Page 5

Ada

“ H ave you got any allergies, or are you sensitive to any magical essences?” the healer asked, his fingers glowing with diagnostic light when he hovered them over my body.

Consciousness returned to me in fragments—first the cold stone beneath me, then the lingering scent of blood on my wedding dress, and finally the horrible realization that this was no nightmare.

"Yes, she's allergic to strawberries," a deep voice answered as a figure emerged from the shadows.

My heart raced as I caught sight of him. Hakan, still in his formal attire with dried blood on his sleeves, proved the event wasn’t a dream. The healer—Seref, I recalled hazily—looked at him, then at me.

“Has she consumed any strawberry essence recently?” Seref inquired.

“I had some this morning,” he admitted in a voice devoid of emotion.

I was too paralyzed to even respond, staring at the man who had just killed my betrothed and forced me to marry him instead.

I glanced across to Sarp, and my eyes widened with shock.

I couldn’t believe they were both here in Hakan’s mansion on the outskirts of Isik-Golge, the grand estate I’d heard whispered of but never seen.

Shadows coiled and twisted along the walls, absorbing what little light filtered through the narrow windows.

“What does that have to do with her condition?” Seref asked. He gave a puzzled look at Hakan.

“We were bound through the ancient rite shortly afterward, and I kissed her. She must have reacted to the essence transferred from me,” Hakan explained with cold detachment.

My heart raced, and I felt like I might be sick. He wasn’t dead, and now I was bound to him by magic, deeper than any mortal marriage.

"That would explain the magical imbalance," Seref murmured. They traced a sigil in the air above me that shimmered with diagnostic energy. “Let me consult the ancient texts. And you, my lady, should remain still to allow your light magic to stabilize.”

Then we were alone, and the tense silence hung between us with sharp menace.

My rage bubbled, replacing the initial shock.

I didn't want to see him because the hatred in my chest was so intense I feared my light magic might explode outward.

That, and the desperate worry for my daughter, my little Kiraz, hidden away with my other sister, Nadine, in a countryside cottage.

The memory of finding Hakan with another woman right before everything fell apart flashed through my mind—his hands on her naked body, his lips on her neck, the way he'd gazed up at me without a trace of remorse or surprise. As if he'd wanted me to find them that way.

“Sarp, give us a moment,” Hakan commanded, shadows coiling around his fingertips.

“Sure,” Sarp replied with a knowing glance between us before slipping through the door. “Try not to kill each other. Blood’s such a pain to get out of these ancient carpets.”

He was here again, right in front of me, when he was supposed to be in the Shadow Realm—or dead, as I’d convinced myself during those months in the sanctuary when I couldn’t distinguish reality from hallucination.

I swallowed hard and closed my eyes, hoping that when I opened them, he would be gone and I would be with my daughter where I belonged.

“Ada, look at me.” His voice sliced through me, sharp as a blade of ice.

“So you still remember my name? I'm shocked that whatever remained of your soul didn't burn my memory of your name. I spit, finally opening my eyes to glare at him. I’m shocked that it wasn’t burned away with whatever remained of your soul,” I spit, finally opening my eyes to glare at him.

My father passed into the celestial realm five years ago.

Everyone believed Gün Ata was the perfect matchmaker.

He was never wrong about soulmates or about love, but he was definitely wrong about the monster standing before me.

I refused to use his name in my thoughts; to me, he was only the Golge Bey now, a title for a man I no longer recognized.

“I see your tongue is as sharp as ever,” he responded, his lips curving into a dangerous smile. “Though your judgment appears to have deteriorated if you thought that pathetic shadows-wielder with pedophilic tendencies would make a suitable husband.”

“I have nothing to say to you. My uncle will help me break this binding, so please leave me be,” I said, my voice shaking with barely contained fury.

All I could think about was Kiraz. The child conceived in love before everything fell apart—my beautiful daughter with her father’s green eyes and my dark hair.

