Veilbound

CH 08: Fire, Blood, and Bone

Sky’s POV

The Oathbound didn’t speak.

It just moved—silent and fast—like a shadow with teeth.

Sam raised a wall of flame. I reinforced it with my golden shield.

The air cracked with energy. Magic collided.

We were barely holding our ground.

"Left!" Sam shouted.

I spun, catching a second blast with the shield mark etched into my palm. It hurt this time. Like the magic was eating at my nerves.

“How do I use this?” I yelled.

“Feel it! Let it respond to you!” Sam shouted, panting.

Easy for him to say. He’s been cursed into magic since forever.

I focused.

The symbol on my chest pulsed—and then exploded outward again in golden light.

This time, it wasn’t just a shield.

It became chains—pure energy, snapping like lightning and coiling around the Oathbound’s legs.

Sam’s fire lanced through the gap.

The Oathbound let out a sound like crumpling metal and shattering ice.

It staggered.

Fell.

Then crumbled into dust.

I collapsed to my knees, breathing hard.

Sam rushed to my side, catching me before I hit the floor completely.

“You did it,” he whispered. “You really did it.”

I looked up at him. His face was bruised, singed—but still impossibly gentle.

“I had no idea I could do any of this.”

He helped me up. “You’re waking up. That’s what it feels like, doesn’t it? Like the world just pulled back its curtain.”

I nodded. “But why me?”

He opened his mouth to answer—but a cold wind swept through the room before he could speak.

The light dimmed.

And she was there.

The Seer.

Not a dream this time.

Real. Solid. Standing right in front of us in a robe of black and starlight. Her mask shimmered with moonlight and silver cracks.

“Sky Quiro,” she said.

This time with a voice. Quiet. Kind. Terrible.

“You are the last blood of the Broken Line. The Ember Prince’s twin flame.”

Sam went still.

“Wait,” I said. “The who’s what now?”

She stepped forward.

“You were never meant to be ordinary. The Council banished one, but they lost two.”

Her eyes locked on Sam.

“You carry half the bond.”

Then on me.

“And now he has found the other half.”

Sam’s POV

Everything in me screamed with a memory I couldn’t quite name.

The Ember Prince.

Twin flame.

Sky—

Sky was him. Or part of him. The missing piece I was cursed to forget.

“I knew you felt familiar,” I said, voice trembling. “Not just from the dreams.”

Sky was speechless.

“You mean… we were already... before this?”

“Yes,” the Seer whispered. “And unless you remember everything, the world will tear itself apart to keep you separated.”

She reached out, touched Sky’s temple.

A flash of flame. A memory sealed in bone.

Sky cried out—but didn’t fall.

He gasped.

Then stared at me.

Eyes wide.

“I remember.”