My girlfriend is trapped in my superpower

Kael's POV

The chamber is dead silent. Not the hushed kind of silence, but the terrified kind.

Every Guildmaster stares at me as if I've sprouted horns, as if I'm no longer the same recruit they thought they could toy with. Their polished masks of authority crack — beads of sweat glisten on foreheads, eyes flick nervously to the glowing fragments of the shattered wards smoldering on the floor.

And all I did… was stand.

"Impossible…" mutters Master Renic, the hawk-eyed alchemist, his lips barely moving. "Those seals were crafted by the Founders themselves. No mortal should—"

"—be able to break them," finishes Mira, her voice flat, though I notice the faintest tremor in her hands as she grips the hilt of her blade. She's the only one among them not recoiling in fear, but even she is watching me now. Measuring me.

I glance sideways at Lyra. She's smirking, arms folded, eyes glittering with mischief and danger.

"See? her voice lilts in my head. You finally scared them. About time."

The Guildmaster at the center — Lord Veynar, the one who practically drips with arrogance — slams his hand against the marble table. The echo cracks through the silence.

"This boy is no ordinary vessel. He is a threat." His gaze slices through me, sharp enough to draw blood. "And threats are to be contained."

"Contained?" I bite out the word before I can stop myself, my voice echoing through the vaulted chamber.

Half the Guild flinches.

Veynar rises slowly, his jeweled cloak dragging behind him like a pool of blood. "You broke through a Founder's seal. Either you're lying about your origins, or…" His eyes flick to Lyra, who lounges casually in the air beside me, as if she owns the chamber. "…the thing bound to you has been deceiving us all along."

Lyra laughs. Not the nervous kind. The kind that drips with sharp edges.

"Oh, please. Me deceiving you? You pompous fossils can't even keep your wards from crumbling." She floats down to perch on the edge of the council's table, swinging her legs like a bored child. "If Kael were a threat, you'd already be ashes."

"Enough!" Renic snaps, slamming a vial onto the table. It hisses, smoke curling upward, the stench of acid filling the chamber. "Spirit or parasite, you will not mock this council."

I feel the air growing heavier, layers of binding magic weaving silently around me. My pulse hammers. They're preparing to seal me.

Mira shifts uneasily but doesn't move to stop them. Her violet eyes are on me—steady, calculating. There's something unreadable there, like she's waiting to see what I do.

"Kael," Lyra murmurs inside my head now, her smirk gone, her tone sharper. "If they try to cage you, they'll try to cage me. You won't survive that. Neither will I."

And then, from the farthest corner of the chamber, a ripple passes through the air. Cold. Wrong.

I'm not the only one who feels it. Every Guildmaster stiffens.

The shadows along the chamber wall shift, peeling away from stone like oil. A hunched, many-eyed creature drags itself free of the darkness, jaws clicking in unnatural rhythm.

The Guild was so busy tearing me apart, they didn't notice something else slither in.

Lyra's voice purrs in my mind. "Well, well. Looks like dinner came early."

The shadow peels fully into shape, towering, skeletal but wrapped in tar-like sinew. Too many eyes roll across its skull, glowing faintly blue, and its mouth stretches into a jagged, bone-splitting grin.

Renic whispers a word I've never heard before. His lips tremble. "Umbrazel."

The name slithers through the chamber like a curse.

The Umbrazel hunches forward, its gaze locking directly on me. Not Mira. Not the council. Me. Its jaw clicks once, twice—and then it moves.

"Kael—MOVE!" Mira shouts, summoning a wall of crystalline spikes from the floor. The Umbrazel smashes straight through them, shards spraying across the chamber.

I barely roll aside before its claw digs trenches into the marble where I stood. Lyra's voice lashes through me, hot and electric. "Don't dodge—strike back. It's hunting YOU. Show it who it's really dealing with."

Veynar rises with a gesture, chains of molten light lashing around the Umbrazel's limbs, pinning it mid-lunge. For a heartbeat, it struggles—and then with a sickening shriek, it snaps the chains like twigs.

"Impossible!" Veynar snarls.

The Guild launches everything at once: Renic's vials bursting acid across its hide, Mira summoning glyphs that detonate in purple fire, an elder weaving barriers around the chamber. The Umbrazel thrashes, undeterred, always tearing its way closer to me.

And through the chaos, I feel it: the creature's hunger pressing against my chest, against her. It wants Lyra.

"It can smell me inside you," Lyra murmurs, her voice a blend of fury and delight. "Kael… I think it's time we stop pretending."

Heat rushes through me—my hands ignite in black fire, not mine but hers, wild and hungry. Gasps ripple through the chamber as the Guild turns to stare at me, horror mixing with awe.

