Updated Nov 20, 2025 • ~8 min read
The dream hit Liana like a freight train.
One moment she was lying in bed, staring at her ceiling and willing herself into unconsciousness. The next, she was somewhere else entirely—standing in a place she’d never been, seeing through eyes that weren’t hers.
Stone walls rose around her, ancient and weathered, covered in moss that glowed faintly in the darkness. The air was cool and damp, tasting of earth and something else. Something metallic. The space felt underground. A cave? No—a temple. She could see carved symbols on the walls, spiraling patterns that seemed to shift when she wasn’t looking directly at them.
Her hands—no, his hands—were braced against a stone altar, fingers spread wide. The mark on his shoulder blade burned the same way hers did, a twin constellation of fire and light.
Liana tried to pull back, to wake up, but the vision held her fast. She was a passenger in someone else’s body, feeling everything he felt.
And what he felt was rage.
It poured through the bond like acid, hot and caustic and barely controlled. He was furious. At the mark, at the bond, at whatever cosmic joke had decided to chain him to a stranger. His thoughts were a storm—fractured, intense, too fast for Liana to fully grasp. But underneath the anger was something else.
Fear.
He was afraid of this. Of her. Of what the bond meant.
Welcome to the club, Liana thought, and the thought must have carried through the bond because suddenly his head snapped up and she was staring at a cracked mirror propped against the far wall.
The face looking back wasn’t hers.
He was beautiful in a dangerous way—all sharp lines and hard edges, with skin that caught the dim light like polished bronze. His eyes were the most striking thing about him: silver-gray, almost metallic, burning with an intensity that made Liana’s breath catch. His hair fell in steel-gray locs to his shoulders, some of them adorned with small silver rings.
Kaelen. The name rose in her mind unbidden, pulled from the bond itself.
His eyes widened, and Liana realized he could feel her too. Feel her presence in his head, watching through his senses.
“No.” His voice was rough, accented in a way she couldn’t place. He spun away from the mirror, pressing the heels of his palms to his temples. “Get out. Get out of my head.”
I’m trying, Liana thought desperately. I don’t know how this works.
“Try harder.”
The anger in his voice stung, but underneath it she could still feel that thread of fear. He didn’t want this. Didn’t want her. The rejection hit harder than it should have, considering she didn’t want this either.
But something about hearing it from him, feeling his revulsion through the bond—
It hurt.
Liana shoved against the vision with everything she had, and suddenly she was gasping awake in her own bed, her own body, her heart racing like she’d run a marathon. The ceiling fan turned lazily overhead. Her alarm clock read 3:47 AM.
She lay there, breathing hard, one hand pressed to her chest. Her shoulder blade throbbed in time with her heartbeat.
That was real. That was him. Kaelen.
Her fated mate, if the prophecies were right. The person she was supposed to be bound to for life.
And he hated her.
Or at least, he hated the bond. Which amounted to the same thing.
Liana rolled over, pulling her pillow over her head. This was a nightmare. An actual waking nightmare. Not only was she stuck with a psychic connection to a stranger, but that stranger was angry and scared and clearly wanted nothing to do with her.
Perfect. Just perfect.
She must have dozed off again, because the next time she opened her eyes, sunlight was streaming through her window and her phone was buzzing incessantly on the nightstand.
“What,” she croaked into it without checking the caller ID.
“You felt it.” Maya’s voice was breathless. “Last night. You felt something, didn’t you?”
Liana sat up slowly, her whole body aching like she’d been fighting instead of sleeping. “How did you—”
“Because I did too.” Maya sounded shaken. “I had a dream. But it wasn’t a dream. I was somewhere else, seeing through someone else’s eyes. Liana, I felt her. My—” She broke off. “My mate.”
The word hung in the air between them. Mate. Not girlfriend, not partner. Mate. Like they were animals, bound by instinct instead of choice.
“What did you see?” Liana asked quietly.
“A lighthouse. She was in a lighthouse on the coast, and she was scared. So scared. There’s something wrong, Liana. Something’s coming.” Maya’s voice dropped to a whisper. “She’s in danger.”
Liana’s stomach clenched. “Did she know you were there?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. It felt like—like she was looking for me. Like she wanted me to see.”
Which was the opposite of Kaelen, who’d very clearly wanted Liana gone. The difference shouldn’t matter. It definitely shouldn’t sting.
“Are you going to the Council assembly tonight?” Maya asked.
Liana had forgotten about that. She scrubbed a hand over her face, trying to force her brain to work. “I don’t know.”
“We need answers. Both of us.” Maya paused. “Please. I can’t do this alone.”
And that, more than anything else, was what decided it. Because Maya was her person. Her best friend since college, her partner in crime, the one constant in a life that had never quite felt stable. If Maya needed her there, she’d be there.
Even if it meant facing the Council.
Even if it meant risking running into him.
“Fine,” Liana said. “I’ll go. But if they try any of their authoritarian bullshit, I’m walking out.”
“Deal.”
They hung up, and Liana dragged herself into the shower, hoping the hot water would wash away the lingering sensation of being in someone else’s skin. It didn’t. Even as she stood under the spray, she could feel echoes of Kaelen through the bond—distant now, muted, but there. A presence at the edge of her consciousness that she couldn’t quite shut out.
He was awake. She could tell. And he was moving, going somewhere with purpose.
Liana closed her eyes, trying to block it out, but curiosity won. She let herself follow the thread of connection, just a little, and caught flashes: city streets, early morning light, the sound of traffic. He was here. In the city. Just like the old woman had said.
Close.
The thought should have terrified her. Instead, it sent a strange thrill down her spine—part anticipation, part dread, all of it too intense to name.
She jerked back, slamming her mental shields up as hard as she could. The connection dimmed but didn’t break. It was still there, a tether she couldn’t sever no matter how badly she wanted to.
By the time she got to work, she was exhausted and on edge and in no mood to deal with people. Naturally, the gallery was packed. The new artist had invited half the city to view the pre-opening setup, and Liana spent the morning dodging questions and making nice with collectors who wanted to “chat about the cosmic event.”
Everyone wanted to talk about the marks. Everyone had a theory. By noon, Liana wanted to scream.
She escaped to her office during lunch, locked the door, and put her head down on her desk.
The mark pulsed.
And with it came another flash of vision—Kaelen again, standing in what looked like a training room, his body moving through forms that were half dance, half combat. Sweat gleamed on his skin. His breathing was controlled, measured. He was trying to work off the tension, the anger.
The fear.
Liana felt it all through the bond, and underneath it, buried deep, something else. Something he probably didn’t even realize he was feeling.
Loneliness.
Her throat tightened. She pushed the vision away, but it was too late. She’d seen. Felt. Understood.
He was as trapped in this as she was. As unwilling. As afraid.
And tonight, if the visions kept getting stronger, they were going to end up face to face whether either of them wanted it or not.
The bond was pulling them together.
And Liana was starting to realize there was no fighting it.
Reader Reactions