Filed to story: Mated and Hated by My Brother’s Best Friend Book PDF Free by Anna Campbell
*Ethan’
I carried her.
Jiselle’s arms were limp around my shoulders, her breath ragged and shallow against my neck. The echo of Max’s last words rang in my mind like a wound that refused to heal. She’d fallen as I lifted her from the ashes of the shattered courtyard, debris crackling beneath our feet-stone and flame recessed, leaving only grief. I stayed silent, a mute offering of strength, feeling her weight settle into me as squarely as the guilt that burned hotter than any flame we’d carried.
The rest of them followed: Nate at my side, face mottled with ash and tears; Eva cradling Bastain’s arm; Bastain himself, his voice gruff but steady as he directed the path through twisting corridors toward the lower chambers of the Academy. We moved like ghosts bearing a body, like a ragged pack trailing a wound-but each of us carried something heavier on our souls.
Inside the chamber, the stone walls were familiar: flickering lanterns, broken tables, the scent of old parchment and effort. Soldiers milled in silence, cleaning weapons and murmuring pledges of fight. I carried Jiselle to a makeshift cot and laid her gently, smoothing her sweat-damp hair from her face. Her violet rune thrummed softly beneath her skin-a heartbeat I would protect with my own, or die trying
No one spoke. Silence was sacred here.
I took up watch. I sat on the cot’s edge, one hand against her forehead, as tears I refused to shed welled in my chest. Max had died for her. Not as mate. Not for love, exactly. But because she’d mattered enough to him to draw her into that storm. He’d given everything-blood, life, promise. We all saw now what he understood too late: Jiselle was not only a sovereign. She was the world’s hinge, and he’d stood between that burden and her when she could not.
Eva knelt beside the cot, fingertips brushing Jiselle’s wrist. She looked fragile-her usual boldness gone, replaced by a hollow edge of exhaustion.! realized then how rarely I’d seen her afraid. Now, she barely held herself in place, as if her defiance had been depleted. I wanted to reach over, place a steadying hand on her shoulder. But I didn’t. Instead I let her hold my gaze, and I stayed.
Time slowed. Beneath the hush of the chamber, memories began to crack open.
I felt the twin bond shatter when Max died-the wave hit me long after Naomi screamed. A part of me that had always been Jiselle’s protector splintered. I wondered if everyone else felt the same: Nate’s ground slipping, Eva’s anchor gone, Bastain’s faith wobbling. It seemed as if Max was the one holding the whole thing together, and when he fell… we all did.
Eva inhaled, eyes prying open, tears trembling. Her hands clenched, into fists. She rose, pacing toward the opposite wall.
I followed her slowly. I wanted to say-something comforting. Anything to show I saw her grief. She stopped, back to me, voice brittle too young. And it-I thought I saw it coming. This… this wasn’t supposed to be like this.” as… he was
I didn’t want to respond with words. We were brothers by grief and promise. I stepped closer, slid a hand onto her bicep. She swallowed loudly, turned halfway. Our gaze met.
And it felt like a tether anchored me.
“Eva,” I whispered, “we all did.” Her shoulders shook as she exhaled. “I-I can’t…”
“It’s okay,” I murmured, voice soft enough to keep the ghosts at bay. “I’ll hold it for you-until you can.”
She swallowed again, nodded once, and looked away. Some semblance of calm returned to her eyes. She didn’t forgive herself-but she accepted that she wasn’t alone in that.
Meanwhile, I kept one eye on Jiselle. She lay still, exhaustion slack across her features. I wanted to move to her bedside, but I stayed rooted by the doorway, watching, protecting. If the Gate tried to reach her again, I’d tear it apart before it touched her blood.
I made a silent vow, wordless but fierce: If they come for her again, they will take me first.
The hours blurred. The rest took turns watching. Nate lost himself in silent prayers by her side. Bastain leaned with half-closed eyes against the far wall.
Only I stayed attentive, vigilant.
At sunrise-I’m not sure how long later-there came a sound. Soft, deliberate. It echoed through long corridors: a heavy creak, a stone shifting, We all froze.
A deep door beneath the old library-one we’d never noticed before-opened. Into the chamber, a spiral of flame-carved runes glowed faintly, as if responding to someone calling. Then, from that threshold…
A voice.
Deep, familiar-and cold.
“You’ve come to the wrong end,” Kael’s voice trembled through the silence. “Come find me at the true beginning.”
The spiral of runes flickered. Smoke curled upward. A low hum followed-like something ancient exhaling beneath the stone.
Every flesh on my skin tightened.
I looked at Jiselle.
Eva’s eyes widened-raw fear flickering back. Nate’s jaw clenched. Bastain opened his eyes fully.
And I tightened my fist, craving a blade, a moment, an anger.
Because Max had died to protect her. And if this was the beginning of Kael’s next betrayal-if the abyss he’d disappeared into still had its claws ready-we would burn it down with or without him.
The spiral pulsed again, faint light drawing us forward like breath through flame.
We all moved then-toward that spiral. My heart hammered. Jiselle lay there, vulnerable. But she was ours. Our heart. Not just hers.
Eva reached to squeeze my hand. I gave it a quick nod. Her grip trembled, but she didn’t let go. Not this time.
And with that, the four of us stepped forward.
Towards the spiral.
Towards… the true beginning.
Jiselle’
The descent began in silence.
No one spoke as we moved deeper into the spiral chamber that had opened beneath the Academy ruins-unlocked by the final glowing sigil on my wrist. The walls were smooth stone, but as we walked, etchings began to appear-glowing softly, like embers refusing to die. Punes old enough to predate language itself shimmered in strange sequences across the curved tunnel, each one brushing against something inside me I didn’t have a name for i could feel them. They weren’t just markings. They were memories.
