Chapter Twenty-Eight
Haide
I jolt awake like someone cut a string.
Darkness crowds the edges of my vision, thick enough that, for a second, I don’t know where I am.
And then the memories hit me all at once.
Darkadia. Cavern floors. Poison thick in my lungs. Legend choking on air he couldn’t swallow.
The black tar on the walls and the message left behind.
My breath drags in high and sharp. I sit up too fast, palms pressed to my sternum because panic tastes like blood tonight, like something reaching through my ribs.
Legend.
The thought hits me harder than the dream.
My hand drifts higher—hesitant, careful, almost ashamed of the fear simmering beneath my skin—until my fingertips brush the center of my chest. I don’t know what I’m looking for. I don’t even know what the hell I expect to feel. He keeps saying there’s something between us, some bond neither of us can outrun, and maybe I’m an idiot for checking, but—
There.
A pull.
Quiet at first.
Then steady.
Heat weaves through me, a thin gold thread winding tight beneath my bones, tugging low and certain, and it feels… Gods, it feels like relief. Like exhaling after holding my breath for years. Like something inside me whispering,there you are.
My lips twitch before I can stop them.
He’s alive.
I saved him.
Me.
I did that.
And the realization sends a strange rush through my chest, nervous and hot and a little terrifying because I don’t feel things like this. I don’t want to think about why I am now.
“Get a grip,” I mutter, dragging my hand away as if that can sever whatever just lit up inside me.
Still, the warmth lingers and the tether hums, and gods help me—the feeling settles something in me that has never settled before.
I throw the blanket off and swing my legs out of bed, ready to find him. To see that fire-bright stare for myself, but a slip of black catches my eye.
A folded card rests on the floor just inside my room, placed so perfectly it looks almost ceremonial. My name is slashed across the front in handwriting with sharp, arrogant strokes.
I kneel, pluck it up, and the moment I flip it open, warmth curls low in my stomach.
Little monster,
I won’t waste time pretending I’m patient. I cannot wait to set my eyes on you tonight.
Your power is waking like a creature starved, and I will be the one it bends for. Try not to break anything before I see you.
