“Am I?” He turns to leave, his purpose apparently served. “Ask yourself this, Kaia—if it’s all real, if it’s all choice, why does the thought of him still make you ache? Why does saying his name feel like coming home to something you never chose to leave?”
And then he’s gone, leaving me alone with the wreckage of everything I thought I knew.
I stand frozen in the water, his words echoing in my head like a curse. The bond—the one I’ve been fighting, denying, trying to bury—pulses with recognition. With need. With the terrible certainty that maybe, just maybe, he’s right.
“No.” I say it to the water, to the sky, to the silence that offers no answers. “No. No. No.”
But my magic responds anyway, shadows exploding from the lake bottom like something buried has finally clawed its way to the surface. The water churns around me, dark and violent, responding to chaos I can’t control.
I scream—raw, desperate, furious—and my shadows explode outward like something buried has finally clawed its way to the surface. Ice spreads from where I stand, Aspen’s power bleeding through our bond uninvited, turning the lake’s surface into a fractured mirror of black water and white frost. My shadows writhe beneath the ice, wild and directionless, feeding off my grief and rage.
The magic rips through me, wild and uncontrolled, until I’m drowning in shadows and ice that shouldn’t be mine. Until I sink beneath the surface and wrap my arms around herself and wish I could disappear entirely.
That’s how Malrik finds me.
Not running toward the chaos—walking.
Like he felt the exact moment my world ended and came to witness the aftermath. He wades into the water fully clothed, his expensive boots squelching in the mud, his silver eyes never leaving mine.
He doesn’t speak. Doesn’t ask what happened or try to fix what’s broken. He just kneels in the water in front of me, opens his arms, and waits.
“I don’t know if I’m meant for any of you,” I whisper, the words scraping my throat raw. “But I need you right now.”
He breathes my name like a vow—“Kaia”—and reaches for me.
And I let him.
His arms close around me, solid and warm and real in ways that make the bonds sing instead of ache. The water swirls around us, still touched with residual magic, but it feels less chaotic now. Less like drowning, more like being held by something larger than myself.
“I’ve got you,” he murmurs against my hair, and for the first time since Callum spoke, I believe that something might actually be mine to keep.
Even if I never chose it.
Even if it was always meant to be.
Chapter 41
Malrik
Malrik
I’ve never seen her like this.
Wrapped in shadow and grief, water swirling with the remnants of magic that shouldn’t exist—ice crystallizing in patterns that mirror her pain while darkness writhes beneath the surface. She’s pulled power from our bond without meaning to, Aspen’s frost bleeding through her desperation, and the sight of it stops my heart.
She needs anchoring. Not answers.
I don’t hesitate. Don’t call out or ask what happened. The devastation radiating from her through our connection tells me everything I need to know—someone hurt her, broke something precious, and left her drowning in doubt.
I wade into the lake fully clothed, boots squelching in the mud, expensive fabric soaking through as I drop to my knees in front of her. The water is freezing where her borrowed ice magic touched it, but I don’t care. She’s curled in on herself like she’s the only thing keeping her pieces together.
“I don’t know if I’m meant for any of you,” she whispers, her voice raw and broken. “But I need you right now.”
The words hit me like a blessing and a curse all at once. She needs me. Not because of fate or bonds or ancient magic, but because in this moment, I’m what she’s choosing.
“Kaia,” I breathe her name like a prayer, like an answer to questions I’ve been asking my whole life.
I open my arms, and she comes to me.
