Chapter 22 · Blood-Bound Resonance

"Get behind me. Now!" Kaelen didn't look back, but his voice cracked like a whip.

I didn't argue. I lunged backward, my boots skidding on the cold stone floor as the heavy iron doors of the inner sanctum shrieked open. Varis stepped through the smoke, his Imperial Inquisitor robes trailing like a funeral shroud. He wasn't alone. Four armored husks—soulless shells of soldiers—marched in sync, their eyes glowing with a sickly violet light.

"Sloane," Varis purred, his gaze sliding past Kaelen to find me. "Still playing house with your little project? I told you he was a mistake. A beautiful, ticking bomb."

Kaelen’s shoulders bunched. I could see the tremor in his arms, the way his fingers curled into claws. He wasn't just protecting me; he was vibrating with a hunger that made the air taste like ozone and old blood.

"Touch her," Kaelen hissed, his voice dropping an octave, sounding less like a boy and more like something that had slept under a mountain for a thousand years, "and I'll rip the soul from your throat before you can blink."

Varis laughed, a dry, rattling sound. "Such loyalty. Or is it just the programming?