“Very noble,” Torric’s sarcasm could cut steel. “Doesn’t change what he did.”
“No,” Darian says quietly. “It doesn’t.”
Torric moves before anyone can stop him. Fire coils around his forearms as he crosses the clearing, stopping inches from Darian. Heat radiates in visible waves.
“Then give me one reason,” Torric growls, “why I shouldn’t burn you where you kneel.”
Darian doesn’t flinch. “I can’t.”
“Torric.” Kaia’s voice cracks like a whip.
He doesn’t move. Just stares at Darian with murder written across every line of his body.
“Don’t,” Kaia says.
That’s what makes him step back. Not Kieran’s authority. Not logic. Just that single word from her.
Bob shifts position, moving to stand between Kaia and Darian. Patricia’s notebook flares brighter. Even the newer shadows cluster closer to Kaia like they’re trying to protect her.
Kieran exhales slowly. “We need to decide—”
“No.” Kaia’s voice rings out, clear and certain. “You don’t get to decide this. None of you do—because he’smineto deal with.”
The words land like stones in still water.
Kieran goes very, very still.
“Explain,” he says carefully.
“He’s mine.” Kaia’s hands curl into fists. “The bond isn’t just the five of you. It’s him too.”
The silence that follows could shatter mountains.
Kieran’s face drains of color as realization dawns. His eyes widen before he schools his expression.
“How?”
“When you forced the bonds, it wasn’t just you, Malrik, Finn, Torric, and me.” She glances at Darian, then back to Kieran. “It was him too.”
Understanding crashes through the clearing. The way Darian found us. The way he knew exactly where to look.
Kieran turns to face us—all of us. His expression shifts through shock, betrayal, fury, before settling on something that looks dangerously close to hurt.
“You all knew.”
It’s not a question.
Torric’s jaw tightens. Finn looks away. Malrik’s shadows deepen. And I meet his gaze steadily. “Yes.”
“How long?”
“Since she told us,” I say quietly. “After Callum cornered her at the lake.”
“And no one thought to tell me?” Power bleeds around the edges of his control. The ancient kind that reminds everyone why he’s called the Dragon of the Void.
“Would you have believed us?” Malrik’s voice cuts through the tension. “Or would you have assumed we were protecting our own interests?”
“I deserved to know.”
