Updated Nov 6, 2025 • ~9 min read
They were halfway to the Thorne estate when Sage’s phone rang.
The bond let her feel Thorne’s tension spike before she even looked at the screen.
Mom.
“Hello?”
“Sage.” Her mother’s voice was tight, controlled. The voice she used when she was barely holding herself together. “It’s your uncle James. He’s dead.”
The world tilted.
“What? When?”
“This morning. Just like the others. The curse.”
Sage felt Thorne’s grief through the bond—he’d only met Uncle James once, but he knew what this meant.
Six deaths.
And they still hadn’t stopped it.
“I’m coming home,” Sage said.
“No. Your grandmother wants you to stay focused on the curse. She said—” Her mother’s voice cracked. “She said losing you to this would be worse than losing James. So stay safe. Break this thing. End it.”
The call disconnected.
Sage stared at her phone, numb.
Uncle James. Who had been suspicious and hostile but who loved his family fiercely. Who had threatened Thorne but would have died to protect the coven.
Who was now dead because Marcus wanted power.
“Sage,” Thorne said gently, pulling the truck to the side of the road.
“Six people,” she whispered. “Six people are dead because of Marcus’s ambition.”
“I know.”
“When we find him, I don’t know if I can hold back.”
Through the bond, Thorne felt her rage. Felt it and understood it because it mirrored his own.
“We hold back,” he said firmly. “Not for him. For us. We’re better than him. We prove that by stopping him the right way.”
“And if the right way doesn’t work?”
“Then we try the wrong way. But we try honor first.”
Sage wanted to argue. Wanted to say that Marcus didn’t deserve honor.
But Thorne was right.
If they killed Marcus in cold blood, they’d be no better than him. And the curse might not even break—some dark magic required the caster’s willing reversal or a proper counter-ritual.
Murder would feel good for about five seconds.
Then they’d have to live with it forever.
“Okay,” she said. “We do this the right way.”
“Together.”
“Together.”
They drove the rest of the way to the Thorne estate in grim silence.
The mansion loomed ahead, dark and imposing. But this time, Sage didn’t feel intimidated.
She felt furious.
Thorne parked and they walked to the entrance together, bond marks glowing in sync.
A Thorne guard stopped them at the door. “Thorne. And… Mitchell.”
“Sage Blackwood,” Thorne corrected sharply. “My bonded partner. Let us through.”
The guard’s eyes widened at the bond marks visible on both their arms. “Sir, I—the bond is complete?”
“Yes. Now move.”
They strode past him into the main hall.
“Where’s Marcus?” Thorne demanded of a passing servant.
“The east wing, sir. His study.”
They found him there—Marcus Thorne, sitting at a desk covered in dark magic texts, looking entirely too calm for someone who’d murdered six people.
He looked up when they entered. “Nephew. And the Mitchell bride. What an unexpected pleasure.”
“Cut the act,” Sage said coldly. “We know.”
“Know what?”
“That you cast the curse.” Thorne closed the door behind them, sealing them in. “We traced the magical signature. It’s yours.”
Marcus’s expression didn’t change. “Bold accusation. Do you have proof?”
“Your signature is all over the curse magic,” Sage said. “We used our bonded power to trace it directly back to you.”
“Bonded power.” Marcus stood slowly. “So you actually completed the bond. I admit, I didn’t think you had it in you. Thought at least one of you would chicken out.”
“Why?” Thorne demanded. “Why cast a curse that kills your own family?”
“Because the family needs a real leader,” Marcus said simply. “Not an idealistic boy who thinks he can make peace with our enemies. You’re weak, Thorne. The coven needs strength.”
“So you murdered six people to prove strength?”
“I created a crisis that would have removed you from leadership and allowed me to step in. I would have ‘discovered’ the curse’s solution, saved the coven, been hailed as a hero.” Marcus shrugged. “But you had to go and actually bond with her. Ruined the entire plan.”
“You tried to stab me,” Sage said. “At the family gathering.”
“I was improvising. Figured if you died, the bond would kill Thorne too. Two birds, one blade.”
Thorne’s magic flared, dark and dangerous. “You’re confessing to murder and attempted murder.”
“I’m confessing to ambition. To doing what was necessary.”
“Necessary?” Sage stepped forward, her own magic rising. “Six people dead. Children without parents. Families destroyed. And you call that necessary?”
“Collateral damage in the pursuit of a stronger coven.”
That was it. Sage’s control snapped.
Vines erupted from the floorboards, wrapping around Marcus’s legs. At the same time, Thorne’s shadow magic wrapped around Marcus’s hands, preventing him from casting defensive spells.
“You’re going to reverse the curse,” Sage said. “Now.”