Of fire. Of sacrifice.
The air shifted as we went lower, thicker with heat, yet not suffocating. The deeper we went, the less it felt like stone under our feet and more like bone.
Something ancient pulsed in the walls. I could hear it. A steady beat. Or maybe that was my own heart, pounding harder with every step. Mate walked beside me, close enough that our hands brushed once, but he didn’t speak either. None of us did. Ethan led with a torch. Bastain walked just behind me, silent and unreadable. Eva lingered at the back, clutching her satchel like it might shield her from what we were about to see
And then the tunnel opened.
The chamber bloomed wide, like the inside of a hollow mountain. Firelight glowed from cracks in the ceiling, casting golden light on a strange days in the center-formed of petrified ash and fused obsidian. Around the edges of the room were fragments of things: broken crystals, decayed robes, and remnants of symbols long burned away. A ritual had happened here. No-something more.
This was where it all started.
“This is it,” Bastain said, his voice a whisper that felt like it echoed in every direction. “This is where she tried to seal the Gate”
She. Serina.
I stepped forward slowly, drawn to the center like gravity didn’t care about choice. My footsteps felt loud on the cracked floor, though no one tried to stop me. They couldn’t have. I was already halfway to the dais when the memory began.
It started with light.
No one else seemed to see it-only me. The walls shifted, just slightly, like a shimmer moving across glass. Then heat. Rising from the stone itself. My knees buckled, and I gasped as flame coiled out of the floor, circling me like a snake. Nate called my name-i heard it faintly-but the fire didn’t burn. It carried me inward.
And then I was her.
I wasn’t standing anymore. I was kneeling, hands pressed into stone etched with fresh blood. My body trembled with exhaustion, I could feed Serina’s thoughts, sharp and frantic. She was sealing the Gate. She’d carved the sigils herself into the rock, into her skin. Around her, the others screamed. Friends? Followers? Their faces blurred, lost to time. There was too much smoke. Too much noise.
Then I felt him.
Kael.
Not as a threat. Not as a villain.
As her love.
He stormed into the ritual chamber, blood streaked down bis chest, his eyes wild with fear and betrayal.
“You lied to me,” he choked out. “You said you’d want. You said we’d do this togethert.”
Serina’s heart broke inside me.
Tue, 24 Juli
“I had to act,” she whispered. “You wanted to merge with it, Kael. You would’ve destroyed yourself. The Gate doesn’t need a vessel-it needs a seal”
“You don’t understand!” he shouted. “The seal won’t hold. It never holds. We need to become it. Fuse with it. Then we can control it. Protect them.
Protect you.”
He stepped toward her, hands outstretched. “I did this for you.”
She backed away. “You did this for power.”
And in that moment, I felt the truth. Kael hadn’t always been wrong. He had been desperate. He had loved her. But somewhere along the line, love became obsession. Protection became possession.
He tried to force the fusion. He marked her-against her will, his blood binding to hers-and for a second, the Gate opened.
It screamed.
Not with sound, but with memory.
The Veil split. Fire poured from the ceiling. The circle collapsed. Serina pulled away, shoving him back, and carved one final rune into her own chest with shaking hands. Her scream echoed through me as she sealed the Gate with her own blood.
Then it ended.
I fell to my knees on the dais, sobbing. The vision faded, but the pain remained. Nate was beside me in seconds, his arms wrapping around my shoulders as I curled into him. I didn’t even realize I was shaking until he pressed his forehead to mine.
“What did you see?” he asked gently.
My voice broke. “Serina. All of it. The seal. The betrayal.”
Bastain crouched nearby, but didn’t interrupt. Eva had her hand to her mouth, eyes wide with horror.
“She loved him,” I said. “He tried to become the Gate. To fuse with it. He thought that was the only way to save her.”
Nate’s jaw tightened. “Is that what Kael wants now?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “But he’s not just trying to open the Gate. He wants to be it.”
Silence stretched again.
Then the wall behind the dais shimmered,
Another sigil-one I hadn’t seen before-ignited across the stone. Not like the others. This one wasn’t glowing gold or red. It was white. Like bone. Like death.
My legs moved before my mind caught up. I placed my hand on the stone.
The room vanished.
I wasn’t in the chamber anymore.
I stood in a scorched field, sky blackened with smoke, the wind howling with voices that didn’t belong to the living, in the distance, the Gate stood wide open, spiraling into nothingness. Flames spilled from its edges like water from a broken dam.
And in front of it… Nate.
He was older. Tired. Wounded. He held a blade in one hand and a sigil burned across his chest the same one that had just appeared on the wall me was facing something in the fire. Me.
Or… the version of me that chose the Gate.
She wore white, her eyes burning gold, her hair aflame. She wasn’t smiling. She wasn’t cruel. She was empty. Her hand lifted slowly, and Nate took a step forward, pain etched across every line of his face.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said. “You’re still in there. I know you are.”
She didn’t answer. She just turned toward the Gate.
“Please,” he begged. “Don’t make me stop you.”
And then-he burned.
Fire shot from the Gate, swallowing him
His scream ripped through me.
I snapped back to the chamber, breath torn from my lungs, the stone beneath me burning. My skin was drenched in sweat, but the cold was worse. A different kind of cold. A future I couldn’t survive.
A voice-low, ancient, and terrible-echoed through the stone beneath my hand.
Fuse before he burns.
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