Then Major Ledor’s voice rang out again.
“Rebec. Olm.”
My breath caught.
Luthias? I hadn’t worked closely with him before. The lowborn nobles had joined us late, and we had never worked one-on-one. Still, he seemed solid with his bald head gleaming and his broad shoulders practically bulging out of his leather armor. He gave me a quiet nod, eyes calm and unreadable.
We stepped forward together.
The Crescent Bridge loomed. An impossible path of faith and instinct waiting to test just how deep our bond ran. I squared my shoulders and exhaled.
Luthias stepped onto the first platform with all the quiet confidence of someone who didn’t need words to lead. His green Clubtail rumbled low from the cliffs, the sound distant but grounding. The stone beneath his feet shimmered, responding to his magic—rooted, deliberate, solid.
I followed, my boot touching the first slab of floating crystal, and instantly I felt it. The pull. Not just from the bridge, but from deep inside me. It wasn’t about balance or strength.
It was about anchoring.
The Crescent Bridge didn’t want my body. It wanted my bond. My soul. My magic.
I reached for Kaelith in my mind, even before I meant to. The second I did, the bridge reacted, shimmering more clearly, the next platform locking into place as if Kaelith’s presence gave it permission to exist. But it wasn’t smooth. Not like it had been for Jax and Ferrula.
Kaelith shifted her weight high on the cliffs, her wings half-flared, tail coiled with tension. She was watching. She felt it too. Our bond wavered like heat over stone, unstable and uncertain.
Not broken, but not whole.
I tried to push that thought down and focused on Luthias.
He was already a quarter of the way ahead, moving across a stretch of broken platforms that swirled in leisurely spirals. He paused, turned slightly, and gave me a hand signal, three fingers curled in, one extended.
Switch.
It was my turn to lead.
I nodded once and stepped ahead, magic pressing forward like a breath through my skin. The moment I took the lead, something shifted in the bond.
Or maybe not just something—Kaelith.
My pulse stuttered.
The platform beneath me swayed violently as Kaelith’s magic trembled through me like a living thing, raw and unfiltered. She was trying to help. But she wasn’t stable yet. Her evolution had only just begun, and the bond we shared felt... stretched. Like a bridge made of silk instead of steel.
My knees buckled.
“Rebec!” Luthias called, his voice tense but not panicked.
I forced my magic out, just enough to catch the edge of the next platform. It locked into place beneath my boot, but I was gasping. Magic spiraled around me like wind without direction.
Kaelith... please.
I am trying,she whispered in my mind.But I am not whole yet, and neither are we.
I gritted my teeth. I could feel Luthias behind me, ready to jump forward if I slipped.
But I hadn’t come this far to fall.
One step.
Then another.
