HE WAS MY PRISONER UNTIL THE UNIVERSE CHAINED US TOGETHER. I spent a century watching him rot in the hidden dark. Will Hayes is a fallen god with tattered wings and a heart full of spite. I am the obsidian-clad blade of the High Heavens. My only duty was to keep him caged. Then the world shattered. A stray blast of mana fused our souls. Now we are bound by a ten-foot tether that burns with every step. If we move too far apart, we die. The bond is a curse. I feel his hunger. I feel his rage. Every time he looks at me, the heat in my blood becomes a physical weight. We are hunted by mercenaries and the very gods I once served. When a man tries to lay a hand on me, the prisoner I once mocked turns into a monster of celestial fury. He promises to tear the stars from the sky for me. He claims I am his, and the terrifying truth is that my body agrees. The pressure in the Heart of the Caverns is screaming for release. There is only one way to stabilize the magic before it tears us to pieces. Total surrender. I have to let him in. I have to feel his memories of the fall and let him taste my loneliness. The line between jailer and captive has vanished. We are no longer two souls. We are one weapon forged in the deep.