“It binds with blood,” she whispered.
He did not hesitate. Steel nicked his palm, red welling bright. She mirrored the motion, her own blood silver in the light. They let the drops fall together onto the rune.
The ruby drank deep. A pulse. Then the band rippled like water, reshaping until it slid perfect against his wrist, snug as if it had always belonged there.
His hand trembled as he touched it.
“It knows me,” he murmured, awed. “It bends for me.”
She forced her smile wider. “Because I told it to. Because you’re mine.”
And because I wasn’t strong enough to keep you, I’ve made this instead. A way to tie you to me, even as you go.
His hand closed around hers, lips brushing her wrist where her own ruby gleamed. His voice broke. “Little one…you forge me vows, and I give you nothing but chains.”
Tears stung, but she kept them hidden.
“We should test it,” she whispered.
He agreed, and together, they walked to the balcony.
She flinched when he cut his forearm with the dagger at his waist and opened a portal, the air splitting into a crimson oval-shaped magical gate. The air shifted around them, the curtains on the balcony flapping wildly in the current of disturbed mana. Auryn stepped towards it and lifted her hand, her palm hovering just short of touching the tear.
"These portals have always fascinated me, but for a long time I have felt they are unnatural. Even as I studied them. At first, I thought I could improve them. Bind them somehow to the natural leylines of the earth. That would stabilize them, make the magic less like violation," she glanced at the cut on Kailorien's forearm. "I wanted to find a way to sever its dependency to blood magic."
"You said there wasn't a way," Kailorien frowned. "Auryn, did you—"
"No," she shook her head. "The solution still eludes me, but in the search…" She took a steadying breath. "Especially after Vargrún possessed you that one night…I made a choice. That if this world would violate my heart in taking you from me…I would violate this magic to keep you. At least a piece of you." Her voice wavered.
Kailorien took her hand in his. The bracelets on their wrists shimmered in the magic's light.
"Our Bond has always failed with distance," Auryn said. "But with portals, distance is irrelevant. I thought, if I could mimic that, remove the dependency on distance and create a portal between two points, bound in blood, then we could hear one another. At least that much…"
He pulled her into an embrace, his awe pulsing through the Bond.
Auryn…you truly are…unknowable. Wondrous. Terrifying.
…and mine. Always.
"Yours," she confirmed. "As you are mine—to love, to protect, even to covet at times."
He leaned back to look at her, a smirk playing at his mouth. "Covet?"
She gave him a playful push towards the portal. "Do not look so smug. Go now. Let us see if I've succeeded in this foolish attempt at defying our fate."
He stepped into the portal, letting his fingers linger against hers for as long as the magic would allow. Then he was gone, the portal closing with his departure. Auryn clutched her hand to her chest. Aching. Forcing her heart to steady and her breath to slow. Their Bond had never been able to reach past the Shields. But with the Echoveil—as long as it worked past the borders of the city, it would work anywhere.
That is my hope. My prayer.
Time passed in silence, and when she could wait no longer, she pressed her hand to the ruby. “Kailorien?”
A pause. Then, faint but clear as if at her ear,“Starlight.”
Her knees wobbled. Relief hit so sharp she almost sobbed. “Kail…you can hear me?”
“Every breath.”His voice trembled with wonder.“I’ve gone past the Shields to the Aethermirror. To the Veinroads even. Sweetfire, this is incredible.”
Her hand tightened against the stone.
