Vows Written in Blood

Lyria felt it the moment the blade bit into her skin—the shift in the air, the weight pressing down on her soul like an unseen force had reached into her chest and closed its fist around her heart.

The abyss trembled.

And Kaius watched.

His golden eyes gleamed with something ancient, something dark and knowing, as the first drop of her blood hit the scorched ground. It didn't splatter. It didn't soak into the earth. It moved.

The moment her blood met the blackened soil, it twisted, coiling like living ink, drawn toward the darkness pooling at Kaius's feet. The air thickened, suffocating, charged with something that tasted of fire and ruin.

Lyria's breathing hitched as her blood slithered along the ground, merging with the abyss itself. And then—

Pain.

Sharp, searing, like molten iron being poured into her veins.

Her knees buckled, and she staggered, her vision blurring as a heat unlike anything she had ever known consumed her from the inside out. It wasn't natural—it wasn't human.

It was him.

Kaius caught her before she fell. His arms wrapped around her waist, firm, steady, unyielding, pulling her against the armor that no longer felt like metal but something alive. The abyss pulsed between them, and through the agony, she felt it.

The bond.

It was no longer just a whisper, no longer a presence curling at the edges of her mind. It was inside her now, woven into her very being, deeper than her pulse, deeper than breath.

She gasped, her fingers clutching at his forearm, nails digging into the obsidian plates of his armor. "What… what did you do?"

Kaius lowered his head, his lips ghosting against her temple, his breath warm against her chilled skin. "You sealed it, little warrior." His voice was silk laced with steel, triumphant. "There is no going back now."

Lyria trembled, her body burning and freezing all at once, her senses drowning in the force of what she had just done. She had expected a contract, a deal, a vow spoken into existence.

She had not expected this.

Whatever this bond was—this link now tying her to the abyss and to him—it was absolute.

Kaius's grip tightened, possessive, as though he felt her fleeting moment of doubt, as though he would not allow it.

"You were always meant for this," he murmured, his fingers brushing over the fresh cut on her palm. Shadows coiled around her wound, sealing it without a scar, but the mark it had left on her soul… that would never fade.

Lyria's chest heaved, her vision still unfocused, but when she looked up at him, she saw it in his gaze—satisfaction, hunger, devotion twisted into something dark and unbreakable.

"You were always meant for me."

The words settled over her like chains, wrapping tight, dragging her further into the abyss she had once feared.

And the worst part?

She didn't want to escape.

The Claiming

The battlefield had fallen into silence. The ruins of her former life lay behind her, and before her stretched something far more dangerous.

Kaius still hadn't let her go.

His fingers trailed down her arm, slow, deliberate, like he was memorizing the way she fit against him. Lyria tried to suppress the shiver that followed, tried to ignore the way her body responded to his touch in ways it had no right to.

He had killed her team.

And yet, he was the only one who had ever seen her.

He lifted her marked palm to his lips, pressing a slow, burning kiss to the wound she had just sealed in blood. The moment his lips met her skin, the abyss inside her shuddered, answering him, recognizing him.

She yanked her hand back. "What now?"

Kaius chuckled, low and dark, unfazed by her resistance. "Now?" His eyes gleamed. "Now, you come with me."

Lyria stiffened. "Come with you where?"

"The world you knew is gone, little warrior." His voice was soft, almost gentle, but it carried the weight of a command. "You do not belong to them anymore."

She knew exactly who he meant.

The humans who had thrown her away.

The leaders who had sent her to die.

Her own family, who had chosen her sister over her, discarding her like she was nothing.

Once, that thought would have hurt.

Now, it only felt like confirmation.

Kaius studied her, as if watching the war within her unfold, and then he lifted a hand. The abyss swirled in answer, shifting, parting—revealing something beyond the battlefield.

A place that did not belong to this world.

Lyria's breath caught.

Through the churning darkness, she saw it—a kingdom of ruin, twisted spires of black stone rising against a sky of endless night. The land pulsed with life, but not in the way the human world did. It was alive, breathing, shifting.

It was his domain.

And if she crossed that threshold, there would be no returning.

She met his gaze. "If I refuse?"

Kaius's smirk was slow, deliberate. "You won't."

Lyria hated that he was right.

She could still feel the abyss inside her, a hunger she had never known before. If she tried to return to what she was, it would devour her from the inside out.

She had already chosen.

She had chosen the moment she let herself be claimed.

Swallowing hard, she took a step forward.

Kaius watched, satisfaction curling at the edges of his lips. But when she passed him, when she stopped just before the entrance to his world, she hesitated.

He was at her back in an instant, his presence pressing against her like a shadow that refused to be cast away. His hands slid over her shoulders, his fingers brushing the exposed skin at her collarbone, his touch branding.

"You are afraid." His voice was low, but there was no mockery in it. Only certainty.

Lyria swallowed. "No."

He leaned closer, his breath teasing her ear. "Then why do you tremble?"

Her eyes fluttered shut for half a second, only half, before she forced herself to meet his gaze over her shoulder.

"Because I know this is the point of no return."

Kaius's golden eyes darkened, the hunger in them sharpening into something more. "There was never a path back for you, Lyria." His lips brushed against the shell of her ear. "Only forward."

And then, he claimed her.

His arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest, and the abyss swallowed them whole.

The Coronation of the Abyss's Bride

Lyria gasped as the world around her shifted, her body weightless, lost in the abyss's grip. Then, solid ground met her feet, and she found herself standing at the entrance of the black citadel.

It was unlike anything she had ever seen—alive, pulsing, the walls breathing like a beast waiting to wake.

Kaius stood beside her, his gaze never leaving her. "This is where you belong now."

The abyss curled around her ankles, welcoming her. Recognizing her.

And Lyria…

Lyria did not run.

She stepped forward.

Because the world had already burned.

And she was no longer afraid.

Kaius followed, his smirk widening.

"The abyss has found its queen," he murmured.

And Lyria?

She embraced it.