The dormitory lights flickered the moment Aria stepped inside.
It wasn't a power issue. There were no wires in Aetherfall. Magic pulsed through the walls like blood in veins. When it flickered, something was wrong.
She paused at the threshold, hand gripping her suitcase tightly. A strange cold settled along her spine, and for the second time that day, her heart beat a little too fast.
Inside, the room was quiet, too quiet—until the silence was broken by a soft whisper.
> "You're not supposed to be here..."
Aria spun around.
Nothing.
Just her reflection in the enchanted mirror by the wall. But her reflection... it lagged. Like it blinked a heartbeat too late.
She took a slow step back, not breaking eye contact with herself.
> "You're imagining things," she muttered.
But deep down, she knew she wasn't.
She could still feel him.
Kael.
Ever since their conversation in the courtyard, something had shifted inside her. Like her soul was reaching out—grasping for something it wasn't supposed to want.
That night, as she curled into bed, she tried to clear her thoughts.
But the bond had other plans.
---
She dreamed again.
This time, she was standing at the edge of a glass lake, the sky above swirling with silver clouds. The moon hung too close, casting light that shimmered over the surface like molten stars.
And there he was.
Kael.
Shirtless, barefoot, standing in the water like it welcomed him. His tattoos glowed faintly in the dreamlight. The shadows didn't cling to him here. They worshipped him.
> "You shouldn't be here," he said without turning around.
"Why do you keep saying that?" she whispered. "We're both here. Doesn't that mean something?"
He finally turned.
And gods… the pain in his eyes.
> "Because the bond doesn't just connect our power, Aria," Kael said, voice low, rough. "It connects everything. Thoughts. Pain. Desire. You don't know what that means yet."
She stepped forward, until her toes touched the water. "Then teach me."
Kael moved so fast the dream blurred. One moment he was ten feet away. The next, he was inches from her.
And when he touched her wrist—
The mark burned.
Her whole body arched as magic seared through her veins—hot, intimate, terrifying. The kind of connection that felt like it could either save her… or destroy her.
> "If you want to survive this bond," he whispered, voice like smoke, "you'll have to stop pretending you don't feel it."
Then—
He kissed her.
It wasn't soft. It wasn't sweet. It was like the dream itself trembled, shadows coiling around their bodies, wrapping them tighter than arms ever could.
---
Aria jolted awake.
Breathless. Skin damp. The bond mark on her wrist glowing faintly under the covers.
Outside, the moon was high.
Inside her, something new had awakened.
Not fear.
Not confusion.
Craving.
---
> System Update: Soulbond Level 1 achieved. Emotional Link Activated.
Side effect: Dream Sharing has begun.
---