Naeri's voice cut through the encroaching void like a blade of pure light.
Soft. Breathless. Real.
I turned toward her slowly. The chamber swam. Darkness crawled across my vision while the Harrowed One clawed harder against my mind.Don’t let go. Not yet. She should fear you. Make her fear you.
Naeris stepped forward anyway. Everyone else tensed. Zapharos actually moved to block her. “Naeris—stay back!”
“No.”
Her eyes never left mine. There was no fear in them. No horror. Only fierce, impossible trust, the kind I had never deserved and never would. She reached me without hesitation and pressed her hand flat against my chest, right over my thundering heart. Light exploded through the bond.
Warm. Bright.Hers.
The Harrowed One screamed in fury inside my skull.
Mine,I snarled back, the word tearing out of me with every shred of will I still possessed.She is mine. Not yours. Never yours.
Naeris’ power wrapped around me like sunlight breaking through endless night. The darkness thrashed violently—fighting, clawing, refusing to release its hold—but her touch was relentless. Her gaze held mine with absolute certainty.
“Come back to me,” she whispered, her voice shaking but unwavering. “Right now, Thyros. I’m not afraid of you. I never will be. So stop trying to prove them right.”
The flaw convulsed one final time, one last desperate surge of black fire trying to drag me under. Then it broke. The obsidian light shattered. The freezing black crystals cracked apart and melted. Reality steadied around us with a violent lurch. Suddenly, crushing exhaustion slammed into me so hard my knees buckled.
Naeris caught me before I could fall, her arms wrapped tightly around my waist. She held me upright, pressing her forehead to mine, breathing hard.
Ruin surrounded us, shattered crystal, frozen debris, the stunned silence of my brothers. But for the first time in my existence, the flaw felt smaller. Not gone. But quieter. Because she had stepped into the darkness with me and refused to let it win.
Her glowing starmap pulsed erratically, matching the thunder of my own heart. That's when I realized my own skin glowed with the same glyphs. But I was too focused on her, still scanning the chamber for threats, blaster raised, jaw set like the true warrior she was, to care. Ashley stood right beside her doing the same.
Ella crashed into Zapharos with a sob. He caught her, and his golden aura flared bright as he buried his face in her hair, murmuring desperate words against her temple, one eye stillsearching the surroundings, and one arm ready to wield his sword. Nadine practically collapsed into Dravok’s arms, shaking. “Oh my God, how did you get here?” she whispered in a voice dangerously close to cracking as his shadows wrapped around her like a living shield.
Ashley let Xandros pull her close, but even then, she kept one hand on her blaster, eyes sweeping the room. “Took you long enough, big guy,” she muttered, but the way she leaned into his chest betrayed everything.
Naeris and I… stayed where we were.
Awkward. Charged. Breathing hard.
The golden thread between us screamed louder than it ever had—relief, fury, fear, need—all tangled together so tightly I could barely breathe. I wanted to crush her against me. I wanted to snarl at her for scaring me half to death. I wanted to tear the universe apart for daring to bleed her. Instead, I just held her tighter.
“You’re hurt,” I stated in a rough voice that I barely recognized.
She glanced at the cut on her shoulder like it was an inconvenience. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s notnothing.” My hand twitched at my side. I wanted to reach for her so badly my fingers ached. Around us the others were lost in their reunions, soft words, trembling embraces, the kind of open relief I didn’t know how to give.
Naeris looked at me then. Her glowing skin cast warm light across the sharp lines of her face, and for a heartbeat, the rest of the chamber disappeared. I was so fucking angry with her.
Angry that she’d made me feel this… this helpless, gnawing terror that she might be taken from me before I’d even truly had her. Angry that after millions of years in the Abyss, one defiant rebel had become the most important thing in my existence ina matter of days. But mostly I was just grateful she was still breathing.
I took one more step closer, dropping my voice to a gravelly whisper only she could hear. “You ever scare me like that again, little rebel… and I won’t be responsible for what I do.”
Naeris lifted her chin, her eyes flashed with that fire I was already addicted to. The starmap on her skin pulsed between us like a living heartbeat. For now, that was enough.
Zapharos’ voice broke the heavy silence. “Let’s go. We’re getting out of here. Now.”
“No,” Nadine cried out immediately, stepping forward.
“Absolutely not,” Ella echoed. Her voice was trembling with exhaustion and fear, yet she seemed as determined as all the rest of them. She looked at all of us, glowing, disheveled, but unyielding. “All you golden boys… take your shirts off.”
