Page 34 of The Syndicate’s Shadow Heiress (Branche de Lune Syndicate #1)
ASHEN SPIRE REIGNITES
Kali’s Emotional State: Shaken to her core, but sharp. The moment Solen appeared, the foundation of her power started rewriting itself. The shadows are whispering. The Hollow Gate is stirring. And she can’t tell if she’s the weapon or the warning.
T
he air hadn’t stopped humming. Even after Solen spoke, even after the Hollow Gate behind him shimmered with otherworldly light, the pressure hadn’t eased. It climbed, like the world was holding its breath for her next move.
Kali stood frozen, except that her blood was boiling. Her heart was racing like it was trying to punch through her ribs and scream its own prophecy.
Solen Virell.
Final bond. Tenth Sigil. Threadbreaker…. the one said to be born only when the Gate began to fray.
Every title he dropped felt like a blade to her spine, but she didn’t shudder.
Lev was already shifting beside her, his body tense, jaw locked. His voice in her mind was low and guttural.
"Another one? This fast? This is some divine-level bullshit. "
Astraeus didn’t speak. He growled. Low and continuous. Not at Solen. At fate.
“You need to back the fuck up,” Lev said aloud, stepping forward. “I don’t care if you’re made of stardust and prophecy—she’s not yours.”
Solen didn’t even blink. “I don’t want her. I was made for her.”
Kali blinked once. That was it. No fear. Just a calculation.
“Made for me?” she asked, voice bone-dry. “That’s a hell of a thing to say to a woman who hasn’t even figured out if she’s willing to share her whiskey, let alone her bed.”
Lev snorted. “Or her patience.”
Solen didn’t smile, but something in his gaze flickered—an old pain stitched under celestial arrogance.
"The Hollow Gate is screaming your name," he said. "You’re unraveling, Kali. Thread by thread. If I hadn’t come now, the world would’ve broken around you before you ever touched your true power."
“Don’t care,” Lev snapped. “You don’t show up from another realm and declare ownership.”
Kali’s shadows had been crawling toward Solen’s boots, testing him. She watched him closely as the tendrils slithered around him like smoke with fangs.
He didn’t move. Didn’t flinch. Didn’t even breathe differently .
They couldn’t touch him. Not like they touched anyone else. Instead of recoiling, they pulsed once, like they were waiting for permission to kneel.
That was new.
Kali narrowed her eyes. “You walk in here and declare yourself my final bond—and you don’t even flinch at my shadows? That’s either brave… or suicidal.”
Solen stepped forward, slow and deliberate. The ground didn’t shake. The Hollow Gate behind him did.
“You don’t command the shadows,” he said. “You are their echo.”
Her power spiked, lashing out in a burst that sent dust swirling, sigils glowing. Her hands trembled, just once just long enough for her magic to spark in the wrong direction, scorching a glyph that hadn’t even been cast.
Even Lev flinched.
Solen didn’t. Not a fucking step.
“You think you know me?” Kali said, her voice like shattered obsidian. “You think you belong to me?”
Solen stopped just short of touching distance. His voice was quiet.
“No. But I know this, if I don’t help you stabilize that bond, the Gate is going to eat you alive. And when it does?” He looked her dead in the eye. “Every realm falls with you. ”
The silence that followed was primordial.
Astraeus finally spoke.
“He’s not lying.” Astraeus’s voice had never held that edge before, not even during the fall of Atralis. That wasn’t a warning. That was surrender.
Kali’s lips parted. Her heart skipped.
"And for the first time in days, she felt it. Terror.
Because if Astraeus believed him... If Solen wasn’t here to claim her... But to save her
This wasn’t a story about power anymore. It was the shadow before detonation. The breath before everything unraveled."