Mingxi’s foxfire burst into a violent arc—blue-white flames swirling around her like storm wind. “Don’t youdaretouch her!”
The shard shrieked again—a discordant, grinding sound—and its form twisted, pulling violently against Caelan’s water ring, trying to wrench itself free.
“It’s slipping!” Caelan warned. “If it breaks the circle…”
“The moonwell collapses,” Lirrane finished.
Yunlian’s voice cut through the chaos, sharp as a bell. “Poppy. Listen to me.”
Poppy blinked through the pain. “I-I’m trying.”
“You cannot fear it.” Yunlian stepped deeper into the circle, her light intensifying. “Fear gives it grip.”
“I’m not afraid!” Poppy protested, but she knew it was a lie.
Mingxi pressed his forehead to her temple. “You don’t have to be unafraid,” he murmured. “You only have to hold on to me.”
Her breath shuddered out, and then she reached deeper. Not toward the shard—but toward the moonwell’s faint, flickering heartbeat. The water glowed under her hand, brighter this time, silver warmth threading through the pain, forming a second tether beneath the shard’s claws.
She felt it clearly. The moonwell wasn’t just calling for help. It was fighting with her. Together, they pulled, and the shard screamed. A blast of dark energy tore upward, so strong it cracked the earth under Caelan’s feet. Lirrane lunged to reinforce him, her tidal force slamming down like an anchor.
“Stay. Down. You. Void. Scum!” she snarled through her teeth.
Caelan shouted, “On my mark—push hard!”
“Do it!” Lirrane barked. “Now!”
The two selkies drove their power into the boundary, water spiraling upward, tide force hammering downward. The shard recoiled violently. Yunlian raised both hands and poured healing light into the circle, stabilizing Poppy’s tether. Mingxi wrapped Poppy from behind, anchoring her body while her spirit anchored the moonwell.
Poppy gasped and then pulled with everything she had. Light exploded. Shadow cracked. The moonwell roared. With a sound like glass shattering, the shard ripped loose by half an inch.
But enough for Yunlian to whisper, “It’s working.”
The shard’s half-inch shift changed everything. The moonwell heaved like a living thing gasping for breath. Cracks spidered across its surface, pulsing with frantic light. The entire basin shook beneath them.
Caelan shouted over the roar, “It’s destabilizing! This is the critical threshold.”
“No one let go!” Lirrane snapped. “Unless you want to explode!”
Poppy swayed, breath ragged as the tether between her and the moonwell stretched thin as thread. She felt the shard clawing at her qi, wild and desperate, trying to reattach itself to the core it had corrupted.
Mingxi tightened his hold around her. “I’m right here. Feel me, Poppy—focus on me.”
She did. His warmth. His fire. The steadiness of his breath. The fierce promise in his voice. It grounded her more than the earth beneath her feet.
The shard lunged again, shadow whipping toward her like a hooked line, but Mingxi’s foxfire snapped upward, cutting the strike clean in half.
“You don’t get to have her,” he snarled. “She isn’t yours.”
The shard reeled.
Yunlian stepped deeper into the circle, hands glowing gold. “Poppy, focus. This is the moment. The moonwell cannot pull the shard out alone.”
“I-I know,” Poppy gasped. “I’m trying—”
“Not with your strength,” Yunlian said, voice steady despite the chaos. “With your bond.”
Poppy inhaled sharply.Her bond. Her tether to Mingxi. To this valley. To the moonwell that had chosen her.She closed her eyes. The shard struck again, but this time she didn’t flinch.
