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She turned toward Kieran, her heart breaking as she saw the trust in his golden eyes. He loved her completely, believed in her absolutely, had no idea what she was about to do to save them both from the corruption she could already sense growing in the magical matrix.

"Mordaine," he said, moving toward her with the fluid grace that had first caught her attention. "What are you doing?"

"What I have to do," she replied, her magic reaching out to touch the bond between them. "What you'll never forgive me for, but what will keep you safe when the entity tries to use our connection against us."

The spell she wove was intricate beyond anything she'd ever attempted—part binding, part protection, part curse.

She took the portion of the Mistbound's essence that would have naturally lodged in Kieran's bloodline and redirected it into their mating bond itself, creating a magical storage matrix that would contain the corruption without affecting the host.

But the process required her to fundamentally alter the nature of their connection. She had to poison their bond with the very thing they'd fought to contain, had to make their love itself a prison for the entity's influence.

Kieran screamed as the magic took hold—not just from physical pain, but from the soul-deep agony of feeling their perfect connection twist into something that burned.

He could feel the corruption spreading through their bond, could sense Mordaine's betrayal even as she tried to explain it was meant to protect him.

"You've damned us both," he gasped, falling to his knees as the magical mark burned itself into his skin. "You've made our love a weapon."

"I've made our love a shield," Mordaine replied, tears streaming down her face as she watched him writhe in agony. "The corruption will stay contained within the bond matrix. It can't spread to your bloodline as long as the mark remains dormant."

"And if it doesn't remain dormant?"

"Then our descendants will have to choose between love and survival," Mordaine said quietly. "Just like we did."

The vision shattered as strong hands caught Aerin's collapsing form, pulling her back from the altar stone as festival-goers gasped and pointed at the dramatic scene unfolding on the platform.

She found herself cradled against Leo's chest, his lion's warmth surrounding her as her consciousness struggled to return to the present.

"The mark," she whispered, looking up into golden eyes that blazed with concern and something deeper. "Leo, you carry Kieran's mark. It's dormant, but it's there—I can see it now."

"What mark?" Leo asked, though something in his expression suggested he already feared the answer.

Aerin reached up to touch the side of his neck, her fingers tracing a pattern that was invisible to normal sight but blazed with significance to her enhanced fae vision.

"Mordaine's binding mark. She transferred the Mistbound's corruption into your family's mating bonds to keep it from spreading to your bloodline directly. "

"Meaning what, exactly?"

"Meaning every time a Maddox descendant forms a true mating bond, they risk activating the mark and releasing centuries of accumulated corruption." Aerin's voice shook. "Meaning our connection isn't just potentially manipulated—it's potentially lethal."

Leo's arms tightened around her, he responded to the threat with protective fury. "And the only way to prevent that?"

"Break the ancient curse by cleansing the corruption from the mark before it can activate," Aerin said, her mind racing through possibilities even as her heart ached at the cruel irony.

"Which probably requires the kind of perfect magical harmony between our bloodlines that would trigger the very activation we're trying to prevent. "

Around them, the festival continued with forced cheer as Elder Ruth and the other council members tried to minimize the drama of Aerin's public vision.

But Leo's enhanced senses detected the subtle changes in the crowd's mood, the way conversations had shifted toward speculation about what the visiting researcher had seen during the blessing ceremony.

"So we're trapped in the same paradox that destroyed Mordaine and Kieran," Leo said grimly. "We need to trust each other completely to break the curse, but trusting each other completely is what triggers the curse in the first place."

"Unless we can find another way," Aerin said, her determination crystallizing as she met his concerned gaze. "Unless we figure out how to cleanse the corruption without forming a full mating bond."

"And if we can't?"

"Then we make the same choice Mordaine made," Aerin said quietly. "We sacrifice our happiness to protect everyone else from the consequences of our connection."

Leo was quiet for a moment, processing implications that added personal stakes to what had already been a crisis of supernatural proportions. Finally, he spoke with the conviction.

"No," he said firmly. "We find another way. We break the curse without repeating their mistakes. Because I refuse to believe that love is supposed to be a weapon instead of a strength."

As they stood together in the middle of the festival crowd, surrounded by celebration but isolated by the weight of inherited curses and impossible choices, Aerin felt something shift in her understanding of their situation.

The connection between them wasn't just attraction or manipulation—it was the key to breaking a cycle of betrayal and sacrifice that had been repeating for centuries.

The question was whether they were strong enough to rewrite the ending, or whether they were destined to become just another tragedy in the founder families' long history of love corrupted by magic and duty.

Either way, Aerin was beginning to understand that her feelings for Leo went far beyond academic curiosity or supernatural manipulation. Whatever the risks, whatever the consequences, she was falling in love with a man whose very existence carried the seeds of potential destruction.

And somehow, she was going to have to figure out how to save them both.