“Mingxi.”
His grip trembled.
“You’re not going near that water alone.”
“I’m not,” she said softly. “You’re with me.”
His breath stuttered. She felt it against her neck. Then, slowly, achingly, he eased forward with her. Together, they stepped closer to the moonwell’s edge.
Yunlian lifted both hands. “Poppy, now. Reach out.”
Poppy extended her hand toward the water. Not touching. Just close enough that her fingers tingled with the moonwell’s faint warmth beneath its sickness. The shard recoiled and then lunged.
A spike of dark pressure shot upward.
Mingxi roared—foxfire bursting into a blazing wall around her.
Lirrane shouted, “It’s trying to breach!”
Caelan yelled, “Then hold it back!”
Poppy’s whole being flared white, the world thinning to light and pulse. Sound dulled. Time stretched. For a breathless instant, there was only brightness and knowing. The moonwell’s true voice broke through the shard’s pull, fragile but clear:Come back, come back, come back.
Poppy inhaled sharply. “I hear you,” she whispered.
The moonwell flickered, and the shard faltered.
Only for a heartbeat.
But enough.
Chapter 107
Yunlian’s eyes flashed gold. “Good. Again.”
Poppy reached deeper, and the ritual began in truth. The moment Poppy reached deeper, the shard reacted. Not with another tug, but with a strike.
A column of force shot upward from the heart of the moonwell, exploding through the surface like a jet of icy light. The shockwave slammed into the ritual circle with enough strength to send chalk dust flying.
Caelan threw both arms forward, water-qi spiraling in a brilliant arc as he reinforced the boundary. “Hold!”
Lirrane snarled, “I am! Stop yelling.”
Another pulse hit—faster, sharper. The moonwell’s surface rippled like liquid glass. The shard was no longer hiding. It was fighting.
Poppy staggered, but she didn’t fall—Mingxi’s arms locked around her from behind, his foxfire blazing so bright it cast double shadows across the basin.
“Back off,” he hissed at the black pulse rising from the water. “She isn’t yours.”
The shard slammed the circle again. This time, the impact hit Poppy directly, pressure crashing into her chest like a cold fist. She gasped and instinctively reached for the nearest anchor—Mingxi. He caught her hands, folding himself around her, forming a shield of living flame.
“I’m right here,” he whispered fiercely. “I have you.”
The shard recoiled, hissing, almost sentient.
Yunlian’s voice cut through the chaos. “Poppy, focus on the moonwell. Ignore the shard.”
“I’m trying,” Poppy’s breath hitched. “It’s pulling so hard…”
