"Come on! Come on!" she groaned, but just as the result started to show, she heard a crash from the lounge room. Her stomach turned, and she put down the pregnancy test before she moved toward the door. Another crash followed. "Phoenix?" she called out.

He was yelling at someone about something, but she couldn't quite make out the words, only Phoenix yelling, "Catherine, stay in the room—don't come out!"

She didn't listen.

Catherine stepped out into the hall only to see Phoenix's manager, Demi. She hadn't really met her, but she was famous, thanks to him, and Catherine recognized her face. "What's going on?" she asked, noticing a broken vase.

"So that's her?!" Demi yelled. There were tears in her eyes. "That's the infamous Catherine? The one you're in love with? The little slut you're settling down with? The one you chose over me?"

Something about Catherine's defiance struck too close to home. Demi remembered standing before the Celestial Court, defending her choices with that same fire. Before everything changed. Before she learned that passion unchecked led only to destruction.

"Demi, calm down," said Phoenix. He sounded serious. Catherine had never heard him so serious before. He glanced back at her. "Catherine, go in the bathroom—don't come out until I say."

Catherine knew Demi was pissed, jealous, and clearly in love with him, but she didn't understand why he was… scared of her. At least he sounded scared of her. Yet again, she didn't listen as she stepped closer.

"I'm not going anywhere," Catherine said, mostly to Demi.

Demi looked at Phoenix. Her face was lined with pain as tears flooded her cheeks. "So, that's it then?" she asked him. "You're just going to bed that whore even though she will never actually love you?"

"I love him," Catherine said, even though she doubted Demi cared. Apparently, she was irrelevant in this conversation. "I love him more than anything."

"No, you don't!" Surprisingly, Demi replied to her. Catherine was a little thrown. "You think you love him, but it's because of a curse! You love him because of a curse! That's how it works!"

"That's not true," Catherine replied without thinking. "I wasn't affected. It didn't affect me. And I still don't really like the song." She looked at Phoenix. "No offense."

Demi scoffed. "Unbelievable. You told her. You told her—even though you weren't supposed to be able to tell anyone but yourself and demons! And I don't see any horns on her flat head of hair, so that means… She's connected to you. A soulmate. I knew she was a soulmate! From the moment you two met! I had my suspicions. Why do you think I was sent down here to look after you? To watch over you?" Demi glared.

Phoenix shrugged. "Because I'm an idiot?"

"Well, yes, but also to watch out for her! For soulmates! Jesus, didn't you listen to the song you've sung over a million times???" She stared. "I knew she was bad news. I knew it!

Demi's hands shook with an emotion she refused to name. Once, as a Guardian, she had nurtured the delicate balance of mortal desire. Now she destroyed it. Usually, that knowledge brought satisfaction - proof she'd chosen the right path in abandoning her former duties. But watching Phoenix with Catherine stirred memories of the passion she used to protect, pure and uncorrupted. The kind that could light up the celestial courts...

She clenched her fists. No. She wouldn't let sentiment cloud her judgment. Not again.

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“She was bad news!” Demi repeated emphasizing the point, if only for herself.

That's why I tried so hard to keep you both apart. It's why I told the doctor to induce a coma and why I did your socials the way I did. Why I pushed the stupid surgeon back toward his old job! Do you have any idea how tired I am trying to keep you two apart? I mean, Pete's sake! I knew it. I knew she was a soulmate. Only a soulmate could be immune because technically you're each other's half—a split soul, two halves destined to find each other. Well, good luck finding him where you're heading." Then, without warning, Demi lifted a gun and shot.

"Catherine!" Phoenix screamed as he jumped at her.

It all happened so fast. In the blink of an eye, Catherine had fallen in love—she saw it all like a movie in her mind—a flash of events that happened all too quickly, and in the blink of an eye—her world had been changed forever. There was blood all over the floor where Phoenix lay. Catherine felt her blood run cold. She was beside him, a little dazed as she sat up. She was disoriented—confused about where all the blood had originated from as she felt a pain shoot through her side.

At first, Catherine thought all the blood had been hers because her clothes were covered in scarlet, but as she looked over at Phoenix, she realized he wasn't moving.

Her heart sank inside her chest. "Phoenix? Oh God! Phoenix???" She shook him. "Phoenix? Oh no!" She stared up at Demi, who looked as equally shocked as Catherine felt. "WHAT DID YOU DO?" she screamed. "What did you do???! Oh no! No, no, no, no, no! Phoenix! Oh no. Help! Call an ambulance! Call an ambulance!"

Demi still looked pale, but slowly a sinister smile crept across her cheeks. "I don't think I will, honey. Maybe this wasn't what I intended. It was supposed to be you who died, but at least this way, he'll be mine. He'll be just like me. And with me for an eternity—somewhere where you can't visit him."

In hell, Catherine realized. Being tortured.

"No! No! Oh god! HELLLP!" she screamed. "Please someone help!"

She looked at Phoenix's pale body. She had thought he was dead; he'd appeared dead, but now she realized he wasn't—at least not yet. His eyes fluttered open lazily. "Cat? Ow. I…ow," was all he said.

Catherine looked back up at Demi, only to see that she was gone. Catherine didn't know what to do; her hands were shaking, and she had no experience with anything like this—with saving a life. She had seen in movies that they covered the wound, so she did that. She lifted up his shirt, only to find the bullet hole and held her hands over it, but there was so much blood still spilling out. And Phoenix groaned. Catherine looked around frantically for her phone—to call for help. Where did she put that stupid thing?

"What… what happened?" Phoenix asked sluggishly.

"Shh, shhh! Baby, it will be okay. It's going to be okay. You need to hold onto this spot. You need to hold onto this spot for me while I go get help." Catherine placed his hands where hers had been, but the second she got up to get her phone, he released.

She rushed back and covered his wound again.

She had to keep his blood in his body.

"Baby please, keep your hand here," she placed it there again. "Just for a second."

But he kept slipping away. His eyes were closing. Catherine noticed then that his phone was within reach. She extended her foot, dragging it over with her toes as she held his wound.

"Am I… dying?" Phoenix asked weakly.

"No, no. Baby no. No… just hold on. Hold on." Catherine was already dialing for emergency—the photo on his phone, the screen saver—it was of them. Her heart squeezed inside her chest. "You are not allowed to die, I love you too much." The operator picked up, and Catherine asked for an ambulance—the issue was, they were on an island in the middle of nowhere, so they needed a helicopter rescue.

Catherine was told to get him to the resort paramedics in the meantime, so she hung up and called reception, which took far too long.

"I love you," said Phoenix. "I… I will always—"

Catherine's world narrowed to this moment, to Phoenix's fading voice and the blood seeping through her fingers. She had just found him again, just broken free from a spell that almost led her to marry the wrong man. She couldn't lose Phoenix now. Not like this. Not when they had so much left to live for, so much left to fight for.

As she waited desperately for help to arrive, Catherine made a silent vow. If they got through this, she would do whatever it took to break the curse on Phoenix's soul. She would find a way to save him, not just from this bullet wound, but from the eternity in hell that awaited him. Because now she knew - they were soulmates, two halves of a whole, and she wasn't about to let anything, not even death, tear them apart.