The child he never knew existed because he'd already abandoned us both for his ambition and power. A month after I left him, I discovered I was with child - our final night together had created the most precious thing in my life, though he would never know it.

He came closer, and I took a shaky breath.

His presence was suffocating, but the heat that radiated through his body was seeping through my core.

The shadow magic emanating from him made the air heavy and thick, like trying to breathe underwater.

The darkness seemed to pulse with each beat of his heart.

“You can break this fucking binding when I allow it, and not a moment sooner.” He growled and invaded my personal space until I could smell the lingering scent of blood and darkness on him.

“I needed to return, and your uncle agreed to give me your hand. We will live together to prove to my father that I’m not merely playing games. ”

“Your father?” I laughed, a harsh sound that surprised even me. “Of course. Erlik has always been your true love, hasn’t he? Tell me, does he know how pathetically desperate you are for his approval? How you’d sacrifice anything—anyone—just for a pat on the head from Daddy dearest?”

Something dangerous flashed in his eyes, shadows coiling more tightly around him.

“Careful, little light. You know nothing of my relationship with my father. You don’t know what it was like after you left me—how Erlik bound me with spells to ensure my loyalty.

” His voice dropped lower, tension evident in every line of his body.

“He didn’t know at first who you were—just that I loved someone.

When he discovered you were Gün Ata’s daughter, everything changed.

His ancient rivalry with your father made him obsessed with claiming your light. ”

“And whose fault is that?” I challenged the fury of five years of abandonment, fueling my words.

“You made your choice, Hakan. You chose the ashes and shadows. You chose power. I tried to come back, tried to speak to you, but you refused to see me, then let me believe you were dead while you played dutiful son to a monster.” I remembered pounding on the doors of his estate for hours in the rain, begging the servants to let me speak with him.

His jaw tightened. “We had nothing to talk about. You meant nothing, even now.”

I wanted to laugh in his face, but I was trembling with too many emotions.

I couldn’t move, and I was panicking inside.

What about my daughter? What about my child who needed me?

For four years, I’d maintained an elaborate system to keep Kiraz hidden—monthly rotations between three different safe houses, enchanted amulets that could mask a child’s developing shadow magic, and a network of trusted servants sworn to secrecy.

The marriage to Deniz had been purely political, an arrangement to stabilize the conflict between our realms. I lacked feelings for him, but he could have provided the stability I needed to bring my daughter home at last. I lacked feelings for him, but he could have provided the stability I needed to finally bring my daughter home.

“You won’t force me to do anything I don’t want to do.

I’m not the naive girl from the past who you can manipulate into believing your lies.

This binding will never be real,” I declared, already formulating a plan in my head.

I needed to escape, to find Nadine and Kiraz.

My daughter needed me, and she was the only thing that mattered now.

“The binding is real. The binding connects us, whether or not you like it, and we can now sense each other’s emotions.

It’s a weakness I fully intend to exploit.

And in time,” his eyes darkened with promise, “the connection may prove deeper than mere emotion—it may allow sharing thoughts, intentions, even pain, between those truly bound.”

My hand moved of its own accord, cracking across his face with enough force to snap his head to the side.

Light magic sparked from my fingertips, leaving an angry red welt across his cheek.

“Don’t you dare,” I hissed. “You lost the right to speak of such things when you left me to shatter into a thousand pieces.”

For a moment, genuine surprise flashed across his features, followed by something that might have been admiration. Then his expression hardened again, shadows dancing across the mark I’d left.

“You’ve grown stronger. Good. You’ll need that strength in the days to come.

We can help each other, Ada,” he continued, as if I hadn’t just struck him.

“I know the ancient laws, and I know that your father placed certain requirements that you must fulfill to maintain your divine inheritance. Now, by binding with me, you fulfill your obligation. If you remain bound to me for the required time, you will inherit your father’s divine light, and after that, our paths can diverge. ”