For a moment, it seemed to work. The silvery residue wavered, beginning to break apart. Then, with a sudden surge that made both of them gasp, it flowed back into Jamie's skin and disappeared entirely.
A rush of foreign emotion took over Jamie—Azelon's shock and disbelief flowing into him with such clarity that for a heartbeat, he couldn't tell where his feelings ended and Azelon's began.
He closed his eyes against the onslaught, focused only on breathing for a moment.
This wasweird.
"What just happened?" he asked.
"The bond is permanent," Azelon whispered, his voice tight with all the disbelief that spread between the two of them. "I can't break it."
Jamie's heart hammered against his ribs. "That can't be right." His hand gripped the edge of the tub, knuckles whitening. "You said this would be temporary. A side effect that could be cleansed."
Panic rose in Jamie's throat. He had a life to return to. A brother to find. A world that made sense, where magic was fiction and bonds didn't form without consent.
Calm, he told himself.You've got to calm down.
"There has to be a way to undo this."
"You don't understand," Azelon said, his voice roughening with emotion he couldn't suppress. "This kind of bond—it doesn't justhappen. It shouldn't be possible, especially with a human." His tail curled tightly behind him. "The very thing I was exiled for protecting—now I've created it myself."
Jamie caught flashes of Azelon's thoughts. Memories of standing before a Council, defending his actions, accepting banishment rather than recanting. The weight of those consequences crashed into Jamie's awareness.
"I only wanted to help," Azelon said, but doubt and guilt flooded through their connection. "I didn't know this would happen. It shouldn't have happened."
Jamie pressed his palms against his temples, trying to sort his thoughts from Azelon's, his fear from the Tideborn's remorse. "So I'm just—what? Magically tethered to you forever now? What happens when I go home?"
"I don't know," Azelon admitted. "I don't know if this bond would even allow such distance."
"That's not acceptable," Jamie said, water sloshing as he shifted forward. "I need to get back. I need to find my brother."
"And I need to understand how this happened!" Azelon's control finally broke, his voice rising. "This bond is sacred among my people. It forms over years, with intention, between those who choose it. Yet somehow, it's happened in days, without either of us intending it."
The candles around them flared in response as if the store itself reacted to their distress.
The store itself…
Jamie glared at the walls around him.
"Could the store be causing this?" he asked. "Using its magic to interfere?"
Azelon's expression grew thoughtful. "Perhaps. But…" He hesitated, conflict evident in the tight set of his shoulders.
"But what?" Jamie pressed.
"The bond requires... compatibility. Resonance. It cannot form without some foundation."
Jamie absorbed this quietly, trying to puzzle out the implications of what Azelon was saying.
He and this blue-skinned Veridian were compatible enough to form an impromptu connection that couldn't be broken?
But that was…
Jamie didn't know what to make of that.
"The magic found something to build upon," Azelon said, unable to meet Jamie's eyes. "There is no other way to explain it."
The words hung between them, too significant to dismiss, too uncomfortable to explore further.
