Luna woke up to the soft glow of morning sunlight slipping through the curtains. The room was quiet, too quiet. She sat up slowly, her heart still heavy from everything Kael had said the night before.The bond.

The mark.

The way he said you belong to me.

Her fingers brushed the faint mark on her wrist. It pulsed lightly under her skin warm, steady, alive. She wanted to tear it off, to pretend it didn’t exist.

“What did you do to me, Kael?” she whispered. “What are you?”

The air felt thick with silence. Somewhere in the distance, she could hear faint voices the servants, maybe. The house was alive again, elegant and bright. She dressed quickly, needing to move, to breathe.

Downstairs, the mansion looked breathtaking in daylight. Gold-tinted windows filled the hallways with soft light. Paintings of ancient figures hung on the walls, each one looking back at her with knowing eyes. The air smelled faintly of roses and cedarwood.

The housekeeper, Mira, appeared with a kind smile and a tray of breakfast.

“Good morning, Miss Luna,” she greeted gently.

Luna nodded. “Good morning.”

“You should eat,” Mira said softly. “The master wants you to rest.”

Luna’s lips tightened. The master.

Even the sound of that title made her skin crawl. “Why does everyone here act like I belong to him?” she asked suddenly.

Mira paused, her eyes filled with something like pity. “Because in a way… you do.”

Luna froze.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

But the older woman only shook her head and walked away.

Luna sat there, staring after her, her heart pounding. No one here will tell me the truth, she thought. But I’ll find it myself.

Later that afternoon, she wandered deeper into the mansion long corridors, locked doors, strange rooms filled with old books and silver mirrors. She stopped when she saw a large portrait hanging by the staircase.

It was of a woman.

Beautiful. Mysterious.

And she looked exactly like Luna.

Her breath caught. Her fingers trembled as she reached toward the painting.

“Who are you?” she whispered.

“She betrayed me.”

The voice made her spin around. Kael stood at the edge of the hallway, his shirt unbuttoned at the top, his expression shadowed.

“What did you say?”

He stepped closer, his eyes darker than before. “The woman in that painting. She was the one I once loved. The bond marked her… and me. But she broke it. She betrayed me, and the curse followed.”

Luna’s throat tightened. “Curse?”

Kael’s jaw flexed. “You don’t need to know more.”

“Don’t need to know?” she snapped. “You took me, locked me away, told me I’m bonded to you, and now you say I don’t need to know?”

“Because the truth will destroy you,” he said sharply, then turned his face away as if the words hurt him to speak. “I’m already marked by it. You don’t need to be.”

Her anger softened for just a second his voice carried pain, regret, something she couldn’t name.

But then she remembered what he’d done.

Her eyes filled with tears. “You stole my life, Kael.”

He didn’t answer right away. “I’m trying to save you,” he said finally, quietly. “Even if it means you hate me.”

Then he turned and walked away.

---

That night, Kael sat alone in his study. The fireplace flickered against the dark wood walls, throwing golden light across his face. His hands rested on the desk, his head bowed.

He could still feel her the heat of her skin, the sound of her voice trembling when she said you stole my life.

His chest tightened painfully.

He whispered to the empty room, “If only you knew the truth, Luna. You’d never look at me again.”

He looked down at the mark glowing faintly on his wrist the same as hers. It was more than a bond. It was a curse, one that tied his soul to hers. A punishment for what he had done long ago.

He remembered the first woman — her soft laugh, her promises, her betrayal. He remembered her scream the night he ended her life with his own hands, not because he wanted to, but because the curse demanded blood for betrayal.

And afterward, the voice of the ancient bond whispering in his mind: Until you find your true other, you will live half a life. But if you lose her again… you lose yourself.

Kael’s hand clenched tightly around the edge of the desk.

He had sworn never to love again. Never to feel.

Then Luna appeared her eyes, her voice, her defiance and the bond reawakened.

Now he was trapped between two dooms: keeping her and losing her.

She hated him already.

But she didn’t know that her hatred was safer than love.

Because love with him always ended in death.

He closed his eyes, whispering to the darkness, “I can’t lose her too.”

---

Back in her room, Luna lay awake, staring at the ceiling. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw him his face, his voice, the way he looked at her like she was his entire world.

She hated him for it.

And she hated herself for feeling anything at all.

“I’m not your puppet,” she whispered again. “I’ll find a way to end this bond… and be free.”

Outside, the sky was clear, but thunder rolled faintly in the distance, as if warning her that freedom would come with a price she couldn’t yet imagine.

And in the shadows of the mansion, Kael listened every word, every breath.

He closed his eyes, his heart breaking, knowing she was already planning her escape.

But he couldn’t stop her.

He couldn’t cage her forever.

All he could do was watch and protect her from the truth, from himself, and from the curse that bound them both.