I don't wait for her to finish. Power surges through me as I thrust my hand out, tearing reality apart. The portal crackles with light, opening onto the snow-covered compound of Valor's Watch.
"Move!" I'm already running through, Erik, Bryn, and Gullfax behind me.
Hold on, babe. I silently plead. Just hold on.
The emptiness in my chest turns to ice as realization hits. With the wards blocking our bond, there's no way for him to draw strength from me. No way to know I'm coming. Just endless darkness and burning lungs as water fills them over and over, his immortal body refusing to die even as it suffers.
My hands shake as my stomach twists into knots. Every second we waste is another moment of that torture.
The wards hit like a wall, magic draining from my body instantly—feels like a piece of my soul is ripped away.
Bryn's at the guard's throat in a heartbeat, cold steel kissing his skin. "Lower the wards!" She screams. "NOW!"
The guard's eyes bulge, Adam's apple bobbing against her blade. "I—I can't just—"
She presses harder, drawing a bead of blood. "I said, lower the fucking wards!"
"Okay!" He stumbles back, hands raised. "Okay, just don't—"
He scrambles to the gate mechanism, Bryn's glare burning into his back. Ancient gears groan as the wards power down.
Power floods back as the wards drop, but with it comes agony.
My knees buckle—hitting the ground, ice biting into my skin. Every nerve screams with phantom pain—freezing water in my lungs, chains biting into my wrists, the unbearable pressure of the deep. I can't breathe, can't think.
"Dani!" Erik's hands grip my shoulders. "Dani, look at me."
I force my eyes open, meeting silver.
"Breathe." His voice is low, steady. "This isn't your pain. Breathe through it."
I drag in a shuddering breath, then another. The agony recedes like a fading nightmare, but the soul-deep ache remains. The despair. The loneliness.
"Rhyland?"I reach through our bond. "Babe, I'm here. I'm coming."
Silence answers. Just more cold. More dark.
"Lightborn."Gullfax stomps next to me, his voice cracks through the haze. "All of you, on. Now!"
"Erik—" The word barely leaves my mouth before his hands lock around my waist, launching me onto Gullfax's back. Bryn lands behind me, Erik a heartbeat later.
Gullfax surges forward before Erik's even settled. "I'll get us there faster,"Gullfax promises, hooves thundering over ice and snow. "Hold on."
The world blurs as we race against time, the bond screaming in my head.
Gullfax gallops through the air as we race toward the Twilight Eyrie. The ancient structure looms against the mountainside, a foreboding silhouette against the gray sky. My heart pounds in time with his hoofbeats, the bond pulling tighter every second.
We crest the final peak and my breath catches. There, nestled in a valley of shadows, lies the frozen lake. Its surface is a mirror of dark ice, reflecting the eyrie's twisted spires.
Gullfax descends in a blur, my stomach lurching as we plummet. The lake rushes up to meet us.
We hit the ground hard. I'm off Gullfax's back before he's fully stopped, ignoring the searing pain as my ankle twists on the impact. I stumble, catching myself on numb hands, and force myself forward.
The ice beckons, a siren's call. I sprint across the frozen surface, my reflection fracturing beneath my feet. He's here. I can feel him, the bond pulling me forward like a lifeline. Almost there. Almost—
"LIGHTBORN, STOP!"
Gullfax's mental shout slams into me a second before the ice cracks. Fissures spider-web out from my feet, the surface groaning.
