My girlfriend is trapped in my superpower

Everything clung to me like smoke. Even after the vision faded, I swore I still smelled the ash, still heard the wails of people who had been dead for centuries. My hands shook as I stared at the dirt floor of Selene's hall, and the words kept echoing—I'm not your gift. I'm your curse.

That night, when everyone dispersed and Selene was busy marshaling her shadows to fortify the village, I slipped away. My head felt like it would split from the weight of everything.

The night was cold, the sky bruised with clouds. I leaned against the wooden rail of a half-broken balcony, trying to breathe.

"You look like someone dropped the world on your back," Mira's voice cut through the dark.

I turned. She stood there, arms crossed, her eyes sharp but softer than they'd been all day. She walked closer, leaning beside me. "You've been quiet. Too quiet. Which means you're about to do something stupid."

I tried to laugh, but it came out hollow. "You heard it. The stories. The seal. Lyra."

Mira's jaw tightened. "Stories can be twisted, Kael. Convenient truths dressed up as destiny. Don't swallow everything just because someone whispers it with fire and shadow."

Before I could answer, Lyra appeared in a ripple of heat, perched on the railing like a flame-lit crow. Her smirk was sharp, but her eyes… her eyes looked tired.

"Oh, Mira," she drawled. "Always the skeptic. Always the voice of reason. It'd almost be admirable if it wasn't so damn boring."

Mira's glare snapped to her. "And you. You'd love him to believe all of this, wouldn't you? That he's some savior bound by your cursed fire. Because it means he needs you. It makes you powerful."

Lyra's smirk widened, but the ember in her gaze flickered. "And what if it's true? What if the seal is crumbling, and the only thing standing between this world and endless deaths is him—and me? Would you rather he close his eyes and play house until the Devourer devours everything?"

The silence between them sparked hotter than any flame. I stood there caught between two storms—the girl who had fought by my side, and the flame who lived in my blood.

Mira turned to me, her voice low, steady. "You are more than their curse, Kael. You are more than what they want you to be. Don't lose yourself chasing a destiny you never asked for."

Lyra tilted her head, her tone mocking but her words heavy. "And if he doesn't chase it? If he ignores what's burning inside him? Then he damns not just himself, but everyone else. Including you, little protector."

My chest felt like it would split in two. Between Mira's faith and Lyra's fire, I didn't know which way to lean. The night pressed in, heavy, until—

"Kael!" A villager's frantic voice echoed through the shadows. "They're moving—something stirs in the woods!"

Mira's hand went to her blade in an instant. Lyra's form flared brighter, fire dancing in her hair. All I could think, as I pushed away from the rail, was that the choice was closing in faster than I could breathe.

We rushed to the square, villagers clustering together with torches that barely held back the dark. Shadows stretched long and jagged over the dirt, and every face wore the same tight mask of dread.

"They're out there," the villager stammered, pointing toward the treeline. "The beasts—the Hellbounds. I saw them, their eyes like coals in the dark."

Selene emerged from the crowd, her cloak dragging darkness with her. "Hold your lines," she ordered, shadows bristling at her call. "If they breach the square, we cut them down."

Lyra's form sharpened beside me, her ember-hair burning brighter than ever. Her smirk was gone. Her voice, low and taut. "It's not the beasts you should be afraid of."

And then he appeared.

A figure stepped just past the line of trees, shrouded in a cloak that swallowed the torchlight whole. Around him, the Hellbounds crept—snarling, drooling, their claws carving the earth. Yet none moved forward. They circled him like hounds leashed to a master.

The hooded man lifted his head. Though I couldn't see his face, I felt his gaze settle on me. The weight of it burned worse than fire.

"Bearer of the Sun," he said, voice like smoke and gravel, carrying over the square without effort. "At last, the seal trembles, and you stand where you were meant to. Do you even know what you guard? Or are you still a child playing with stolen flame?"

A ripple of panic swept through the villagers. Some dropped their torches. Others whispered prayers. Even Selene stiffened, her shadows faltering for a fraction of a second.

"Who are you?" I shouted, though my throat threatened to close. "What do you want?"

The hood tilted, and though I couldn't see his eyes, I knew he was smiling.

"What I want?" His chuckle was low, hollow. "What has always been owed. When the seal breaks, it won't be the Devourer that rises first—it will be the King. And when he calls for his blood…" His voice cut sharper, a blade in the dark. "You will kneel."

The Hellbounds snarled in unison, then melted into the woods with their master, leaving only silence and the echo of his words. The villagers collapsed to their knees, some sobbing, others trembling. Selene's fists clenched tight at her sides, shadows writhing like wounded animals.

I stood frozen, the fire inside me boiling, because I wasn't sure if the monsters outside were the greater threat, or the truth waiting inside me.

No one moved for a long moment. The air hung heavy with the smell of smoke and sweat, and the words—*You will kneel*—seemed to coil around our throats like chains.

A child's wail cracked the silence, thin and terrified, and suddenly the square erupted into voices.

"He knows!"

"The King is coming—"

"We're doomed—"

Selene's shadows lashed outward like whips, striking the ground and silencing the crowd. "Hold your tongues!" she barked, her voice cutting through the panic. "Fear is what feeds them. Do you want to call the beasts back here with your trembling?"

But her eyes betrayed her. For the first time since I'd met her, there was fear lurking in them too.

Bram muttered, low enough that only I heard, "I'll say it once, Kael I told you I don't like this place. Now I really don't like this place."

Mira's hand caught my sleeve. Her grip was tight, almost desperate. "We can't stay here," she whispered. "Kael, whatever this is—whatever he is—it's not worth the risk. We should leave before the village is swallowed with us in it."

Before I could answer, Lyra drifted closer, her ember-lit form a stark contrast to Mira's shadowed urgency. "And go where, little mortal?" she asked smoothly. "The seal binds this place. It binds him. If Kael runs, the flames inside him will tear him apart before the Devourer ever does. I will tear him apart"

"Or maybe that's just what you want," Mira snapped, louder now. Her eyes cut toward Lyra, sharp with defiance. "You keep telling him to stand and fight, but for whose sake? His—or yours?"

The villagers shrank back at the edge of their argument, too shaken to step in but listening all the same. Selene's shadows coiled tighter, her gaze flicking between us with something unreadable.

My stomach churned. My fire burned restless. Every voice around me—fear, faith, doubt—clawed at the walls of my chest, leaving me no room to breathe.

Before Mira or Lyra could hurl another word, an old villager stumbled forward, his face ashen, his knees barely holding him up.

"Please," he rasped. "You can argue tomorrow, or next year, if the gods will it—but not tonight. They'll be back. You heard him. The King… the King is stirring. If you are who you say, then save us. Don't waste the night with fighting each other."

The hush that followed was heavier than silence. Every eye turned to me. I wished, more than anything, that someone else could bear the weight of their hope.