Vaelix's grin turned solemn, something true and vulnerable beneath the charm. "I swear to stay. No matter how bad it gets. No matter how much easier it would be to run."
"Then we stay together," I said. "Both of us. That's what staying means."
Lyrin's voice was barely audible, but through the Tether, his words resonated like thunder. "I swear to let you see me. All of me. Even the parts I've hidden from myself."
I reached for his hand. "And I swear to be worth seeing. To show you the same."
Four oaths. Four answers. Not just receiving what they offered, but matching it.
They waited for my full oath.
I thought about everything that had led to this moment: the running, the fighting, the losses that carved holes in my heart. I thought about what it meant to belong somewhere, to someone, after so long convinced that attachment was weakness.
I thought about how terrified I was. And how I was going to do this anyway.
"I swear," I said, and my voice didn't waver. "I swear to accept what you offer without diminishing it. To be your equal anchor, not your burden." I looked at each of them in turn. "I swear to stay. And I swear to let you stay with me."
The Tether flared.
Light blazed behind my eyes, through my veins, along every nerve. Like a bond that had always existed, finally becoming visible, crystallizing into something permanent. I gasped, and they gasped withme, and for a moment we were one creature with five hearts, five minds, five sets of memories all tangled together.
I felt what Torvyn felt: the weight of responsibility he carried, the bone-deep need to protect, the way he'd loved me in silence for so long it had become part of who he was.
I felt Kaedren's fierce devotion, the warrior's heart that had chosen me as his purpose, the way he'd kill or die for me without a moment's hesitation.
I felt Vaelix's hidden depths beneath the charm, the fear that he wasn't enough, the desperate hope that maybe with me he could be.
I felt Lyrin's broken places, the wounds that had never healed, and the fragile new growth where trust was slowly, painfully taking root.
And they felt me. All of me. Every scar and fear and hope and hunger.
Then the moment passed, and we were separate again. But different. Connected in ways that went deeper than the bond we'd shared before. Permanent. Unbreakable.
What happened next was inevitable.
We moved together, chasing the release we'd denied ourselves, and this time there was no holding back, no directing, no control. Just five people tangled together, giving and taking in equal measure. Torvyn pulled me onto him, filling me completely, his hands gripping my hips as I rode him. Kaedren pressed against my back, his mouth on my neck, four hands everywhere at once. Vaelix positioned himself before me, and I took him in my mouth, tasting him, savoring his desperate sounds. Lyrin's hands were everywhere, stroking my hair, my back, my thighs.
The Tether amplified everything. Every climax was shared, felt by all of us, until I couldn't tell whose pleasure was whose. We shattered together, wave after wave crashing through the bond, the universe narrowing to nothing but this, nothing but us, nothing but the five-pointed star of our joined souls.
When it finally ended, we collapsed in a tangle of limbs and sweat and ragged breathing. Bodies pressed together. Hearts still pounding. The Tether humming with satisfied contentment.
I lay there, surrounded by them, held by them, and for the first time in longer than I could remember, I felt no urge to run.
Safe. Chosen. Fully present.
Home.
I dozed in the aftermath, tucked between Torvyn's bulk and Kaedren's lean warmth, Vaelix's arm thrown across my hip, Lyrin's fingers laced with mine. Through the Tether, their contentment wrapped around me like a blanket.
Hope felt dangerous. But in that moment, surrounded by warmth and the slow rhythm of four heartbeats, I let myself feel it anyway.
The ship's alert shattered the silence.
"Priority transmission," the computer announced in its flat, uncaring voice. "Zorathi Reach channel. Command override."
Torvyn went rigid against me. Through the Tether, I felt something I'd never felt from him before: fear.
He was already moving, disentangling himself, reaching for his discarded clothes. The warmth in the room evaporated, replaced by something cold and official.