Marcus laughed. “Or what? You’ll kill me? The honorable bond pair, committing murder? I don’t think so.”
“We don’t have to kill you,” Thorne said coldly. “We just have to make you wish you were dead.”
The shadows tightened. Marcus gasped.
“Reverse the curse,” Thorne repeated.
“No.”
“Then we’ll force you.” Sage pulled out the ritual components they’d brought. “Blood bond absorption. We take your curse into ourselves and destroy it from within. You don’t get a say.”
Marcus’s eyes widened. “You can’t. The backlash could kill you both.”
“Better us than letting more people die.”
Sage began setting up the ritual circle while Thorne kept Marcus restrained. The bond hummed between them, steady and strong.
They could do this.
They had to.
Sage drew the circle in salt and herbs, placed candles at the cardinal points, and positioned herself and Thorne in the center.
“Last chance,” Thorne told Marcus. “Reverse it willingly, or we take it by force.”
“You’re fools,” Marcus spat. “That curse is ancient magic. Dark magic at its most powerful. You think love and a pretty bond will protect you?”
“Yes,” Sage said simply. “We do.”
She and Thorne joined hands, bond marks blazing.
Together, they began the absorption ritual.
Latin words that made the air crackle. Magic that pulled at the curse, demanding it transfer from Marcus’s control to their bond.
The curse fought back.
Dark magic slammed into them, trying to corrupt, to destroy. But the bond held strong. Earth and shadow magic intertwined, forming a shield.
Sage felt the curse’s malevolence trying to burrow into her mind. Felt Thorne’s magic wrap around her protectively. Felt their combined strength push back.
The curse was powerful.
But their bond was stronger.
With a final surge of magic, the curse broke free from Marcus’s control and slammed into the bond.
Sage screamed.
Pain unlike anything she’d ever felt tore through her—every nerve on fire, dark magic trying to rip her apart from the inside.
Through the bond, she felt Thorne experiencing the same agony.
But she also felt his love. His strength. His absolute refusal to let go.
I’ve got you, he thought at her.
Together, she thought back.
They pushed back against the curse’s darkness with everything they had.
Light exploded from their bond marks—green and purple so bright it illuminated the entire room.
The curse shattered.
Like glass breaking, like ice cracking, like darkness dissolving in sunlight—it shattered into a thousand pieces and dissolved into nothing.
Sage and Thorne collapsed to the floor, breathing hard, still holding each other.
The bond marks pulsed once, twice, then settled into a steady glow.
It was done.
The curse was broken.
Marcus stared at them, shock clear on his face. “Impossible. That should have killed you.”
“We’re bonded,” Sage gasped out. “Apparently impossible is our specialty.”
The door burst open.
Thorne’s father and several coven members rushed in, drawn by the magical explosion.
“What happened?” his father demanded.
Thorne stood shakily, pulling Sage up with him. “Marcus cast the curse. We broke it. And now he’s going to answer to the Council for six counts of murder.”
Marcus tried to run.
He made it exactly two steps before Thorne’s father’s magic slammed him into a wall.
“Six murders?” his father said softly, dangerously. “Six members of our family?”
“And the Mitchell family,” Sage added. “He killed both our people.”
Thorne’s father looked at Marcus with disgust. “Take him to the Council. Immediately.”
Guards grabbed Marcus, hauling him away as he protested his innocence.
When they were gone, Thorne’s father approached them.
“You broke the curse,” he said.
“We did,” Thorne confirmed.
“How?”
“Blood bond absorption ritual. We took the curse into our bond and destroyed it.” Thorne squeezed Sage’s hand. “Together.”
His father looked at their joined hands, at the bond marks glowing softly. “You risked everything. For both families.”
“Of course we did,” Sage said. “We love both families. Even the parts that tried to kill us.”
That got a small smile. “You’re brave. Both of you. And I was wrong. About the bond. About you.” He looked at Sage directly. “Welcome to the family, Sage Blackwood.”
Sage felt tears prick her eyes. “Thank you, sir.”
“Call me Robert. We’re family now.”
Thorne’s phone buzzed. Then Sage’s.
They looked at the matching messages from the Council:
Curse signature has disappeared. No new deaths detected. All remaining curse marks fading from victims. You did it.
Relief flooded through the bond, so strong it nearly brought Sage to her knees.
They’d done it.
The curse was broken.
Their families were safe.
Sage turned to Thorne, and found him already looking at her with the same relief, the same joy.
“We did it,” she whispered.
“We did it,” he agreed.
And then he was kissing her, right there in front of his father and the remaining coven members, kissing her like she was his entire world.
Because she was.
And he was hers.
Forever.
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