The Umbrazel screeches, lunging again. I step forward, no longer dodging.

The Umbrazel's shriek rattles the chamber walls. Its body contorts like liquid shadow, stretching across the marble floor before snapping back into a solid monstrosity.

I tighten my grip on the fire curling around my hands. Except—this isn't just fire. It hisses, bends, hungers. Lyra's power.

"Focus, Kael," she purrs. "Let me show you how to burn something that doesn't even bleed."

The Guild attacks again in formation: Mira's glyphs flare to life, Renic hurls smoke bombs that bloom into choking mist, and Veynar carves runes into the air that split into golden chains. For a moment, the Umbrazel staggers, weighed down.

I don't think. I sprint straight at it, vaulting over a broken pillar. Fire erupts up my arm, crackling into a blade of black flame. I drive it into the Umbrazel's torso—

—and it screams. A real scream, shrill and jagged, as its form peels like paper where I cut. The shadows recoil from my blade, leaving a burning scar across its chest.

"Kael!" Mira yells. "What the hell is that power?"

I don't answer. My knees buckle, a wave of nausea rolling through me. Lyra's laughter tickles at my skull, sweet and sharp. "Easy, hero. My fire eats more than monsters—it eats YOU too, if you're not careful."

The Umbrazel recovers fast. Its eyes snap toward me again. It ignores Mira, ignores the others. It wants me.

It roars and whips its arm—a tendril of shadow smashing me into a column. Pain explodes down my side, but before I can crumple, Lyra's presence flares, holding me upright.

"On your feet, Kael. You think this thing's terrifying? I crawled out of a world filled with worse. Don't you dare embarrass me."

Snarling, I push up, fire wreathing both arms now. The Guild finally seems to understand—their attacks keep it distracted, but only my flames hurt it.

"Cover him!" Veynar bellows, his molten chains slamming down to bind the Umbrazel's legs. Mira's glyphs explode under its arms, keeping it staggered.

Renic slides in beside me, knives gleaming. "Whatever you're about to do—do it fast. We can't hold it forever."

I nod, though my chest feels like it's splitting apart. Lyra's voice presses against my ear, fierce and intimate. "Let me in deeper. Just for a second. Let me burn through you, Kael. You'll hate it—but the monster will hate it more."

My pulse hammers. My skin tingles.

The Umbrazel thrashes, its mouth widening into a black abyss of teeth. It roars again, cracking the marble floor.

I grit my teeth and whisper— "Fine. Do it."

Lyra floods me.

Flames roar out of my body like wings, black and violet, filling the entire chamber with unbearable heat. Guild wards sizzle, nearly collapsing. The Umbrazel shrieks in horror as I step forward, fire streaming off me in ribbons.

For the first time since it appeared— It looks afraid.

The Umbrazel lashes against the chains, shrieking like iron torn apart. My body feels like it's splitting at the seams, Lyra's power burning through every nerve, but I force myself forward.

One step more, Kael. Don't think. Just burn.

The flames pouring off me shift, twisting into wings that flare wide, a storm of black and violet fire. The air vibrates, oppressive and raw, as though reality itself wants to fold.

The Umbrazel lunges—desperation in its abyssal eyes.

I leap.

Our clash lights up the entire chamber. My blade of voidfire cuts through its core, cleaving the writhing shadow open like a curtain. The flames surge, devouring its form piece by piece, until the scream cuts off in a blinding flash.

And then—silence.

The Umbrazel is gone. Nothing remains but ash and a faint scorch mark burned into the marble floor.

The wings collapse, flames guttering back into me with a hiss that leaves my lungs screaming for air. I drop to my knees, palms seared, vision swimming. Lyra's laugh echoes softly, like a secret no one else can hear.

"See? We make a damn good team."

I try to answer, but only blood touches my tongue.

The Guild doesn't cheer. They just stare. Mira lowers her glyphs slowly, face pale. Veynar's chains crumble into sparks. Renic twirls his knives nervously, for once without a joke.

Nobody moves closer. Not even Mira.

"Kael…" she says finally, her voice tight. "What are you?"

I can't answer.

The silence stretches, thick and heavy, until the double doors slam open. A squad of armored Guild enforcers marches in, weapons drawn, eyes flicking between me and the scorched battlefield.

Their captain levels a halberd at me.

"Kael Varros. By order of the High Council—you are summoned immediately."

Just then the door opens… Bram enters the door with one hand on his head. "Oh man, I missed the party," he shrieks.

Lyra's smirk hums in my skull. "Told you they'd notice."