Chapter Ten – Bonds of Light and Shadow

The air in the ruins was thick with tension, pressing down on Selene's chest like an unseen force. Ever since she had first touched the fragments of her power, it had felt like a whisper against her soul—distant and uncertain. But now, something had shifted. It was no longer just a whisper. It was a voice, calling out from within, urging her to listen.

Asrael sat across from her, his back resting against the cold stone wall, golden eyes half-lidded with exhaustion. The dim light of the ruins flickered over his sharp features, casting deep shadows under his eyes. He looked tired, worn—but there was something else beneath the fatigue. A quiet awareness. A silent war he wasn't voicing.

Selene studied him carefully. "You don't look so good."

"Thanks," he muttered, rolling his shoulders. "That drink you gave me back in the village… it did something."

Her heart skipped a beat. "What do you mean?"

He didn't answer immediately. Instead, he lifted his hand slightly, fingers twitching as if trying to grasp something invisible. A brief flicker of darkness coiled around his palm—faint, unstable, but undeniably real. Selene sucked in a sharp breath. That wasn't his power. It was hers.

🔥 The Connection Unveiled 🔥

Selene swallowed hard. "That's not possible."

Asrael released the tension and looked into her eyes, his face unreadable "Apparently, it is."

There was a thick silence between them. As Selene pieced together the implications. If Asrael could access her power, even in the smallest way, it meant something inside him had changed. Her magic had always been unpredictable, but this was beyond anything she had ever expected.

"Do you feel different?" she asked, shifting closer.

After hesitating, Asrael let out a slow breath. "I sense you. Your power is now somehow related to me, like a reverberation within me. I can feel it, like a pulse, when you draw on it. And when I concentrate... Once more, he flexed his fingers, but this time, something different occurred.

There was a silver of pure golden light entwined with dark energies. Two conflicting forces that swirled in perfect harmony before disappearing again.

Selene's felt a knot in her stomach. He wasn't only using her might to his advantage. It went farther than that. Now, their very beings were intertwined in the ways that neither of them could comprehend 

She said. "This shouldn't be happening. "You are divine. I am something different.

He smirked faintly. "Something else, huh?"

She ignored the teasing edge in his voice, focusing on the reality of what this meant. If their connection continued to grow, it wouldn't just make them stronger—it would make them a target. For both Heaven and Hell.

🔥 The Awakening 🔥

"Does it hurt?" she asked softly.

Asrael shook his head. "No. It feels… familiar. Like it's always been there, waiting."

A chill ran through her. She had felt something similar the moment she met him—an unexplainable recognition, like she had known him long before she had ever laid eyes on him. But now, the feeling was no longer just in her mind. It was in the very fabric of her being.

"We need to figure out what this means," she said, shifting even closer. "If we're connected, then maybe we can use it. Maybe we can control it."

Asrael's golden eyes gleamed with something unreadable. "You sound excited."

"I'm terrified," she corrected. "But if this is happening, we need to understand it before someone else does."

Before the executioners found them. Before Heaven or Hell decided to rip them apart.

Asrael studied her for a long moment, then gave a slow nod. "Alright. But first, we get out of here."

Before Selene could respond, the ruins trembled beneath them, a low hum vibrating through the stones. The air grew heavier, thick with something unseen but undeniably present. A warning. A presence watching from the shadows.

Selene clenched her fists, heart hammering. Whatever was coming, they would face it together.