POV: Kael / Ava"Push harder."Celestine's voice echoed through the empty warehouse they'd moved to—somewhere with more space than the motel room, somewhere they could afford to break things.Kael's hands were glowing. Light gathered in his palms, compressed into shapes that hurt to look at. Sweat poured down his face as he fought to maintain control."I can't hold it," he said through gritted teeth."You have to. Your brother will hit you with ten times this force. If you can't contain this, you'll die in the first exchange."The power slipped from his grasp. Light exploded outward, shattering crates and sending debris flying across the warehouse floor. Kael dropped to his knees, gasping.Something was wrong.Not with his body—with his senses. Colors looked duller now than they had yesterday. The taste of his breakfast that morning had been muted, barely there. It was like someone was slowly turning down the volume on his humanity.He remembered the eggs Ava had made. He'd chewed and

POV: Ava / KaelThe Morrison mansion looked different now.Ava stood at the gates, seeing the energy that pulsed beneath the familiar stone walls. After her awakening in the warehouse, after touching Kael's power, nothing looked the same anymore. She could see the wards now—barriers of divine energy that protected the property from outside interference.Her family had been prepared for exactly this kind of threat.They'd known. All along, they'd known.The guards at the gate recognized her. They opened the doors without question, though their eyes tracked her with newfound suspicion. Word had spread about her escape with Kael. About what she'd witnessed. About the man—the thing—she'd chosen over her own blood.She walked the familiar path to the main house, her heels clicking on stones she'd walked a thousand times before. But now she noticed things she'd never seen. The subtle glow around certain windows. The way shadows pooled unnaturally in corners. The faint shimmer of protection

POV: Kael / AvaDirector Maria Santos did not look impressed."You're smaller than I expected," she said, studying Kael across the metal table in the underground bunker. "The reports suggested something more... imposing.""I'm working on it."Santos's office was hidden beneath a nondescript government building—gray walls, fluorescent lights, the smell of recycled air. Everything about it screamed bureaucracy. But the files stacked around them told a different story.A century of divine interference. Documented."We've known about them since 1917," Santos said. "A manifestation in the trenches of France. Our predecessors thought it was a miracle. They learned better." She pushed a folder across the table. "The collaborator network spans every continent. Families like the Morrisons, serving the Council in exchange for protection and wealth."Kael opened the folder. Names. Dates. Photographs of atrocities blamed on wars and natural disasters. The cost in human lives was staggering."Why

POV: KaelDawn came too quickly.Kael spent the morning in stillness, sitting on the farmhouse porch with his eyes closed and his mind reaching toward the presence that drew ever closer. Korvain's approach felt like thunder gathering on the horizon—inevitable, unstoppable, beautiful in its terrible way.Ava sat beside him without speaking. Her hand rested on his knee, anchoring him to the present, to his humanity, to everything he had to protect."What are you thinking?" she asked finally."I'm trying to remember him. Not the fragments Celestine showed me—something real. Something mine." Kael opened his eyes. The golden glow was constant now, flickering behind his irises like candles that couldn't be extinguished. "He was the other half of my soul. We shared essence. And I can't remember his face.""Maybe that's a mercy.""Or maybe that's what I've lost." He turned to look at her. At this woman who had stayed when everyone else would have run. "If I die today—""You're not going to di

POV: Kael / KorvainRecovery took three days.Kael's human body had been pushed beyond its limits. Bones had fractured in seventeen places. Internal organs had bled. Neural pathways had burned out trying to channel power they were never designed to handle.But he healed. Faster than any mortal should, slower than any god would. The divine and human parts of him worked together, reconstructing what had been damaged, rebuilding what had been destroyed.Ava never left his side.She held his hand through the pain, through the moments when his body convulsed with healing energies, through the long hours of fitful sleep and fevered dreams. She was there when he opened his eyes, and she was there when he closed them."You scared me," she said on the second day. "When you caught that attack, when you fell...""I'm sorry.""Don't be sorry. Be careful." She traced her fingers across his healing face. "I can't lose you. Not now. Not after everything.""You won't.""Promise me."Kael thought abou