Rheon The Bond Burns Red
Rheon
The Bond Burns Red
The fire came first. It roared beneath my skin like a sleeping beast stirred too soon, curling through my veins, licking the edge of my vision until all I could see was flame.
I stumbled back from the mirror pool in the temple’s ruins — clutching my chest, where the bond mark had lain dormant for days.
Now it was blazing.
Alive.
And screaming her name.
Seori.
“Rheon!”
Taeyang's voice thundered from behind, but I couldn’t answer. I was kneeling on cracked stone, sweat pouring down my back as my breath came in ragged gasps.
The bond pulsed. Not gently. Not with longing. It pulsed with panic.
Agony.
Seori was in danger.
“She’s bleeding,” I whispered, eyes widening as I saw flashes of her pain — white walls, screaming wards, silver blades near her spine.
They tried to sever it.
“Jisoo!” I barked, shoving myself upright. My body was trembling, rage barely contained. “They touched the bond. They touched her.”
Jisoo appeared in seconds, wild-eyed, shirtless, a dagger in each hand like he'd been sparring with ghosts.
“What do you mean they touched it?”
“She’s in the Guild. And they tried to break it,” I said through clenched teeth.
Taeyang growled low, the air around him rippling with wrath.
“Then we burn them to ash.”
“No,” I said sharply. “Not yet. Not without getting her and the others out.”
“Others?” Jisoo blinked.
“Yuna. Minji. They were with her. If the Guild’s declared them traitors, they’ll be imprisoned — or worse.”
“They won’t kill her,” Taeyang muttered. “She’s bonded to you. Even those bastards fear what’ll happen if they break something ancient.”
“Maybe not intentionally,” I said. “But fear makes monsters of men. We’ve seen what they’ll do when cornered.”
Jisoo’s jaw clenched, but then his grin crept in — slow, razor-edged.
“Then we corner them.”
I nodded once. My flames had steadied now — but the bond still throbbed beneath my ribs like a heartbeat not entirely my own.
“I want you to lead the outer distraction,” I told Jisoo. “Fire and flash. Make them think the attack is coming from the west wall.”
He smirked.
“I do love making an entrance.”
“Taeyang — break the prison wards. Get to the lower vaults. You’ll find Yuna and Minji.”
“What about you?”
“I’m getting her.”
The Guild took what was mine. Touched the one thing I swore I would never lose. And now, I will show them what happens… when a prince remembers his crown. And let the fire burn.
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The last time I walked these halls, I showed restraint. Not tonight. Tonight, I came to end them.
My boots echoed over sacred stone, ash and ward-fire trailing behind me like a cloak. Jisoo flanked my left, blades out, laughter already dripping from his tongue like poison. Taeyang was on my right — silent, focused, and ready to kill.
The front gates didn’t stand a chance. The holy wards? Shattered with a flick of my hand. The sacred lights dimmed the second I stepped into the Guild.
Because shadows don’t ask permission. It swallows everything.
They tried to stop me at the corridor bend — five hunters with spirit-forged weapons.
Idiots.
I raised my palm. My magic burst forward, coiling like a serpent of black fire. It consumed their blades mid-air and slammed them into the wall with enough force to crack stone. One of them rose to his knees, blood on his chin.
“I’m only following orders,” he gasped.
“And I only gave you one,” I snarled, stepping forward. “Stay away from her.”
My blade dropped. Swift. Final. His blood joined the stone. I stalked through the Guild like a god of wrath, my shadow magic answering me with a hunger I hadn’t felt in centuries.
Every corridor brought back memories — of lies, of torture, of the sick righteousness these humans wore like armor.
Jisoo set the west wing ablaze with divine fire, golden flames licking the murals that once cursed our kind. Taeyang broke the armory doors, crushing anything that dared get in his way.
But I only had one name in my mind.
Seori.
I felt her. Through the bond. Weak… but alive.
And afraid.
The Guild burned around me like a dying beast. Walls cracked and groaned, centuries of stone no match for the inferno trailing in my wake. Screams echoed, steel clashed with steel, but all I heard—was her. Her heartbeat, through the bond. Weak. Erratic. Hurting.
Seori.
I tore through the smoke-soaked corridors, shadows flaring beside me like wings. I was close. I could feel it. But just as I turned toward the cells, a figure stepped from the crumbling doorway, blocking my path.
The Guild master.
Blood smeared his brow, and a blade hung at his side—drawn, steady, unwavering. The emblem of the Hunters, charred and barely clinging to his cloak.
“I should have known it would be you,” he said.
“Get out of my way,” I growled, fire curling at my fingertips.
“She is gone. Taken.”
My rage flared.
“You lie.”
“She was never meant to survive this long,” he said, voice too calm for a man facing death. “We were supposed to end this before it began.”
I froze.
“What are you talking about?”
He didn’t answer.
Instead, he stepped forward, sword raised—not to threaten, but to defend.
“You shouldn’t have come for her. You’ve made everything worse.”
I stepped into him, shadows slamming into his body like a wave. He grunted, staggered, but stood firm.
“What do you mean—‘she was never meant to survive’?” I snapped. “What did you do to her?”
His expression darkened.
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
Silence.
Then, softly
“She was never supposed to exist.”
The air thickened.
I stared at him, stunned.
“What does that mean?”
His jaw clenched.
“If you knew the truth, you’d kill her yourself.”
A roar broke from my chest as I charged. Our blades met with a clash that shook the stones beneath us. He fought like a man with nothing to lose—because he didn’t. But he was already dead the moment he spoke her name with disdain.
“You trained her!” I bellowed. “You taught her how to fight—and you planned to throw her to the wolves?”
“She is a danger to both realms!” he shouted back. “If the wrong hands find her—”
“Then you should have trusted her to me,” I seethed.
“I’d rather burn this entire world to ash than let the Prince of Flame have her!”
The moment shattered.
I lunged, my blade searing through his guard, through his ribs. His sword clattered to the floor. His breath hitched, blood bubbling at his lips.
“Tell me,” I hissed, holding him up with my blade. “Tell me what she is.”
His lips curled, bitter with secrets.
“She’s your end.”
And then he smiled, and died.
His body crumpled to the stone—just another piece of ash in the chaos he helped build. But his words didn’t die with him.
She’s your end.
I turned back toward the cell corridors, fury pounding in my veins. I didn’t care what they were hiding. I didn’t care what she was.
She was mine.
And I was done asking for permission.
We reached the inner sanctum just as two Guild enforcers were dragging her up the steps — bloodied, bruised, still fighting.
My mark flared. And everything snapped.
I vanished from where I stood, reappearing behind the one holding her wrists. My shadows strangled his breath mid-scream. I raised him off the ground with one hand, eyes glowing pure black.
“Whoever touched her will die by my hands.”
He shook, lips parting — but no words came. Just blood, and fear, and then… silence.
I dropped his body. Let it hit the floor like the truth it was.
The second one tried to run. He got three steps.
“You hurt what was mine… and now I’ll hurt you.”
My blade slid through his back like silk. She fell into my arms like she belonged there — even if she hadn’t realized it yet.
“I told you to stay away,” Seori whispered, her voice hoarse.
I cradled her face, wiping the blood from her cheek with shaking fingers.
“And I told you… I don’t let go of what’s mine.”
Her breath hitched. And despite everything — the death, the fire, the ruin — she leaned into me.
Like she knew I’d never let the darkness take her alone.
Tonight, the Guild learned that demons don’t beg. We break. We burn. And we protect. And for her… I’ll destroy everything.