And I—I can’t move. Can’t breathe.
“Calryx—”
The bond with Calryx flares—wild, volatile—like fire on oil.
“What’s happening?”
And for the first time since we bonded, Calryx is afraid.
“I cannot be sure.”
Her presence presses into my mind—solid but shaking. She’s older than empires, wiser than war, but even she doesn’t know what this is.
“I have never felt anything like this.”
My pulse races. My magics pulls. Everything in me strains toward him. And Thane—Thane looks like he’s about to break.
“What do I do?”I whisper.
The power is tearing through me. Like my soul’s been torn open and stitched back together in fire. I don’t know how to hold it.
A pause. Then—
“Hold on. You are strong, Virelya. I chose you for a reason. Anchor yourself, in your heart, with this knowledge.”
So I do. I grit my teeth and hold on.
To my magics. To him. To this bond that is no longer waiting or asking.
His magics reaches for mine, and mine for his. Not separate or colliding, but rather combining andfusing.
His gaze locks on mine. And I see it—the moment he understands. The fear. The surrender. The realization that wewere never meant to fight this because this was never meant to be survived alone.
The flames twist—merge—blue. Blazing. Bright. Alive. And then—everything stops.
Stillness, but not silence. The fire doesn’t die—it changes.
No longer wildfire—it beats like a second heart. No longer chaos; now it commands.
The bond pulses once—deep, hard—and then it shifts.
Awakening. Becoming.
The sensation is nearly unbearable. Like a thousand fraying threads pulled tight, and woven into something new.
Something ours.
My knees buckle under the weight of it—this fused, impossible magics pressing from the inside out. The blue fire flares higher, shifting like it’s alive. Heat prickles along my skin, but it’s not heat I can escape—it’s inside me, threaded through my body.
I squeeze my eyes shut and scream.
Somewhere in the distance, I hear Thane roar my name.
The ground shivers, then cracks. Thin, jagged lines spiderweb outward from where we stand, racing across the packed dirt like they’re chasing the fire. The rumble builds—low at first, then swelling until I can feel it in my teeth, in the pit of my stomach. Pebbles jump. Dust lifts in thin veils. The air itself feels heavier, as though the field is holding its breath.
And then I feel it. Not the bond.
Him.
