night's battle.
"I saw the Void Eater," a mortal woman said. "It killed my husband in seconds. The princess stopped it. She saved us."
"She saved my children too," a shadow being added. "The creature was going to consume everything."
More witnesses spoke up, telling their stories. Slowly, the angry crowd's mood shifted.
But not everyone was convinced.
"Even so," a noble from Asteria said coldly, "she had no right to change our world without permission. This is exactly why we feared the Starborn. Too much power in the hands of one person."
"She's dangerous," another agreed. "She should be contained. Controlled."
"Killed," someone whispered, but I heard it.
Caelan's hand tightened on mine. Shadows started gathering around his feet—a warning.
"Anyone who threatens her answers to me," he said, his voice deadly quiet.
"With respect, Your Majesty," the first noble said, "you're biased. You're bonded to her. You can't see clearly."
"I see perfectly clear." Caelan stood, pulling me with him. "Seraphina is the most powerful being in the merged realms. She could destroy anyone in this room with a thought. But instead of using that power to control or dominate, she saved a mother who tortured her. She's trying to apologize for consequences she never intended. That's not dangerous. That's strength."
His words made my throat tight.
"But what happens next?" Lyra spoke up. "The realms are merged. We can't undo it. So what do we do now?"
Everyone looked at me.
I looked at Caelan. "What do you think?"
"I think," he said slowly, "that we need a new government. One that represents both realms fairly."
"A council," I added, the idea forming as I spoke. "With leaders from both Noctwyth and Asteria. We make decisions together."
"And who leads this council?" someone asked.
Before I could answer, a commotion erupted at the entrance.
Guards rushed in, looking panicked.
"Your Majesty! Princess! You need to see this!"
We ran to the balcony. Below, the crowd had grown even larger. But they weren't looking at the palace anymore.
They were looking at the sky.
Where the sun and all three moons now hung visible at the same time, frozen in place.
"The celestial cycle has stopped," Lyra breathed. "Time itself is pausing."
"What does that mean?" I asked, fear creeping up my spine.
"It means the merge isn't finished," Caelan said grimly. "The realms are still adjusting. Reality is still reshaping itself."
As if to prove his point, the ground shook violently. People screamed. Buildings swayed.
Then, in the distance, something massive tore through the sky.
Another portal.
But this one was different. Wrong. It pulsed with colors that hurt to look at—sick greens and poisonous purples.
"That's not a portal between our realms," Lyra said, her voice shaking. "That's a portal to somewhere else. Somewhere outside reality."
"What's coming through?" I whispered.
We got our answer.
A figure emerged from the portal. Human-shaped but wrong in every way. Its skin flickered between solid and transparent. It had too many joints in its arms and legs. And when it opened its mouth, the sound that came out made everyone's ears bleed.
"STARBORN," it screeched. "YOU BROKE THE BARRIERS. NOW WE CAN RETURN."
"We?" Caelan demanded. "Who are you?"
The creature smiled, showing teeth made of broken glass.
"We are the Forgotten. The beings your ancestors locked away when they separated the realms thousands of years ago. They built walls to keep us out. But you..." It pointed at me with a finger that bent the wrong way. "You tore them down."
More figures appeared behind it. Dozens. Hundreds. All wrong. All terrifying.
"Oh gods," Lyra whispered. "The separation wasn't just about creating two realms. It was a prison. They were imprisoning these things."
"And I just freed them," I finished, horror washing over me.
The lead Forgotten laughed—a sound like breaking bones.
"Thank you, little Starborn. We've been trapped for three thousand years. Now we're hungry. So very hungry."
It raised its arms, and the other Forgotten began pouring through the portal.
The crowd below erupted into chaos. People ran screaming in every direction.
"We need to close that portal!" Caelan shouted.
"I don't know how!" I shouted back. "I didn't mean to open it!"
"Then figure it out!" He turned to his guards. "Protect the civilians! Get everyone to safety!"
The Forgotten landed on the ground and immediately started attacking. They moved impossibly fast, their bodies twisting in ways that defied physics.
I watched in horror as one of them grabbed a screaming woman.
"NO!" I thrust my hand out, and silver light shot forward, hitting the Forgotten. It shrieked and dropped the woman, but it didn't die. It just looked at me with those horrible eyes and smiled.
"Strong," it hissed. "Your magic tastes strong. Give us more."
It charged at me.
Caelan intercepted it, shadows exploding from his hands. But like with the Void Eater, the creature just absorbed his magic.
"They feed on magic too," I realized. "Just like the Void Eater. Because they're from the same place!"
"Then how do we fight them?" Caelan demanded, still battling the creature.
I looked at the portal, at the dozens of Forgotten still pouring through, at the merged realms falling into chaos.
This was my fault. All of it.
I'd wanted to save everyone. Instead, I'd unleashed something far worse.
"Seraphina!" Lyra grabbed my arm. "We need to evacuate! There are too many of them!"
But I couldn't run. These people were suffering because of me.
I looked at Caelan, at the mark on my wrist that bound us together.
An idea formed. Crazy. Dangerous. Probably impossible.
But it was all I had.
"Caelan!" I called. "I need you to trust me!"
He looked back at me, silver eyes wide. "What are you going to do?"
"Something stupid!" I grabbed his hand. "The merge happened because I combined our magic. Maybe I can reverse it!"
"That could kill you!"
"It could kill us both! But if we don't try, those things will kill everyone anyway!"
For a moment, he just stared at me.
Then he ran to my side and took both my hands.
"Together," he said.
"Together."
I closed my eyes and reached deep inside, to the place where our Soul Bind connected. To the swirling mix of silver and shadow.
And I pulled.
Not to combine our magic this time.
To separate it. To undo what I'd done.
Pain exploded through me. Through us. I felt Caelan scream, felt my own scream join his.
The merged realms began to tear apart.
And in that moment, I realized my terrible mistake.
If I separated the realms, the Soul Bind would break.
Caelan and I would die.
Both of us.
But it was too late to stop.
The magic was already unraveling.
And the last thing I saw before everything went white was Caelan's face, his silver eyes full of regret.
We were going to die trying to fix my mistake.
Unless something miraculous happened.
Something impossible.
Something—