"You're not strong enough to make it through this.
Raihan's voice was tonal bass, savage and as smooth as velvet-wrapped thunder. He stood before her, his arms spreading and shadow-magic twining about his fingers. Behind him the shattered temple doors groaned as they received another blow.
Lian Yue backed up, her gaze locked on her shattered soulstone.
A dim glow was visible in the crack.
It was dying.
Something ancient was trying to break free, something wrong.
"Get back!" Raihan barked as a fresh wave of power poured through the door. The pillars cracked. It was raining dust from the ceiling. "They're cloaking themselves. I can't see how many."
"Then I want to help," Lian Yue replied, her voice trembling.
Raihan whirled on her, silver eyes glinting. "You can't even carry soul magic, without losing consciousness. You almost fainted at a vision!"
She straightened her spine. "Then teach me. Or die alone."
A ghost of a smile touched his lips for an instant and was gone. "Fine. "But if you go into a soul-death trance during a fight, I'll haul your corpse behind me."
"Noted."
The air throbbed with pressure. A shape strode through the splintered doors, a figure in blazing white robes of great height. Although there was a porcelain mask covering his face, Lian Yue's heart actually felt a cold chill down to her bones.
"Raihan," the enforcer had said, in a voice that was a flat, metallic drone. "You were told what would happen if you ever came back."
Raihan didn't flinch. "I didn't return. She summoned me."
The enforcer turned their masked gaze to Lian Yue.
"She has the soul of a traitor."
"She doesn't remember anything," Raihan snarled. "She's not your target."
"She is, now that she's chained to you."
The man in the mask held up a hand. A ring of golden light shot from his fingertips, heading directly for Lian Yue.
Raihan moved faster than air.
Shadow met light in a thunderous crash that hurled them all backwards. Lian Yue crashed into the temple wall, her ears humming.
Raihan was on his feet already, his expression a glare, his hands flaming black with immortal fire.
"Run, kid," he answered, not looking back. "Get out. Now."
But Lian Yue didn't run.
She put her hand in her satchel and removed the piece of soulstone. Now it hummed with sound, almost alive.
She brought her sisters photo to her chest and whispered, Show me what I left behind.
The stone flared.
And the world cracked open.
---
A battlefield.
No—the battlefield.
She had her golden armor, her hair in braids wrought with divine ribbons, her sword still wet with the blood of immortals.
Before her knelt Raihan, manacled and bloody, lips curved with a bitter smile.
"You're not going to kill me," he had said. "Your soul still yearns for mine."
She'd even raised her blade.
"I'm sorry." she'd said softly.
And then she had sunk the blade in his chest.
He screamed her name.
And beneath the mountain she had sealed him.
—
Lian Yue sucked back to reality.
Raihan had been hit in the side of the head with the bullet that had come for her. One shoulder oozed black ichor where light magic had cut him.
"You see," he muttered, half-dazed.
She dropped beside him. "Only pieces."
"It's enough." He coughed and grinned, the grin savage. "You were just as harsh then."
Before she could respond, the enforcer charged once more. The other two were there—one swinging a blade of blistering fire, the other manifesting chains of light.
"They truly want to cut the tether," rasped Raihan.
"What happens if they do?"
"I die. Me … you might not be so lucky."
The enforcer advanced. Chains leapt out toward Lian Yue.
This time she did not pull back.
She can feel the soul tether lighting up between her and Raihan—immortal line of golden heat.brandishing teeth at them. She zeroed in on it, on the strange, magic hum she no longer felt in her chest.
The soulstone flared.
And her hand shot out.
A blast knocked the enforcer back into a pillar and shattering it in two pieces.
She stared at her hand.
"I did that?"
Raihan smirked. "You were a goddess once. Don't act surprised."
But the enforcers weren't finished. Now they operated in tandem — with a vicious choreography.
Raihan pulled himself to a stand. "They won't stop. Not until we're both dust."
He turned to her. "We need to leave."
Lian Yue looked around. "The temple's sealed. You magicked the gate open, remember?"
"There is a way out," said Raihan. "But it requires trust."
Her eyes narrowed. "The last time I let you in, I stabbed you through the heart."
"And the last time I relied on you, I was bound in chains for a thousand years. So we're even."
"Great," she muttered. "Perfect foundation."
He extended his hand. "Take it."
Then the light behind them blazed again—hotter, this time. The enforcers were combining their powers.
Lian Yue grabbed his hand.
They were pulsing with magic.
The world warped.
And they vanished.
---
When the world settled itself once more, Lian Yue fell out into cool moonlight.
There they were on the edge of a cliff, looking down on a river of mist. The blazing ruins of the temple were hot on their heels.
She gasped. "What did you do?"
"Shadow fold," he said, letting go of her hand. "Only functions while linked to a person with celestial blood."
"So you used me."
He met her eyes. "No. I saved you. There's a difference."
She took a step back, heart pounding. Her mind was racing, choked with memories and vaguely remembered pain.
"Your love called me," she whispered. "Before. In the temple."
Raihan didn't respond at once. The wind pulled at his long hair and the moonlight danced on his naked breast where the blood yet dripped.
"You were," he finally said. "Before you betrayed me."
"I don't remember that life!"
His voice was quiet. "Doesn't mean it did not happen.
There was a stretch of silence between them.
At last Lian Yue faced side and left. "What happens now?"
He moved back to her, his being heat and shadow.
"They'll send more. Stronger ones. When the celestial court finds out that tether is secure… they won't see you they'll see you as a threat."
"And you?"
He squinted at her, his eyes indecipherable. "I am a threat."
Her breath hitched.
She didn't know whether to be afraid of him... or trust him.
All she knew was that the mark on her back had stopped hurting. It pulsed in rhythm with his.
"I need answers," she said. "Who I was. What I did. Why we—"
A shadow moved in the trees.
Raihan's head snapped around. "Someone's here."
A man emerged from the wood.
Female.
Graceful.
Deadly.
And Lian Yue's heart stopped when she unwrapped her headscarf.
Because she was looking into her own face.
Identical.
But older. Harsher. And it glows with God's power.
"Hello, little soul," said one woman with a smile. "Miss me?"
Stiff, Raihan came forward. "Celestine…"
Lian Yue blinked. "Who is she?"
Raihan's voice was cold. "Your past self."
---
The two Lian Yues were locked in a dead stare — one bewildered and shivering, the other confident and the very image of death.
And the older one smiled and raised her hand.
"Let me show you what you did do, really."