My girlfriend is trapped in my superpower

The bell tolled again.

Boom.

The air itself seemed to vibrate, the sound clawing through the ruined yard where the Wyrm had fallen. Everyone stilled—the Masters, Mira, Bram, even the ash drifting in the wind.

Corvin's face went sharp. "Outer wards. Something breached."

Deyra gripped her staff tighter. "The wards don't fall unless—"

The ground shook, a low, rippling tremor. From beyond the southern wall came a sound that wasn't a roar, wasn't a scream, but something between the two—a guttural wail that made my bones ache.

Rhys muttered, "Not possible…" but his eyes betrayed the same dread twisting in my gut.

Bram, ever the idiot, tilted his head and smirked. "Tell me that wasn't just an oversized cow. Please."

No one laughed.

The southern wall splintered. A crack like lightning split the sky as stone exploded outward, and through the breach slithered a shape worse than the Wyrm—long, insectile, armored in plates of black chitin that dripped tar. Dozens of clawed limbs gripped the shattered wall, hauling its bulk forward.

Mira's breath hitched. "An Ash Devourer…"

Corvin's face drained of color. "Those were wiped out centuries ago."

The thing raised its head, mandibles clicking, eyes glowing like twin furnaces. Then it screamed. The sound tore through the yard like knives.

Lyra purred in my head, her voice sharp with excitement. 'Oh, this will be fun."

"Fun?!" I snarled under my breath.

Bram cracked his knuckles. "Well, if it wants seconds, who are we to refuse?"

"Shut up, Bram," Mira hissed, but her spear was already glowing.

The Masters spread out, half-ready, half-panicked. Corvin raised his hand, runes spiraling into the air, while Deyra whispered spells too quickly to follow. Rhys, though—he didn't move to fight. His eyes flicked to me instead, calculating, hungry.

Lyra hissed. "See? Even now. Their first thought isn't survival—it's you."

The Devourer lunged, its front limbs smashing down, shattering cobblestones, crushing a pillar into rubble. Ashthorne's yard filled with chaos—the Masters casting spells, Mira darting to intercept, Bram laughing like a lunatic as he swung at limbs twice his size.

I hesitated for a breath. The fire still simmered inside me, stronger since the Wyrm, but harder to hold back. If I unleashed it again… I wasn't sure I'd stop.

Lyra's laughter shimmered inside me, sharp and sweet. "Don't hold back. Let them see what happens when you stop pretending to be small."

The Devourer screeched, its mandibles dripping acid onto the stones, burning holes straight through. It turned toward the nearest cluster—two Masters who weren't fast enough.

I moved without thinking. Fire licked my skin, my eyes burning like twin coals. I wasn't floating this time, not yet—but the ground beneath my feet cracked as power surged upward.

"Kael—!" Mira's voice snapped at me, warning and fear tangled together.

The Devourer lunged. I raised my hand this time, the fire didn't just answer—it erupted.

The Devourer struck first. Its limb came down like a falling tower. Corvin's wards barely held—sigils flared, shattered, and he staggered back, blood streaking his lip.

Deyra shouted something in an old tongue and a cyclone of wind ripped across the yard, slowing the beast for a heartbeat. A heartbeat. Then it rammed forward, claws gouging into the stone, dragging its bulk closer.

Mira darted low, her spear flashing like lightning. Sparks burst as she stabbed between plates of armor, but the Devourer barely twitched. Acid sprayed—she rolled, her cloak smoking where drops struck.

Bram roared, hammer crashing into one of its limbs. The impact cracked stone, but not chitin. The blow knocked him backward, his boots carving trenches across the floor.

"Damn it, it's like hitting a mountain!" Bram spat, shaking his bruised hands.

The Devourer's scream shattered windows. It lunged for him, and for a breath, I thought that was it. Mira leapt across the monster's face, spear striking its eyes, forcing it back.

But even she was slowing. Already her side was slick with blood. Rhys hadn't moved to help. He stood on the far side, pale and silent, watching me. Watching the fire crawling across my arms like he was cataloguing every detail.

