THE UNBROKEN

They barely spoke for the rest of the day.

What was there to say?

Their bodies had become battlegrounds. Mouths for gods that spoke in groans and growls. Hands that clutched, tore, demanded. Flesh that remembered what it wasn't meant to- who it wasn't meant to serve.

The serpent still stirred inside Elena. Coiled and hissing. Pleased. Impatient.

The lion in Niegal prowled just beneath his ribs, growling soft and low, ever hungry. Unsatisfied.

They laid in bed, not touching. Not daring to. Her legs were tucked beneath her, bandaged where the bruises ran too deep to leave bare. He sat with his back against the wall, head in his hands. The sun had long set. Incense burned low. Silence wrapped around them like gauze.

And still, the hunger remained.

No one came to their cottage that evening.

No one dared.

The rumors had spread like wildfire- spiritual, primal, terrified.

The villagers could hear them the night before. The sounds. No ordinary sounds of passion. No, these were wails of the storm and roars of something far more ancient. They hadn't just made love. They had shaken the sanctuary.

People whispered behind closed doors:

"The lion is claiming his woman."

"The serpent demands her husband."

"They are becoming something else."

Elena drifted in and out of a half-sleep. Her body ached with divine exhaustion. Her spirit was stretched thin, trembling under the weight of what it had carried. When sleep finally took her-

The dream came.

It was the beach.

The one she remembered from her visions, where the sea met the stormclouds and thunder bloomed like wildflowers in the sky.

Elena stood naked in the surf, moonlight illuminating every glowing scar across her skin.

She gagged.

Her hands flew to her mouth.

Something was moving in her throat.

Slithering. Slick.

Her eyes widened in terror as the serpent within forced its way up from her chest, mouth opening in a wet, soundless scream. She dropped to her knees as it pushed up, up-

And burst free.

It slid out of her mouth like a living rope of muscle and hunger, hitting the sand with a terrible thud.

Elena choked on air, coughing violently, eyes streaming.

The serpent didn't look back. It slithered down the shore, toward a shadow…

A lion.

Massive. Crowned in silver. Eyes glinting.

He stepped forward on four paws, growling low, as he changed into a man- Niegal.

And as he approached, the serpent twisted once, shimmered-

And transformed into a woman.

Into her.

Elena watched, breath frozen in her throat, as her own doppelgänger touched the lion-man, her Niegal's, hair. They circled each other. Kissing.

And then…

They mated.

It wasn't human. It wasn't even godlike. It was old.

Elena watched her own face arch in ecstasy as the lion claimed her. Watched her own mouth cry out into the night. Her own stomach glow faintly under the moonlight. Her fingers trembled, one hand drifting instinctively to her belly.

The real Elena dropped to the sand, sobbing in horror. Not at the act. But at the truth.

This was never about want.

It was about need.

A deal struck. A price owed.

The gods would not stop until the child was conceived.

She woke with a cry stuck in her throat.

But she couldn't scream.

She couldn't move.

He was inside her again.

Niegal. Or the lion. Or both.

His arms cradled her, too tightly. His face pressed into her hair, whispering things she couldn't understand. Her legs were trembling. Her eyes were wide open, staring into the dark. The bed creaked beneath them.

She felt it, even through the haze.

The claiming.

Again.

She turned her head slowly, tears streaking sideways down her cheeks. "Niegal," she whispered.

He froze.

And then he broke.

Collapsing on top of her, arms shaking, shoulders wracked with sobs. "I didn't mean to- I don't know when it started, I can't stop it- "

She wrapped her arms around him, cradling his head to her chest, rocking them both as they cried.

They were no longer just Elena and Niegal.

They were hosts.

Chosen. Cursed.

Caught in a myth that had swallowed their ancestors and now demanded its due in full.

They wept until dawn.

And somewhere inside her, something ancient stirred.

A flicker.

A flame.

Not yet life.

But close.

The gods will have their due.