Chapter 81 || BOUND AND TORN BY PROPHECIES

 

The Price of a Soul

 

The palace of the dragons had never known such stillness. Not in centuries of war. Not in celebrations or coronations. Not even in the bitter silence of old kings' deaths. But now, it stood like a tomb. The sky outside was stormless, eerily calm. The clouds hung heavy but unmoving, as if mourning.

 

Inside the grand healing chamber, Jungkook lay upon a bed carved from starlight and obsidian, unmoving.

Healers came. Ancient rites were whispered. Runes were drawn in blood and gold. Incantations old enough to make even the walls weep were spoken. But Jungkook did not stir.

 

Taehyung knelt beside him, his hands bloodied from tearing his own chest, feeding him his essence, his magic, his very life force. His eyes, once a fierce storm of gold and fire, were now dim and sunken, hollowed out by desperation.

 

"Come back," he whispered. "I brought you back. You're safe now. Jungkook, wake up... please."

 

His chest did not rise. His skin was losing warmth. The faintest spark of his aura flickered like a dying candle.

 

Mili lay curled near him, wings limp, scales ashen.

 

The bond had been torn. And now the very essence of what made Jungkook—his soul—was unravelling.

 

Queen stood nearby, silently sobbing.

The King, for once, held no authority, his hands shaking with helplessness.

Nyla, her eyes swollen from crying, held onto Yoongi’s arm like a lifeline. Yoongi himself had sunk to the floor, knees drawn in, staring at nothing.

 

"We were too late."

 

Mili's voice, faint and thin, echoed into the silence.

 

"His soul is breaking. My other half is gone. I can feel him fading from within me."

 

Taehyung turned to her, his voice hoarse. "No. No, he can't. I won’t allow it."

 

Mili whimpered, her breath rasping. "You sealed his soul in me... but his body is gone. His flame, his thread to this world, it’s unravelling. I’m too weak to keep him safe."

 

He staggered to his feet. The magic he had used had burned through layers of his power. Still, he conjured more. He pressed a glowing hand against Mili’s chest. Ancient spells ripped from his throat, desperate, raw. The chamber was lit with blue-white fire. Runes circled them in midair.

 

His soul shimmered within the dragon—flickering.

 

But the magic faltered. Mili cried out. Her scales cracked with strain.

 

"You’re only delaying it. We are one soul in two halves. If his leaves… I will too. Not even dragon fire can stop that."

 

The healers backed away, terrified now. Magic that bent the rules of life itself was unravelling in front of them. Forbidden rituals had already been attempted. Some wept. Some prayed. Some fled.

 

Taehyung looked around him. The court. The council. His family. All failing him.

And then he turned inward.

 

He moved to Jungkook’s side again. He lifted his hand. It was cold.

 

He kissed his knuckles.

 

"I can’t... I can’t lose you again. I just found you. I fought the world for you. I bled into fire and broke dimensions."

 

His breath hitched. He held his hand to his chest.

 

"Don’t ask me to live without you. Please. Please, Jungkook. Fight."

 

But he didn’t answer.

 

A soft bell tolled in the distance. The one the dragons only used when someone with a royal title died.

 

The sound of it shattered the silence.

 

Taehyung roared.

A cry not of anger, but of despair.

 

It rattled the palace. Dragons far across the skies heard it and trembled.

 

He leaned over his body. His tears fell onto his skin.

 

"Come back to me. If the gods need a price, take me. Take everything. Just give him back."

 

Mili whimpered louder. She looked at Nyla and Yoongi.

 

"He’s burning himself alive."

 

The golden veins on Taehyung’s arms were pulsing faster. His scales appeared in patches on his skin. His transformation was unstable.

 

Nyla ran to him. "You have to stop—he wouldn’t want you to die!"

 

He looked at her, eyes barely sane. "But he’s gone."

 

Yoongi knelt beside Mili. "There has to be something we can do. Please."

 

Mili looked at them all with the eyes of someone already halfway to the other side.

 

"He’s gone," she said softly. "And soon I will be too."

 

Then her body flickered, like a projection failing to hold.

 

Taehyung surged forward. He dropped beside her. "NO! You’re his last tether! I can’t lose both of you!"

 

He slammed his palm into her chest, his voice breaking on the next spell.

 

Not to heal. Not to force.

 

But to bind. A desperate binding.

 

"I’ll seal you inside me, both of you. If that’s what it takes. I’ll carry you. I’ll keep you alive."

 

But the magic wouldn’t hold. The soul was too fractured.

 

He collapsed, coughing blood, vision swimming.

 

Everyone moved toward him—but he pushed them away.

 

He looked at Jungkook one last time.

 

And then he screamed.

A broken, soul-twisting sound.

 

His wings exploded from his back. His form blurred with dragon fury.

 

And then, without another word—he took flight.

 

Not as a prince.

Not as a warrior.

But as a broken man chasing the last ember of a soul he could not let die.

 

The storm that followed him turned the skies black.

And the palace behind him remained silent.

 

A palace that had gained a queen, only to lose him too soon.

And a dragon who had lost everything.

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