MARKED FOR PRETEND - Chapter 47: Chapter 47

The walls were no longer still.
As Chelsea and Bevy ran, the Keepers’ stronghold began to shift — doors moving, shadows lengthening, the very stone reacting like a living thing.
“They’re reconfiguring the path!” Bevy shouted. “Trying to seal off the tether.”
“Then we go through it before they can!” Chelsea’s voice was ragged with effort. Her feet barely touched the ground. Her magic buzzed just beneath her skin, ready to explode.
They sprinted down a side corridor that hadn’t been open an hour ago. Symbols flashed along the walls, trying to confuse her. But Chelsea could feel it now — a pull in her bones. Like gravity was bending toward something familiar.
Kaelvarin.
⸻
They burst into a hall lined with stone pillars etched in runes. At the far end, beyond an altar of obsidian, was a massive arched doorway — half-solid, half-smoke.
The tether.
The veil between realms.
And it was glowing gold.
“It’s reacting to you,” Bevy whispered. “That shouldn’t be possible unless—”
“Someone’s coming through.”
Chelsea’s heart thundered.
Kaden.
The mark on her skin burned, not with pain, but with proximity. He was near.
But so were the others.
Behind them, footsteps echoed. Many. Fast.
Bevy spun. “We’re out of time.”
Chelsea turned to the altar. “What do I do?”
“You need to choose, Chelsea. The veil will obey your will — but only if you know who you are.”
“I don’t,” she whispered. “Not fully.”
“Then choose what you are,” Bevy said fiercely. “Not their symbol. Not Krippa. Not their weapon.”
Chelsea stepped forward. Her crescent mark glowed brighter.
She could feel the gate listening. Waiting.
So she spoke.
“I am the daughter of fire and wolf.”
“I am not yours. I am not theirs.”
“I am mine.”
The doorway flared.
Golden light ripped up the arch, blowing back Chelsea’s hair. The room trembled.
Bevy shielded her eyes. “You opened it.”
“No,” Chelsea said, her eyes fierce. “I called it.”
⸻
The footsteps behind them stopped.
The Keepers had entered the room — too late to stop her, but just in time to see what she’d become.
One of them raised a blade. “You don’t know what you’re doing!”
“I don’t need to,” Chelsea said. “He does.”
A growl rose behind the veil. A sound like thunder cracking bone.
And then—he stepped through.
Kaden.
Worn. Wild. Covered in ash and star-dust.
But alive.
And when his eyes landed on her, the world forgot how to breathe.
“Chelsea,” he rasped.
“You came.”
He didn’t answer. He just pulled her into his arms and crushed her against his chest. Her mark pulsed like fire between them.
“I felt you,” she whispered. “You roared. You claimed me.”
He pulled back just enough to press his forehead to hers. “And I’ll keep doing it until the world remembers who you belong to.”
⸻
Behind them, the veil trembled again.
The Keepers readied for war.
Chelsea stepped back, her power now pulsing in sync with Kaden’s presence.
“They want to trap me,” she said.
“Then we give them a reason to be afraid.”