Lyra growled in my skull. "Coward. He's waiting to see if you'll burn for him."

The Devourer spun, tail lashing. It slammed through two Masters, sending them crashing into the wall with bone-cracking force. One screamed, the other didn't.

Corvin barked, "Hold the line!" but his voice was shaking.

And me? My chest was on fire. I tried to summon the flames, tried to hurl them, but they slipped, sputtering. Too wild. Too heavy. I staggered back as if the weight of it was crushing me

The Devourer's maw snapped shut where my head had been a heartbeat before. I threw myself sideways, stone splintering beneath its bite. Every breath hurt. Every muscle screamed. My flames licked weakly at my hands but refused to answer me fully.

Mira coughed blood and dragged herself back to her feet. "Kael—" Her voice cracked. "Do something."

Her eyes burned, not with fear, but with belief. The kind that stabs you in the chest because you don't deserve it.

Bram staggered forward again, hammer raised though his arms trembled. "We're not dying here, you son of a bitch!" He swung. The Devourer caught the hammer in its jaws and snapped it in half like kindling.

Bram went flying, hitting the ground hard enough to rattle teeth.

"Bram!" Mira's cry was ragged, desperate.

The monster loomed above her now, dripping acid from its fangs. Corvin and Deyra tried to intercept, but the Devourer swiped with both claws, tearing the ground open, sending them both sprawling.

Too strong. Too fast. We couldn't win.

Lyra's voice whispered like fire in dry grass. "You're holding back, Kael. You're still afraid of me. Afraid of what happens if you let me in."

My fists clenched. "If I let you in fully, I'll lose myself."

"Or you'll become something more."

The Devourer's claw descended toward Mira. And that's when I broke.

"LET IT BURN!" I screamed.

The fire didn't come from my hands. It erupted from everywhere. Flames roared from my chest, from my veins, from my very shadow. I lifted off the ground, weightless, air warping in waves of heat.

My skin cracked with fiery veins like molten glass. My eyes burned white-orange, and my voice when I breathed wasn't mine anymore—it was ours. Lyra and I were one again.

The Devourer stopped mid-swipe. For the first time, it hesitated. Every Master in the hall froze—horror, awe, and something else twisting their faces. Greed.

Deyra whispered, "Impossible…"

Rhys's lips curled, almost hungry.

The Devourer screeched and lunged again—And I met it head on.

The Devourer's roar cracked through the hall, a sound that made even the ancient stones groan in protest. But it wasn't just rage anymore—there was something else in that heavy cry. Hesitation. Wariness.

For the first time since it tore its way into this world, I was no longer prey.

Flames coiled around me, alive, licking over my arms and chest like they were hungry. My boots no longer touched the ground. The heat scorched the stones beneath, leaving blackened cracks that spiderwebbed outward with every breath I took.

Lyra's voice wasn't separate now. It was my own. My tongue, my heartbeat, my thoughts—blended until I couldn't tell where I ended and she began.

"Easy, Kael," she purred inside me. "Don't rush. Let it feel you. Let it understand what it's hunting."

The Devourer lunged. Its claw, big enough to crush a wagon, slashed through the air with a thunderclap. I didn't move. Didn't need to.

The claw struck my flaming aura—and stopped. Not because I blocked it, but because the fire ate at it, searing the flesh so deeply the beast yanked back with a shriek, half its talons already blackened stumps.

The Masters gasped. Corvin staggered to his knees, his face pale, eyes locked on me. "By the stars… he's merged with it."

Deyra's lips parted, trembling. "No… not merged. Ascended."

Their awe didn't hide the way their hands twitched, the way their eyes burned with greed. The Devourer recovered fast, slamming its tail toward me. The ground exploded, dust and stone filling the air—

I lifted a hand. Just one.

The flames surged outward like a tidal wave and caught the tail mid-swing. The impact never touched me; the fire wrapped it, twisted it, burned it, until the monster recoiled again, screaming, thrashing, its shadow-flesh blistering into ash.

