“You didn’t do this, Brenton.” Her soft voice was meant to soothe, but her eyes betrayed the fear that shone behind them. “My magic didn’t do this. I swear it.”
“It wasn’t you.” My throat tightened. “I felt your magic stir within me. I felt its power rise and then . . .” I stared at Alastor, limp on the boat’s floor, blood still wet at the corner of his mouth and at his nose. “And then he fell.”
Her breath caught. Neither of us moved. I wanted to believe the bond we’d forged with our magic wasn’t a weapon against those we loved, but the guilt sat heavy on my chest.
The boat thudded against the sand when we hit the shore. The water lapping against the hull was almost too loud against the stillness of the situation.
She brushed her thumb along my knuckles. “You didn’t hurt him. I know my magic. I know when it lashes out. This wasn’t it.”
The bond between us pulsed as we sent more magic through Alastor. Magic curled in my chest, desperate to mend what I was certain I’d broken.
Hoshiko’s shadow passed over us again, circling in a low protective swoop before he landed with a heavy thud that shook the sand and rippled across the water.
When I looked up, Javier was already running toward us, his boots splashing through the shallow water and onto the boat. The moment he saw Alastor’s still form, color drained from his face.
“Alastor!” His voice cracked on the name, and he almost slipped across the wet deck. He dropped to his knees beside us, his hand hovering but not touching as if he didn’t know where it was safe. “What happened? Is he?—”
“He’s alive,” I said quickly, although the words felt like a promise I couldn’t keep.
Javier’s jaw clenched, his gaze moving across Alastor’s face. He reached out at last, his finger trembling when he brushed the blood from his nose. “Don’t do this,” he whispered, his voice barely above a rasp. “Not you too.”
My chest twisted, and I let Javier’s grief bleed through the threads. Not a command but a plea for Alastor to stay, to live.
The response came almost instantly. The stillness I’d felt in him vibrated with the cold certainty of his surrender fracturing. Through the thin veil between life and death, something rippled back. Conflict. Not confusion, but the ache of him caught somewhere between peace and life.
It wasn’t words or even thought, but emotion that pressed against my ribs. Regret. Weariness. But beneath it was the echo of love.
Those who would grieve him surfaced first. Teddy, Javier.
But woven beneath that was the pull of the beyond—of faces waiting on the other side. His brother, Blaise. And even Leanora, sister, captor, yet still blood. A twisted love tugging at him to rest.
Faces flickered in my mind, and Finley’s breath caught as she saw them as well.
Her fingers tightened over mine, the bond’s pulsing making the air tremble. She felt it, the sorrow, the hesitation, the weight of Alastor’s choice, just as clearly as I did.
The tug of death itself pulled through the thread binding the three of us.
Choose life,I urged, the words silent but fierce.
“He needs rest,” I said, peering at Finley. “Will you keep the connection open with me? Just enough to hold him here.”
Understanding flickered in her eyes, and she nodded.
Face still pale, Javier reached for Alastor and gathered the mage with slow, deliberate care as if he worried he might shatter under his hand. “I’ll take him to his tent.”
Finley and I fell in step beside him, matching his pace without speaking. Each breath burned my lungs. Behind us, Hoshiko spread his wings and took flight, his shadows following us as he circled protectively above us.
Willow met us at the edge of the clearing, her eyes sharp with worry. Once Javier set Alastor in the tent, she knelt at his side.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I answered, crouching beside her. “We were training, and then he just fell.” The word felt too small for what had happened. My magic hummed unsteady under my skin, carrying the memory of Alastor’s collapse.
Willow’s gaze went to Finley and me, assessing with her mouth flattening in a thin line. “You’re both drained,” she said. “Rest. I’ll bind with my dragon’s magic to heal him.”
“Don’t—” The word caught in my throat, wrong and unforgivable. “Don’t heal him.”
She moved her hand back and hissed in a breath.
