I tilted my head, laughed once, a sound too bitter to be sane. “The arrowhead I carried, my so-calledlucky charm,wasyours.” His eyes clung to mine. “It was always you. Not the woods keeping me safe—but you, waiting in the dark for the right moment to end me.”
His head bowed. “That was before I made the bargain with Isolde. Something has always drawn me to you—"
I raised my hand between us, looking at Killian, my hand trailing down the armor that hid the scars across his back. “Would you like to be restored, Phoenix?”
His head snapped toward me, moonlight flashing across his piercings, his face flickering between terror and awe. He gave just a single, resolute nod.
I smiled. “Good.”
He lifted his armor over his head, baring his back to me and I ran my fingertips along the ink behind his ear first, the mark shimmering under my touch. Heat flared behind my own and I swept my hair aside, baring the twin sigil that rested behind there—the blood oath that bound Killian’s fate to mine.
He’d told me little of that moment he promised himself to me, only that when I chose to embrace the truth of my blood, he wished his rebirth to serve a purpose worthy of it.
Another bond flared into smoke and rage. I didn’t have to look to feel it, the crack in his composure, restraint running thin.
The growl that slipped through his teeth was soft. “What is this?”
I kissed my fingers, then pressed them to Killian’s spine. Bone split and muscle tore, new light erupting from the fractures in his back. He arched, letting out a cry caught between agony and rebirth as wings burst from him anew.
“Patience,” I whispered.
When I peered back to the others, Callum’s face had gone white. “Verena,” he warned, voice trembling under authority he no longer possessed. “With your magic fully awakened, we don’t know what will happen, or if we’ll even be able to bring you back once the Viper takes control.”
“Sheiscontrol.” My fingers twitched. “But maybe that’s what’s needed.”
Ronan crept forward, carefully. “What are you saying?’
My spine went loose, confidence replacing tension. “That fate cannot be rewritten. Not by kings. Not by gods. And not by you.” I looked up to where the moon glared down, a witness to damnation. “War isn’t coming.” A spasm rippled the air, stirring my hair, humming the ground where dust had begun to lift in slow spirals. “She’s already here. And now, she’s come to collect your debt.” My eyes met his where worship turned to tragedy as I whispered, “You should’ve killed me.”
“Don’t—” The word broke off his lips as a final tear slid down my cheek, carving a clean line through the carnage.
“When I become your nightmare, remember—” I raised my dagger, its edge catching the light as I leveled it toward Ronan. “I tried to be your light,” I reminded them. “And instead, you let me burn in it.” My stare left Ronan, moving to the others, to Callum. “All of you.”
Elysian moved instantly, fangs bared, rage flashing behind feline eyes. Killian stepped between us before Elysian could reach me, his wings twitching, daring anyone to cross.
Ronan dragged himself toward me, slow, smoke failing to curl off his knuckles, the realization striking him weeks too late. His fingers flexed as he debated whether to reach for me or not.
I didn’t shift toward him. “Thank you for your fire.” My voice had changed, too calm for what I felt. “But I won’t carry your chain any longer.” The color in my eyes bled, the blue burned away, devoured by an endless black. They didn’t shift; they aligned, locking into place. “Now, free me of you.”
The bond convulsed as my fangs slid down, final this time, no return, no reprieve. Veins lit in fractures of dark beneath my skin.
“Verena—” Ronan’s voice, a prayer and a wound both. He went to tread closer—
Until Killian shot between us, his wings developed fully now, obsidian feathers stretching in an eclipse that swallowed the stars as his eyes burned radiant gold.
He didn’t speak. Not when the air shivered with his promise:Touch her, and I will end you.
Ronan staggered back in awe, fists shaking at his sides, fury bleeding off him so heavily I didn’t need the bond to feel it.
Ford stood frozen. Nezra inched forward, her hands shaking. “This is spiraling—”
But I was already unraveling, panting as replenished magic lit my skin in waves. “I reject our bond.” The words came out rough, almost unrecognizable. “Break it.Now.”
Ronan’s jaw locked. “Please,” he begged. “Don’t do this.”
“Fuckingbreak it.” I tore my walls down, let him feel everything—rage, grief, the gaping hole where love used to live. The darkness and corruption in all its sovereign hunger.
A whisper fought its way down the tether.Fight for this. Fight for us.