I landed softly, hovering inches above the shattered stone. Mira stared at me wide-eyed, blood on her lips, voice hoarse. "Kael…?"

Bram coughed, dragging himself upright, and despite the blood dripping from his temple, he managed a broken laugh. "Damn, brother… you look terrifying. I like it."

Lyra chuckled through me, warm and wicked. "Careful, Bram. You keep flattering me, and I might start thinking you've got a crush."

Even in the middle of the carnage, Bram snorted. "Sorry, love. I prefer women who don't try to incinerate me when I blink."

Mira groaned. "Both of you, shut up."

But I caught it—the flicker of relief in her eyes, hidden under the sarcasm.

The Devourer lowered its head now, no longer charging blindly. It circled, growling low, its molten eyes narrowed in something too sharp to be instinct. Wariness. Strategy.

It wasn't mindless. It was adapting. The Masters stayed frozen at the edges of the hall, torn between awe and avarice. I felt their eyes on me.

The Devourer's massive chest heaved, every breath rattling the ruined air. Ash fell around it like black snow. It was wounded, yes—but not broken. If anything, the hunger in its molten eyes grew sharper, hungrier, like my transformation had only fed it more desire to consume.

It wanted me. Not Kael. Not Lyra. Us.

I floated higher without willing it, the flames roaring louder, bending the air until every torch in the hall guttered. My hair whipped in the heat, strands glowing like burning embers. When I looked down, even my hands weren't mine anymore—they were halos of fire and black smoke, claws where fingers should've been.

Mira clutched her staff, whispering as though praying. "This isn't Kael anymore…"

Her voice cracked, and I felt the sting of her doubt—but Lyra's laughter echoed inside, smoothing the ache like silk.

"Oh, it's still him," she purred. "Just… improved."

The Devourer lunged again, faster than before. Its charred talons shot for my throat, but the fire around me answered. It didn't wait for my command—it surged upward in a blazing spear, piercing clean through the monster's forearm.

The Devourer screamed, the sound so violent the walls trembled and cracked. It thrashed, slammed its injured limb against the stone to snuff the flame, but the fire clung, eating deeper, gnawing bone to dust.

I didn't chase it. Didn't even flinch. I just watched. And that unnerved it more than the fire.

Bram wiped blood from his lip, eyes darting between me and the monster. "Tell me I'm not the only one thinking this thing looks like it's actually… scared?"

Corvin swallowed hard, voice shaking. "No… you're right. But fear makes a beast twice as dangerous."

He wasn't wrong. The Devourer bellowed and slammed its fist into the ground. The stones shattered, a shockwave ripping outward that sent Mira sprawling and Bram crashing into a broken column. Masters scrambled back, some erecting hurried barriers, their pride and poise stripped to raw survival.

The shockwave never touched me. The flames around me bent, curled inward, and the energy died before it reached me—like the air itself refused to harm me now.

The monster snarled, its chest splitting open to reveal a cavern of writhing shadows, a second maw gnashing inside its body. From that pit, black tendrils shot out, spears of shadow aiming not for me—

—but for Bram. For Mira. For the Masters.

"Kael!" Mira screamed.

My heart lurched. Too fast, too many—I couldn't intercept them all—

Lyra's voice thundered in my skull. "Then stop holding back!"

I roared, and the fire burst outward in a circle, a dome of searing light. Every tendril that touched it shrieked and curled, incinerated before it reached its prey. The dome flared brighter, brighter—until the Devourer itself staggered back, shielding its face from the blaze.

When the light dimmed, silence crashed into the hall. Every Master stared at me—not with relief, but with hunger. Deyra whispered first, her voice trembling like a hymn. "If we could separate it from him…"

Korran's eyes gleamed, bloody teeth flashing. "No. Not separate. Control."

A greedy murmur rippled through the others. Even the Devourer paused, its molten eyes flicking between me and the Masters, as though it too recognized the shift.

And for the first time, I realized—the monster in front of me wasn't the only threat in this room.