The rain fell in slow, steady sheets over Veyruhn, painting the cobblestones in silver and shadow. Elian sat at the window of her room at the inn, the glass fogged by her breath, her thoughts still tangled in the crypt's silence.
She hadn't told anyone about what she saw. Not to Mira, not to anyone. The face of t Damian still haunted her waking thoughts, and the memory of his voice echoed like a secret prayer.
"You are bounded to me till eternity"
The words had been buried inside her, laying roots she couldn't tear out.
But in reality it was the overwhelming truth: she knew him. Not from relatives, nor from her but from within, from something deeper, buried inside of her, that pulsed every time she heard his name.
Damian.
Elsewhere in Europe
A sleek black car pulled into the underground garage of a high-rise complex. The building stood like a monolith in the heart of Berlin's financial district. Looking discreet and untouchable. Inside the top floor, hidden behind biometric locks and obsidian glass, was the headquarters of the Guardians of Balance.
A place where ancient wars met modern warfare.
Lucien Thorne stood before a massive screen, his hands clasped behind his back. The feed showed grainy footage from a surveillance drone over Veyruhn: Elian standing outside the cathedral, her hand pressed to the door.
"Damian has awakened," Lucien said, voice low and tensed.
Behind him, the Order's inner circle gathered.
Seraphina Graves, their tech strategist, tapped her screen. "The bond is active. The resonance we detected confirms it. Elian's presence has reawakened his consciousness."
Cassius Vale, the enforcer, paced like a panther. "Then we put him back down. Before he reclaims his crown."
Evangeline Kingsley, their blood scholar, tilted her head thoughtfully. "You speak of a king. But he was more than that. He was a bridge between bloodlines vampire and wolf. He can the entire supernatural world, that's how powerful he is."
Cassius scoffed. "Exactly why he should stay buried."
Lucien turned. His eyes, cold as glass, scanned each of them. "We must move carefully. The girl is the key. And she is not an enemy, not yet. But only if she sides with him…"
"She will," Seraphina said quietly. "I've read the old prophecies. The soul-bond cannot be severed. Not by time, death, or blood."
A long silence followed.
Lucien finally nodded. "Then we prepare for both possibilities."
Back in Veyruhn
Elian wandered the market square, trying to act normal. The townspeople moved around her like ghosts. Slow and watchful. Whispers followed her, not in language, but in sensation. It was like the town itself knew who she was.
She walk into a quiet café and tried to calm her nerves. Suddenly a waitress appeared with a cup of tea she didn't order. The waitress barely looked at her when she placed the cup of tea on the table before her and muttered "Stay away from the cathedral." And then walked away.
Elian froze. "What?"
The woman didn't answer.
Back at the inn, Elian found an envelope slid beneath her door.
It had no name nor a seal.
Inside was a single piece of parchment, old and Fragile.
Only a single word was written in blood-coloured ink:
Choose.
Midnight, beneath the cathedral
Damian stood at the edge of the crypt, gazing up toward the ceiling of stone and roots.
"She's awake," he said, his voice like thunder muffled by snow.
Nyra, the wraith, hovered near the sarcophagus. "And so is the Order."
Damian's jaw clenched. "They would not harm her."
"They would use her to hurt you," Nyra replied. "Or to control you."
"Did they forgotten who I am?."
"No," Nyra whispered. "They remember. That's what terrifies them."
Damian's eyes, once clouded by centuries of sleep, burned with silver fire now. He raised his hand and the air shimmered, cracks forming in the very walls of the crypt.
"They cannot kill what they do not understand."
He closed his eyes.
"But she will."