Filed to story: Mated and Hated by My Brother’s Best Friend Book PDF Free by Anna Campbell
The Gate called.
Not Kael. Not Varra. Not mortal.
You have the sigils.
You have the choice.
Choose.
Pain cut across my chest like a sword. Three pulses erupted from my flame. Violet. Gold. White.
Words formed in fire, glowing on my palm:
RULE. SHAPE. BECOME.
My breath stopped.
Nate’s hand crushed mine.
“Jis,” he said, voice raw. “We choose you.”
The world hushed around us.
Kael snarled, flames lashing his words: “Then you must reject all of us, and accept only the Gate.”
Varra stepped forward, flame bowed. “I will stand with you-not by force, but by promise”
Nate looked at me, eyes shining with hurt and hope.
The Gate hummed.
The runes pulsed.
And in that crystalline moment, I knew the choice lay in the empty space between us.
Flame trailed from my fingertips.
The Gate leaned toward my flame.
But I didn’t move.
I whispered:
This is my name.
And in that heartbeat-
The Gate answered.
*Jiselle
The storm had quieted but only on the surface. Beneath the silence of the crumbling academy walls, the air vibrated like a held breath. Like the mon itself was waiting for somet
We moved through the inner vault corridors with quiet urgency, Eva leading us by instinct more than sight. Her flame flickered in a way I’d never seen before-thin and trembling, like a thread being pulled too tight.
I glanced at Nate beside me. His hand never left the small of my back, fingers grazing just enough to steady me, just enough to remind the room i was not alone. His body remained between mine and any potential breach, even now, even here when we didn’t know what waited ahead.
“Eva,” Bastain called softly. “Where’s the
Her eyes fluttered. “Down. Always down.” pull taking you?”
It wasn’t long before we reached the ritual chamber-old stones circled in half-buried runes, shattered remnants of a sigil that looked carved into the bone of the world. Nate’s jaw tensed the moment we stepped inside. I felt it too.
This place remembered magic.
And blood.
The Gate pulsed beneath our feet.
“I don’t like this,” Ethan muttered, one hand crackling faintly with his elemental gift.
“Neither do 1,” I whispered, then turned to Eva. “Is this where the vision ends?”
She didn’t answer.
Because she wasn’t breathing right.
Her shoulders hunched in on themselves, her arms folding across her middle as if her own body had turned against her. Her knees buckled, and I was at her side before she hit the floor.
“Eva!” I dropped beside her, catching her weight.
Her eyes were wide-too wide-and completely glazed.
“Something’s wrong,” I said quickly. “Something’s happening.”
“She’s slipping into it again,” Bastain murmured grimly, crouching beside me. “But this isn’t like before. Her gift is… anchoring.”
A moment later, Eva screamed.
It wasn’t loud.
It was raw.
Like the world tore through her throat and dragged itself out in pieces. Her hands clawed at her skin, her feet kicked against stone, an without sound until the words finally came.
“Blood. Blood-he’s bleeding-Ethan-Ethan!”
I snapped my head toward my twin. nouth moved
Ethan froze, every inch of his body locked in place,
“I’m right here,” he said quietly. “I’m right
“It’s not now!” Eva sobbed. “It’s coming! The Gate doesn’t want you it wants her, but if take you first
Rastain grabbed her wrists gently, muttering grounding spells under his breath, trying to center her focus.
Nate moved behind me, hands on my shoulders now, keeping me upright. “Your flame,” he whispered, “It’s reacting”
And it was.
Violet light coiled through my like veins made of fire. It didn’t lash out-but it yearned. Pulled, Stirred with Eva’s panic and Ethan’s stunned silence
“I can calm it,” I whispered. “I think I can calm her.”
Nate nodded. “Then do it. I’ve got you.”
I pressed both hands to Eva’s cheeks, ignoring the heat crawling through my palms. “You’re here,” I whispered. “With me. Come back to me
Her pupils dilated, fluttered-then focused.
“Jiselle,” she croaked.
“I’m here,” I whispered. “I’m always here.”
The flame receded-just a little.
Bastain lowered her hands gently, letting her sit back on her knees. Eva was panting, tears streaking down her cheeks.
“It’s not just Kael,” she murmured. “Someone else is summoning the Gate. From here. From inside.”
A silence fell.
One that rang.
“One of them?” Ethan asked. “A Gatekeeper?”
Eva shook her head. “No. Someone who doesn’t need to serve it. Someone who believes they are it.”
She looked at me. “The stones are listening now, Jis. Every wall. Every floor. The Gate isn’t just waking-it’s anchoring. It’s using your name to breathe.”
My stomach turned.
Bastain stood, face pale.
“Can we stop it?” I asked.
He moved toward the sigil-stained floor. “I can try to close the threads. If I sever the weave…”
He didn’t finish the sentence,
Instead, he knelt, pulled a blade from his satchel, and traced an old rune into the dirt-one I’d only seen once before.
My breath caught like a thorn in my chest.
The sound of stone grinding against stone rang louder than it should’ve-like the chamber itself was mourning what it had just swallowed. I stood frozen, fingers still locked in Nate’s, heart beating far too loud for a space so suddenly silent,
“No,” I whispered.
The word wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be.
Because when I turned-when I looked behind me-there was nothing but the cold curve of the sealed wall. No gap. No sound. No Max.
The fire in my chest surged once, then fell eerily still.
“Where is he?” I asked again, voice rising. “Where’s Max?”
Ethan’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. His eyes were fixed on the wall. Fixed on the place where Max had stood just moments before.
Eva crumpled to her knees, her breath shuddering as if the vision still clung to her ribs. Bastain stumbled back from the brokert seat, sweat lining his temples. “He was right there,” he rasped. “I didn’t see him move. I didn’t see-“
I dropped Nate’s hand.
And I ran to the wall.
The stone was still hot. Still thrumming. Still humming with whatever magic had sealed it shut. I pounded my palm against it anyway, flame rising with every beat of my fist.
“Open it!” I shouted. “We have to get him out-Bastain, do something!”
“I can’t!” he snapped, voice cracking with guilt. “It wasn’t me who closed it! That wasn’t a barrier-it was a trigger. A ward turned burial site.”
My knees hit the floor.
The heat of the stone pressed into my palms, into my knees, into the hollowed-out ache behind my ribs. It didn’t feel like rejection. It didn’t even feel like punishment.
It felt like a decision.
The chamber had decided.
And Max had been the cost.
Nate was suddenly beside me, his arms curling around my shoulders as I shook.
“He could still be alive,” I whispered, but it didn’t sound like a sentence. It sounded like a prayer. A breath being bartered with a god I didn’t believe in.
“He’s strong,” Nate said. “And he wouldn’t fall easy.”
“But he wasn’t supposed to fall at all.”
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