A familiar presence brushed against my thoughts, featherlight and as cold as moonlight on steel.
Siergen.
His voice slipped into my mind without sound.She’s fading deeper than you think.
My body tensed, my gaze flicking up, but he wasn’t in the room. Only in my head. Only for me.
What’s happening to her?I asked, barely breathing.
Kaelith’s evolution is far from over,he said, his tone grave.But there is a risk. One most don’t speak of.
What risk?
A Shiftling’s bond to its rider is different from all others. Their transformation may strengthen the bond beyond anything the guild has seen… or drain it completely. Permanently.There was a pause, and then his warning coiled tight around my heart.Be wary, Ashe. You may become the anchor that steadies her, or the weight that breaks her.
I felt the air leave my lungs.
Cordelle said something about ancient sigils protecting the sanctuary, but it sounded distant, muffled like I was underwater. My eyes found the horizon beyond the narrow window, past the barracks, past the fields, to the sky Kaelith used to own so easily.
And for the first time since we’d bonded, I felt powerless to help her.
Please be all right,I whispered into the quiet of my mind, not daring to speak it aloud.
No answer came.
The bond between us was still there, thin and stretched, like a golden thread dipped in shadow, but it pulsed too weakly for comfort. My chest ached with it, like part of me was suspended in a breath I couldn’t finish.
The meeting wrapped leisurely, each of us contributing what we could. Cordelle would begin mapping a possible route using ancient fae symbols he’d found in the vault book. Ferrula and Jax volunteered to gather supplies under the guise of a training drill. Tae offered to discreetly speak to Stormforge, just in case things turned. Riven made a list of who not to trust at court, which was almost everyone.
When it ended, the table was cluttered with empty cups, dulled maps, and too many what-ifs. The room thinned out, footsteps padding toward their bunks in a quiet shuffle of exhaustion.
Zander lingered by the door, watching me with that unreadable look he always wore when he was debating whether to ask me to stay.
I felt it, the silent tug, the unspoken hope threading through his bond.
But I didn’t move.
“I’m tired,” I murmured, offering a small smile that didn’t quite reach my eyes. “I just… want my own bed tonight.”
He nodded once, jaw tight. “Of course.”
He left without another word, his boots echoing down the stone hall until the silence returned like a second skin.
One by one, the barracks dimmed. Naia’s breathing slowed across from me. Cordelle rolled over and mumbled something about mushrooms in his sleep. Even Riven, ever the insomniac, set her book aside and pulled the blanket up to her chin.
I curled beneath my own covers, the heaviness of the day settling into my bones.
Kaelith…
Still, nothing.
I blinked at the ceiling, my magic restless beneath my skin. I was halfway to sleep when the warmth hit me like a breeze after a long drought, soft and sure, wrapping around my ribs and unfurling in my chest.
Little storm,Kaelith said gently,my silence is not your fault.
Tears stung, sharp and sudden.Then why?—?
Because change is not gentle,she whispered.And neither am I. But you have never needed me to speak to know I am with you.
