Chapter 174
*Nathaniel
She didn’t stir when I kissed her forehead.
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Jiselle lay curled on her side in the bedroll, her breathing slow, face still flushed from the fire–memory. Bastain had insisted she rest after what happened in the chamber. Her body hadn’t stopped trembling for over an hour, and even now, her fingers twitched against the blanket like she was still lost in whatever the Gate had shown her. I knelt there longer than I should have, watching her chest rise and fall, brushing a strand of sweat–damp hair from her cheek. The mark on her wrist still pulsed faintly. Like the Gate was dreaming through her.
I couldn’t sleep. Not with that vision still clinging to her skin. Not with that voice still echoing in my head.
Fuse before he burns.
I wasn’t going to let that happen. Not to her. Not to us.
So I did the only thing I could.
I left her in Eva’s care, whispering strict instructions to wake me the second she stirred. I didn’t tell Eva where I was going. I didn’t want anyone trying to talk me out of it. This was something I had to do–alone.
The Trial Circle was older than the Academy, older than the Gatekeeper texts. Bastain had told me once it was used to test Sovereigns–not just their strength, but their devotion, their purpose. It had been hidden until recently, when the chamber revealed itself beneath the spiral, and even now it was cloaked in an illusion only the Veilborn could break. My blood allowed me to enter. Not because I was special. Because I was desperate.
and the rock gave way with a sigh, The entrance was a narrow crack behind the obsidian dais. I pressed my palm against the runes carved into the revealing a stairwell lit by blue flame. It wasn’t like the heat of normal fire. It burned colder, older–like something waiting to be remembered. My heart pounded as I stepped through.
No turning back.
The moment I crossed the threshold, the world tilted.
The stairwell vanished.
I stood in an open plain of scorched stone, a circle carved into the ground with sigils I’d only seen in Serina’s journal. The Trial Circle. Flames danced around the edge in spirals, their tips reaching toward the skyless void above us. There was no sound. No wind. Just silence–and then a whisper.
Choose.
I braced myself, expecting pain, maybe fire. Instead, she appeared.
Jiselle. But not.
This version of her stood tall and cold, her hair silver–white, eyes burning with contempt. Her arms were crossed, her expression one I’d seen only once before–after the first time I’d tried to pull her back from the brink and she’d looked at me like I was a stranger. Like she couldn’t afford to need me.
“Why do you keep choosing me?” she asked. Her voice was sharp, clipped. “Haven’t I made you bleed enough?”
“I don’t care about the bleeding,” I said, stepping into the circle. The flames flared but didn’t burn. “I care about you.”
She laughed without smiling. “You care about an ideal. A girl you think you know. But I’m more than that now. Worse than that.”
“I know who you are,” I said. “And I know what you’re not. You’re not this.”
She vanished.
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Chapter 174
Another took her place.
This Jiselle was cloaked in flame, her eyes entirely gold, her skin marked with runes that pulsed with magic. Her voice shook the stones beneath me.
“I will open the Gate,” she declared. “I will burn the world clean. You can’t sto
me.”
I swallowed hard, but kept my stance. “Then I’ll burn with you. But I’m not
leaving.”
She raised her hand. Fire rushed toward me.
I didn’t dodge. I didn’t block. I stepped through it.
Pain sliced across every nerve, but I didn’t fall. I kept walking, one step at a time, until I reached her and touched her arm.
“You’re still in there,” I whispered. “Even if the world forgets you, I won’t.”
She faded like ash.
The circle trembled.
A third version rose from the flame.
This one was the worst.
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She was small. Younger. Curled on the ground, sobbing into her knees. The scent of blood filled the air–hers, mine, Max’s. All of it. She looked up, eyes hollow, her voice barely a whisper.
“I destroy everything I touch.”
I knelt in front of her slowly. Reached out, but didn’t touch her yet.
“You didn’t destroy me,” I said. “You saved me. Again and again. You’re the only thing in this world that’s ever made me feel alive.”
She lifted her eyes to mine.
“You’ll die if you stay.”
“I’ll die if I don’t.”
I held her then.
And the fire stopped.
Light cracked through the circle like lightning splitting stone. The sigils ignited–not in flame, but in light, pure and blinding. My chest seared, a symbol burning into my skin. The same one from the wall. The same one I saw in the vision where I burned.
But I didn’t burn.
I chose her.
Again.
And I passed.
When I opened my eyes, I was back in the real world, kneeling at the center of the dais My arms were shaking but ray heart felt c days. The mark still throbbed on my chest, but it didn’t feel like a warning anymore. It felt like a promise.
I rose, breath catching in my throat, and ran.
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Chapter 174
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Back through the passage, up the stairs, back to where she should be.
But the bedroll was empty.
Eva stood nearby, eyes wild with panic. “Nate–I–I closed my eyes for one minute. I swear-
“Where is she?” I snapped, already scanning the room. No scent trail. No echo. Just absence.
And then a Gatekeeper scout emerged from the shadowed hall, his robes damp from rain, breath ragged like he’d run the entire way.
He didn’t bother with pleasantries.
“She went to Kael,” he said. “Alone.”
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
