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"You're delusional," I managed to say, my voice steady with cold purpose. "This proves nothing except that you're still an arrogant bastard who mistakes fear for consent."

This proves nothing except that you’re still an arrogant bastard who mistakes fear for consent.”

“Fear?” he challenged, his free hand sliding down to rest on my hip, but the movement seemed mechanical, uncertain. “Is that what this is?”

“Terror,” I corrected. “Terror of what you’ve become. Terror of what you might do.” I met his gaze directly. “Terror that I might never get back to the life I built after you destroyed the first one.”

Something in my tone made him go very still. “What life?”

The binding between us pulsed, and I felt his sudden sharp focus, his attempt to probe deeper into what I was hiding. But I’d had years to build walls, to protect what mattered most.

“My life,” I said simply. “The one where I don’t have to pretend you exist.”

Before he could respond, light magic exploded outward—not the conflicted burst of someone torn between love and hate, but the clean, fierce power of someone with everything to protect.

Raw, untamed power born of maternal fury and desperate determination.

He absorbed most of it, but enough got through to make him hiss in pain and stagger backward.

Instead of backing away farther, he tightened his grip, but I could see the confusion in his eyes, as if he couldn't understand his own reactions.

“You’ll pay for that, dearest.” His shadows twisted around my wrists, but they felt uncertain, wavering. “Something’s different about you.”

"People change when they have to survive," I said, my tone icy. "A lesson you made sure I learned."

At that moment, a blur of golden fur shot through the passage—Melo, who had been stationed near the eastern wing as our planned backup, waiting to follow if something went wrong.

Suddenly Hakan roared in pain when she sank her teeth into his leg, tearing through fabric and flesh alike.

Blood darkened his pant leg while my guardian ripped and shook her head, refusing to let go even as he kicked out at her.

“You mangy little—” Shadows gathered around his hand. It condensed into a blade of pure darkness while he prepared to strike Melo, but his movements seemed sluggish, as if he was fighting against his own reflexes.

“NO!” I screamed, desperation giving me strength I didn’t know I possessed.

I twisted free of his momentarily loosened grip and threw myself between them, my light magic blazing with protective fury—not for a lover, but for family. The sudden flare caught Hakan off guard, forcing him to step back when he shielded his eyes from the unexpected brightness.

We faced each other across the narrow passage, both breathing hard.

Blood dripped from his leg where Melo had torn through muscle.

His eyes had returned to their normal green but held a complex mixture of fury, confusion, and something that might have been recognition—as if he was seeing me clearly for the first time.

"Touch her," I said, my words deadly quiet, carrying the promise of someone protecting what they loved, "and I will burn you from the inside out. Bond or no bond."

For a moment, I thought he would attack anyway. Then, shockingly, his expression shifted—not to the predatory smile I expected, but to something almost bewildered.

"You're not the same," he said quietly, and his tone carried none of the calculated cruelty from before. "You're…different. Stronger. There's something you're protecting."

“People change when they’re forced to survive,” I replied, and thought of all the nights I’d spent planning, preparing, building the network that kept my most precious secret safe. “You taught me that lesson well enough.”

“What have you been surviving that required such…transformation?”

I met his gaze steadily, letting him see nothing but cold determination. “Your absence. Your betrayal. The wreckage you left behind.”

He straightened, and I watched when that lost expression was buried again beneath layers of shadow and assumed menace, though it felt forced now, like an ill-fitting mask.

“This changes nothing, Ada. You’re still bound to me.

And the next time you try to run”—his gaze shifted meaningfully to Melo—“I might not be so merciful toward those who help you.”

“Is that what this was?” I gestured to the marks his grip had left on my wrists, my voice shaking with anger rather than residual desire. “Mercy?”

“That,” he said, shadows beginning to envelop him though they seemed less controlled than before, “was merely a reminder of what you’re running from.

And what you’ll never escape.” His eyes locked with mine, still burning, but now with something closer to desperation than possession.

“Go back to the gathering. Now. Or I’ll drag you there myself, in whatever state you happen to be in. ”

The threat hung in the air between us, and I knew with sickening certainty that he meant every word. But I’d also seen the confusion, the internal struggle. Whatever he’d become, it wasn’t entirely his choice.

“Fine.” I gathered what dignity I could. “But this isn’t over.”

“No,” he agreed, but his voice lacked its earlier conviction. “It’s only the beginning.”

Melo pressed against my leg, a silent show of support as we made our way back through the passage, Hakan following at a distance that felt both too close and oddly uncertain.

“The shadow corruption is spreading faster than we thought,” she murmured, her tone pitched for my ears alone.

“Three more lords have fallen under Erlik’s influence.

And Hakan…” she hesitated, and glanced back at him with undisguised hostility, “something’s changing in him, too.

His shadow feels…different. I sense conflict in him when he’s near you—like two different souls warring in one body.

The binding might be affecting him more than he realizes. ”

I gave the smallest nod, careful not to let Hakan see.

This attempt had failed, and the cost had been high—now he would be watching me even more closely.

But I’d also learned something valuable: whatever was controlling him wasn’t absolute.

There were cracks in his certainty, moments where the real Hakan seemed to surface.

That gave me hope—not for us, but for finding the weakness I could exploit to break free.

I would not stop trying to escape. Kiraz needed me. And I would use every tool at my disposal—including his obvious internal struggle—to get back to her.

Even if I had to tear this binding from my very soul.