I have to get back to her. I have to?—
The world turns upside down.
I crash into a tree, hard enough to crack the timber, but the pain is muffled. My legs feel heavy—leaden, like the snow has turned into cement. I force myself forward, one step, than another.
Move.MOVE.
But my body is no longer mine.
The bond pulses weakly again, flickering, like a candle in a gale. My knees buckle, and I hit the forest floor, my breath slows to a crawl.
“Varkh. Thraev’ra, varkh. Ael’kai ves lumina’ka. Kael’thurin ves thalûn, nai—velorin ves saelûn ael’venrak kai’thraem.” (No. Please, no. Don’t take her from me. I have to return to my little light. Gods, have mercy. Don’t—return my mate only to steal her into the dark.)
Something’s pulling me under. Something invisible and suffocating. My vision darkens at the edges, the crimson of the blood moon bleeding into the black.
Lumi.
I try to stand, but my muscles seize, locking into place. My heartbeat slows—thump... thump... heavy and sluggish as if my blood has been replaced by stone.
Get up.GET UP.
I can’t.
“No—no, no, please?—”
The bond flickers one last time, and through the haze, I feel her. Her fear. Her confusion. She’s alone and something is coming for her, and I can’t?—
I’m bound to the dirt.
“LUMI!”
The scream rips from my throat, a raw howl that shatters the silence of the woods. I don’t know if she hears it, or if it dies here with me.
Darkness rushes in, swallowing me whole. My last thought, before everything goes black:
I failed her.
Then—nothingness.
I’m not unconscious. I am trapped inside my own body, sinking deeper into a vast, icy prison. I can’t move, or speak. I can’t even open my eyes to see the red moon.
But I can feel.
The bond is still whispering, and through it, I feel a presence near her. Another Rhavari?
I try to fight. I try to claw my way back to the surface of my skin, but this spell holds me down like steel chains.
In the darkest corner of my mind, I feel the snap. The bond is no longer stretching...it’s being rewritten.
Lumi POV-
The forest swallows me whole.
Branches claw at my face like skeletal fingers trying to hold me back. The cold bites through the thin coat I threw on, but I’m numb to it. The only thing I can feel is the echo of his scream still ringing in my ears.
“ANDRIK!” I scream into the dark, my voice cracking. “Where are you?”
The only thing that answers is the sibilant whisper of wind through the birches and the crunch of snow beneath my boots.
