Just slept.
“I remember pieces,” I say quietly. My voice almost swallowed by the sound of the chanting. “Nothing whole.”
Vex exhales. Relief and triumph war in his expression.
“Then you’ll help us. Lead us. Take your rightful—”
“I remember,” I continue, cutting him off, “that power destroyed what I loved.”
His face hardens. “You cannot mean—?”
Something shifts in the air. A wrongness I feel in my bones. In myblood. As if part of me exists somewhere else, and that part issuffering.
My hand goes to my chest. The place where fire lives.
Mara.
Her name surfaces with absolute certainty. Not a memory. An instinct deeper than memory.
She’s hurt. Sick.
The realization stuns me. The bond I created when I pulled her back from death—it’s not just connection. My fire has been keeping her anchored while her body healed.
Except I’m here. And she’s—
“Where is she?” The question comes rough. “The woman from the village. What have you done?”
Creed and Vex exchange glances.
“Nothing. We—”
The chamber door explodes inward before he can answer.
Stone fragments fly. Torchlight flares wild across the suddenly chaotic space.
Half-shifted dragons pour through the opening. Scales gleam bronze and silver in the flickering light. Fire illuminates ancient stone. Battle cries echo off the cavern walls.
A massive wolf bounds ahead—pale green eyes unmistakable even in partial shift. Behind it, more warriors. A coordinated strike force.
And at the back—
Blue hair catches torchlight like a beacon.
Mara.
Everything in me surges toward her. Every instinct screams to reach her, pull her close, pour fire into the bond until she’s whole again.
But she’s not alone. And she looks—
Wrong. Too pale. Gray beneath the skin. Moving like each step costs her something she can’t afford to spend.
Dying. The bond is failing.
One of the guards raises his weapon toward the intruders.
I move without thinking.
Touch his shoulder.
