Updated Nov 20, 2025 • ~7 min read
The alarms started at sunset.
Liana was at Kaelen’s apartment—she’d been spending more nights there than her own place lately—when every phone in the building started screaming simultaneously. Emergency broadcasts. Void incursion. Level Five.
Level Five meant catastrophic.
Kaelen was moving before the first alert finished, already pulling on weapons. “Get dressed. Combat gear.”
Liana’s hands were shaking as she pulled on the reinforced clothing the Council had provided—lightweight but supposedly resistant to Void attacks. “Where?”
“Downtown. Multiple breach points.” He tossed her a comm unit. “Stay on channel three. Don’t separate from me for any reason.”
They hit the streets running. The sky was wrong—that same bruised purple-black as the first attack, but worse. Bigger. The clouds moved in patterns that hurt to look at, and through the gaps, Liana could see tears in reality itself. Places where the fabric of the world was splitting open.
And through those tears came the Wraiths.
Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands.
Downtown was already in chaos. Buildings burned. Cars were abandoned in the streets. People ran screaming, trying to find shelter, but there was nowhere safe. The Wraiths were everywhere.
“There!” Kaelen pointed to a group of civilians trapped against a storefront, three Wraiths closing in. He grabbed Liana’s hand. “Channel through me. Now.”
Liana opened the bond, letting power flood from her core into Kaelen. He directed it outward in a blast of silver light that disintegrated the Wraiths instantly. The civilians scattered, running for cover.
“Again,” Kaelen said. “Next group.”
They moved through the street like a two-person army, Liana providing raw power and Kaelen weaponizing it. But there were too many Wraiths. For every one they destroyed, two more appeared.
“The rifts,” Kaelen said, breathing hard. “We have to close the rifts or they’ll keep coming.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. The Codex didn’t exactly come with an instruction manual.”
A scream cut through the air—young, terrified. Liana’s head whipped around to see a child, maybe six years old, standing frozen in the middle of the street. A Wraith was descending on her like smoke made solid.
Liana moved without thinking. She ripped free of Kaelen’s grip and ran, power building in her hands. She’d never channeled without him before—didn’t know if she could—but she wasn’t letting that child die.
The power erupted from her in an uncontrolled blast. Not directed, not refined, just raw energy. It hit the Wraith and obliterated it, but the backlash sent Liana flying. She hit the pavement hard enough to see stars.
“Liana!” Kaelen was there in seconds, pulling her up. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“The kid—”
“Is fine. You’re not.” He checked her over quickly, hands efficient but gentle. “You can’t channel alone. Not yet. The power will burn you out.”
“Didn’t have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice.” But his eyes were soft. Through the bond, she felt his fear—and his pride.
More Wraiths poured through a rift half a block away. And beyond them, Liana saw other pairs. Maya and Suki, fighting back-to-back. A couple she didn’t recognize, their combined power creating barriers of light. All the marked, coming together.
“We need to get to the largest rift,” a voice called. Magistrate Voss, directing Council forces from a makeshift command post. “If we can collapse it, the others might destabilize.”
“Where?” Kaelen demanded.
“City center. But it’s overrun. We’ve lost contact with three teams already.”
“Then we go.” Kaelen looked at Liana. “You ready?”
She wasn’t. But she nodded anyway.
They fought their way toward city center, joining up with Maya, Suki, and four other bonded pairs. Together, they moved like a unit—covering each other, combining their powers, pushing through wave after wave of Wraiths.
Liana’s mark was burning continuously now, power flowing through the bond in a torrent. She could feel the other pairs nearby, their bonds resonating with hers. And she understood, suddenly, what being the Catalyst meant.
She was the amplifier. The connection point. When she was near other bonded pairs, their power increased exponentially.
“Do you feel that?” Maya gasped, fighting beside her. “It’s like—like I’m stronger when you’re close.”
“It’s her,” Suki said, blasting a Wraith with concentrated energy. “She’s the Catalyst. She makes us all stronger.”
The rift at city center was massive—a tear in reality thirty feet wide, bleeding purple-black light. Wraiths poured through it in a endless stream, and at its edges, Liana could see something else. Something bigger.
Something that made every instinct she had scream run.
“That’s a Void Lord,” Kaelen said quietly. “The Wraiths are just scouts. If that thing comes through—”
“How do we close it?” Liana demanded.
“Concentrated power. All of us, focused on one point.” He looked at the other pairs. “We form a circle. Liana at the center. Everyone channels through her, she channels through me, I direct it at the rift.”
“That’ll kill her,” Maya protested. “That much power—”
“It won’t,” Kaelen said with absolute conviction. “I won’t let it.”
Through the bond, Liana felt his plan. Felt how he intended to absorb most of the backlash himself, to shield her from the worst of it. It would hurt him. Might break something fundamental in him.
But he was willing to risk it for her.
“No,” Liana said. “You take too much damage, the bond backlash could kill you.”
“Then we find a balance.” Kaelen’s hands found her face. “Together. Like everything else.”
They didn’t have time to argue. The Void Lord was pushing through the rift, massive and terrible, and if it fully manifested, the city was lost.
“Do it,” Liana said.
The pairs formed a circle—eight bonds, sixteen people, all connected through Liana at the center. She opened herself completely, dropping every wall, every defense. Power flooded into her from all directions, overwhelming, impossible.
Through the bond, she felt Kaelen anchoring her. Felt him taking the strain, helping her control the massive influx of energy.
“Now,” he said.
Liana channeled everything through their bond. Kaelen directed it outward, and the combined power of eight bonded pairs, amplified by the Catalyst, hit the rift like a silver spear.
The world exploded with light.
The rift collapsed inward, taking the Void Lord with it. The smaller rifts around the city snapped shut like closing wounds. The Wraiths still on their side of reality disintegrated, unable to maintain form without the rifts sustaining them.
And Liana felt herself burning.
Not with pain—with power. Too much power, consuming her from the inside out. She was going to explode, going to supernova, going to—
Kaelen’s arms locked around her, and he pulled the excess energy out through the bond. Absorbed it into himself, even though she could feel it tearing him apart.
“Kaelen, stop—”
“Not losing you,” he gritted out. “Not today.”
The power finally stabilized. Liana collapsed, and Kaelen went down with her, both of them shaking, burned out, barely conscious.
But alive.
The city was silent. Burning, damaged, traumatized—but safe. The Void incursion was over.
Around them, the other pairs were checking on each other, tending to injuries, staring at the closed rifts in disbelief.
“We did it,” Maya whispered. “We actually did it.”
Liana looked up at Kaelen. His eyes were barely open, his whole body trembling. Through the bond, she felt how much that had cost him. Felt the damage he’d taken to keep her safe.
“You’re an idiot,” she told him.
“Probably.” He managed a weak smile. “But I told you. If you burn, I burn.”
“We both survived.”
“This time.” His hand found hers, fingers tangling. “Ask me to do it again, and I will. Every time.”
Liana knew he meant it. Knew that he would burn the world to keep her alive.
The terrifying part was that she’d do the same for him.
The prophecy said the Catalyst would burn. Maybe it was right. But maybe burning didn’t mean dying.
Maybe it meant becoming something new.
Together.
Reader Reactions