MARKED FOR PRETEND - Chapter 48: Chapter 48

The moment she took Kaden’s hand, the world changed.
Behind them, the Keepers shouted. Magic clashed with stone, runes flared, and Bevy’s voice rang out somewhere in the chaos — but Chelsea didn’t let go.
She couldn’t.
Kaden’s grip was firm, his scent grounding. His eyes storm-dark, gold-ringed locked with hers.
“Ready?” he asked.
“No,” she breathed. “But I trust you.”
He gave the barest nod.
“Then jump.”
And together, they stepped into Kaelvarin.
⸻
It wasn’t like falling.
It was like peeling.
Layers of reality slid off her skin color by color, sound by sound until all that was left was the heartbeat between them and the pulse of ancient magic.
Chelsea gasped as wind howled around her. Stars blinked in and out. Voices whispered in a language her blood somehow understood.
Then everything snapped into stillness.
⸻
They landed hard.
The ground was soft moss-covered, damp, and humming with strange power. Trees curved overhead, bent inward like they were protecting something sacred. The air shimmered. It smelled like lightning and old tears.
Chelsea coughed, lungs shaking.
Kaden helped her up, both of them swaying from the aftershock.
“Where are we?” she whispered.
“The edge of the outlands,” he replied. “This is where the veil frays… and truths unravel.”
Her knees gave, and she sank to the ground. Her magic still trembled beneath her skin, wild and unsettled.
Kaden crouched beside her. “Chelsea—”
“You came.” Her voice cracked. “I thought I imagined it. That growl. That voice. I thought maybe I’d gone mad.”
He touched her face, thumb brushing her cheek. “I would have torn through ten realms to get to you.”
She stared at him, eyes swimming. “You marked me for pretend. But what I felt… that wasn’t pretend.”
“No,” he said hoarsely. “It never was.”
He leaned closer, forehead to hers, their breaths tangled.
“I tried to fight it. I thought the bond was just chains in disguise. But when I felt you vanish Chelsea, I came undone.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks, not from fear. But from the fragile, terrifying weight of being seen.
“They wanted to make me a queen,” she whispered. “A weapon. A bridge. But the only place I ever wanted to rule was beside you.”
He didn’t speak.
He just kissed her.
Slow, deep, and full of every promise he hadn’t spoken yet.
⸻
Later, they sat under a curved tree, her head on his shoulder, breath steadying.
“We can’t stay long,” Kaden said. “This place bends time. Too long here, and we’ll lose track of what’s real.”
Chelsea nodded. “Bevy—she’s still back there.”
“We’ll go back for her. But not now. You’re not ready. You need to rest.”
“I need to fight.”
He turned to her, brows drawn. “You almost tore that place apart. You need control, not just strength.”
Chelsea looked at her hands. Magic still flickered across her fingers, ghostly and untamed.
“Then teach me,” she said. “Not just how to survive. How to win.”
Kaden stared at her for a long moment, then nodded.
“We start at dawn.”
“There is no dawn here.”
A shadow of a smile tugged at his lips. “Then we make one.”