The ruins groaned.

  It was a sound deeper than stone breaking—something old, something living.

  Kairos yanked Sariel back, gripping her arm as the air around them shifted. The shadows that had been reaching for her recoiled, writhing, their forms flickering with uncertainty.

  Something was coming.

  No, not coming—rising.

  A voice that wasn’t a voice slithered through the air.

  "You have brought her here."

  The ruins shuddered.

  Kairos tightened his grip on his sword. His entire body was taut, on edge. “Damn it.”

  Sariel fought to stay conscious, but the searing burn of Lucifer’s mark was relentless, pulling at her essence. She barely registered what was happening when the ground beneath them split open.

  A chasm erupted between the ruins, its depths an abyss of pure black. And from within it—something moved.

  The air grew dense, like gravity itself was bending. Sariel could barely breathe.

  The shadows that had attacked them scrambled away, slipping back into the ruins. Whatever was in that chasm—it scared even them.

  Kairos grabbed Sariel’s chin, forcing her to look at him. “Stay awake, or I swear I’ll throw you into that pit myself just to keep you out of Lucifer’s hands.”

  It wasn’t a joke.

  Sariel gasped, forcing her mind to focus, to fight past the pull of the mark.

  A massive hand gripped the edge of the chasm.

  Not a hand of flesh.

  A claw of obsidian and bone, its surface covered in sigils long forgotten.

  Sariel’s stomach twisted.

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  This was not a demon.

  Not an angel.

  Not a shade.

  It was something else entirely.

  Kairos pulled her back. “We need to run.”

  But before they could take another step—

  It rose.

  A form towered from the abyss, its body formed of shifting darkness and ancient stone, bound in chains that looked older than Hell itself.

  Sariel couldn’t breathe.

  It had no face. No features.

  Only a mouth, lined with jagged obsidian teeth.

  And from that abyssal maw, a sound like shattered glass and screaming tore through the air.

  Sariel collapsed.

  The pain from Lucifer’s mark surged—no, reacted—to this thing’s presence. Like it recognized it.

  Like it feared it.

  Kairos swore and shoved Sariel behind him, lifting his blade.

  The creature tilted its head toward them.

  "The Bound One calls her his."

  The words scraped against Sariel’s skull, piercing through her mind.

  Kairos didn’t hesitate. He slashed his sword through the air, sending a pulse of crackling energy toward the being.

  It didn’t even flinch.

  The attack vanished before it made contact.

  Kairos stiffened. “Oh, that’s not good.”

  The being took a step forward, the ruins shaking beneath its weight.

  "She does not belong to him yet."

  The sigils carved into its body burned with an eerie white light.

  And suddenly, the pain in Sariel’s chest lessened.

  The mark’s pull… was weakening?

  She gasped. “What—?”

  Kairos’s expression darkened. “It’s severing the bond.”

  Sariel’s heart pounded. “That’s—”

  "You are unclaimed, Sariel."

  The being loomed over her, its massive form blotting out the broken sky.

  "You may still be ours."

  Ours.

  Sariel’s blood ran cold.

  This wasn’t mercy.

  This wasn’t salvation.

  It was a claim of its own.

  Kairos grabbed her. “We have to move. NOW.”

  Sariel barely had time to react before the shadows surrounding them lunged.

  Everything exploded into motion.

  The ruins trembled, the ancient structures collapsing as the being took another step. The sigils along its body flared brighter, the force of its presence sending waves of energy rippling through the air.

  Sariel stumbled, trying to break free from Kairos’s grip, but he held her tight.

  “No more hesitating,” he growled. “You don’t want to belong to Lucifer? Fine. But I promise you, you do NOT want to belong to this.”

  The creature raised a hand.

  The shadows obeyed.

  They surged forward, wrapping around Sariel’s limbs, her waist, her throat.

  A cold, foreign energy seeped into her skin, twisting, claiming.

  Sariel gasped—

  And Kairos slashed through them.

  The moment his blade made contact, a ripple of golden light erupted outward, shattering the shadows like glass.

  Sariel collapsed against him, panting.

  The being paused.

  The ruins froze.

  And for the first time, the unreadable thing in front of them tilted its head at Kairos.

  "Ah. So you are still bound by them, after all."

  Kairos’s jaw tightened. “I was never yours.”

  The sigils along the creature’s body dimmed.

  But its voice remained.

  "Perhaps not."

  The shadows recoiled, pulling back from Sariel completely.

  The pull of Lucifer’s mark vanished.

  And then—

  The chasm swallowed the creature whole.

  It sank back into the abyss, the ruins around them crumbling into silence.

  Sariel couldn’t move.

  Her body trembled, her breath ragged, her mind still trying to process what had just happened.

  Kairos let out a slow breath. “Well. That was worse than I expected.”

  Sariel swallowed. “What… was that?”

  Kairos didn’t answer immediately.

  He stared at the now-empty chasm, something dark flickering behind his unreadable expression.

  Then, finally—

  “A remnant of something that shouldn’t exist.”

  He turned back to her, eyes sharp.

  “And now it knows your name.”

  Sariel’s blood ran cold.

  Kairos exhaled. “We need to move. Lucifer isn’t going to wait forever, and now we’ve got another problem.”

  Sariel hesitated, glancing back at the chasm.

  The being was gone.

  But somehow, she knew—this wasn’t over.

  She didn’t belong to Lucifer.

  She didn’t belong to the rogue force.

  But for the first time, she realized something chilling.

  She was still a prize to be won.

  And Hell wasn’t the only thing bidding.