"I can slow it down. Maybe buy her a few days." Kaan looks at me. "But she needs a proper healer. Someone who specializes in fae physiology."
"The Grove," Banu whispers. Her green eyes crack open, glazed with pain. "Need to... get me to... the Grove. They can... heal this."
"The Grove is weeks away," Elçin says softly. "Even if we pushed hard."
"Then I'll... die on the way." Banu manages a weak smile. "At least I'll die... free. Better than... that cage."
"You're not dying anywhere," I tell her, crawling across the cave floor despite my protesting body. "I didn't drag your ass out of that nightmare prison just to lose you to poison."
I reach her side and take her hand. It's cold, trembling, nothing like the strong, vibrant woman who's been my friend for decades.
"Nes," she breathes. "I saw... so much. In that prison. It showed me things. Erlik's memories. His plans. And I..." Her eyes find mine, suddenly sharp despite the pain. "I know things I shouldn't. Things about the binding. About why Yasar was sent to you."
The temperature in the cave drops. I feel Kaan's shadows coil with threat, feel the binding pulse with alarm.
"Banu, rest," I urge. "We can talk about this later when you're?—"
"No." Her grip on my hand tightens with surprising strength. "You need to know. All of you. Because Erlik didn't just bind Yasar to you as punishment or control." She coughs, silver bloodspeckling her lips. "The binding... it's a siphon. It's draining your twilight magic. Slowly. So slowly you wouldn't notice. Transferring it to Yasar."
The words hang in the air like a blade about to fall.
"What?" I breathe.
"Erlik wants to create something that's never existed." Banu's eyes bore into mine, fever-bright and terribly lucid. "A male wielder of twilight. Someone with full command of both light and shadow. And when the transfer is complete, when Yasar has absorbed enough of your magic..." She coughs again, worse this time. "He'll be the first of his kind. More powerful than any demon. More powerful than any sun wielder. And completely under Erlik's control."
The implications settle over me like ice water in my veins.
Everything I've felt through the binding—the way it pulls my magic, the exhaustion that never quite goes away, the sense of something being slowly drained from my core—suddenly makes horrifying sense.
"He's been stealing my magic." I turn to look at Yasar, who's gone very still near the cave entrance. "You've beenstealingfrom me."
"Nesilhan—" he starts, but his voice is wrong. Too careful. Too measured.
"How long have you known?" Kaan's voice is soft. Deadly. Shadows pool at his feet like spilled ink. "How long have you known you were draining her?"
Yasar's eyes meet mine, and for just a moment—just a heartbeat—his careful mask slips.
What I see underneath is devastating.
Not quite malice. Not quite remorse. But hunger. Pure, desperate hunger that's been hiding behind concern and helpful suggestions and that gods-damned understanding expression he wears like armor.
"Since the beginning," he admits quietly. "I've known since the moment Erlik bound us together."
The confession shatters something. Elçin surges to her feet, blade suddenly in hand. Kaan's shadows explode outward with killing intent. The binding screams, trying to protect its own integrity, sending pain lancing through my chest.
"You knew." My voice sounds strange to my own ears. Soulless. "You knew you were stealing my magic, my power, myessence, and you said nothing."
"I tried to tell you?—"
"WHEN?" The word comes out as a scream. "When did you try? When you offered to 'help' us in the Veil? When you 'saved' me from shadow creatures? When you stood there looking concerned while your magic was feeding on mine like a parasite?"
"I didn't have a choice!" For the first time, emotion cracks through his composure. "Erlik bound me to you! I didn't ask for this! I didn't want?—"
"But you could have told me." I'm on my feet now, ignoring the pain, ignoring everything except the betrayal burning through my veins. "You could have been honest. Instead, you played the understanding ally. The helpful victim. All while knowing exactly what you were doing to me."
Kaan moves between us, shadows coiling with killing promise. "Give me one reason I shouldn't tear you apart right now. One reason I shouldn't paint these walls with pieces of you."
"Because killing me won't break the binding," Yasar says, and there's genuine fear in his voice now. Good. "And because I'm the only one who knows how Erlik plans to complete the transfer. Kill me, and you'll never know how to stop it."
