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Rowen darted to me and pried the wood from my ankle. He gently lowered me to the ground, his eyes trailing over my body. His rough palms cupped my face as he checked my eyes. “Just your leg, my flame?”

I bit back the pain and nodded, glancing at the blood seeping through my leggings.

Rowen carefully folded up my pant leg, and I sucked in a breath through my teeth.

His fingers trailed down my calf and ankle, gently examining my injury.

There were three nasty puncture wounds and countless scratches.

He pulled a tin of noxlily salve from his rucksack and applied the medicine over my mangled skin.

My wounds mended before my very eyes as the shimmering ointment worked its magic.

Rowen passed the tin around, and I glanced at the exhausted warriors. Dyani and Minroe appeared banged up and bruised while Maddock clutched his side.

“Madds?” I asked, hoping he wasn’t hurt.

“One kick, and I was down for the count. I felt worthless,” Madds gasped, holding his side. “That thing only seemed to care about Keira.”

“That was your first battle. You’ll get better,” Rowen assured as he lowered my pant leg and helped me stand. “But Takoda needs to look at you.”

“I’m fine. I just had the wind knocked out of me,” he said, waving off his injury.

Dyani’s chest heaved as she shot us all a worried look. “It took all of us to defeat that . . . thing.”

“The odds are not good,” Minroe chimed in. “How many more will escape before we can stop them?” she asked, her dark kohl smudged around her eyes.

“At least we learned how to defeat them. You have to pierce them through the heart. The bitten return to the heavens, where they can hopefully find peace. While the Voro-Kai disintegrates into dust and smoke.”

“Thank the spirits, the star-blades work. Now we just need a thousand more,” Dyani said, wiping the blood from her weapon.

She was right. “I need to go to the meteor and infuse it with Light. The production of weapons needs to start as soon as possible,” I said, testing the weight on my leg.

“Are you good, Madds?” Rowen asked, all our chests heaving.

“I think so,” he grunted, standing upright and offering me a wink.

“Good. Keira, take Maddock with you."

“You take Maddock,” I countered.

“Are you fighting over who gets to keep me?” Maddock said excitedly, a grin spreading across his face. “It’s just like my childhood.”

“Please,” Rowen said, his eyes softening as his broad hands gripped my shoulders. “You will need to infuse the Ever-burn with your Light. That is no small task. Let Madds help you.”

I nodded. “Fine. I’ll keep him, but please be safe.”

“I will,” he promised .

I didn’t want to leave Rowen, especially after such a vicious battle, but reality was setting in like a chill in my lungs. It was a half-day’s journey back to the village on foot. If Maddock and I astral traveled, we could save precious time.

“I’ll see you tonight,” I promised, knowing it was the smartest decision.

Rowen stepped toward me and pulled me in for a kiss.

I tasted the sweat and blood upon his face, a reminder of how close we’d come to losing each other today.

I wished I could revel in his kiss forever, vanish in the plume of his scent, but time was of the essence.

“I hate to leave you,” I murmured against his lips, and as I pulled back, I noticed Rowen’s hands were rubbed raw from the rope, and his knuckles and wrists were marred with lesions and blood. “You’re hurt.”

“It is nothing. I will take care of it,” Rowen said before turning to Madds. “Remember, her fate is your fate,”

“Yes, I remember,” Madds said with an eye roll. “Vividly.”

“Please be careful,” I begged again, hating the thought of splitting up, but we were out of options. I turned to Madds and grabbed his hand. “Whatever you do, don’t let go. We need to travel together. I don’t have time for you to get lost.”

“Got it, sparky,” Maddock said easily, shooting me another wink.

I glared at him.

“What?” he questioned with a shrug. “I can’t very well call you my flame .”

“Absolutely not,” I shot back.

“See? So ‘sparky’ is better.”

I closed my eyes and tried to breathe in through my nose. “Believe me. It’s not.”

Rowen, who had been watching us, slid his gaze to Maddock. “Take care of her,” Rowen said, holding his stare with such gravity that it sent a chill down my spine .

“You know I’m not going to let anything hurt her,” he replied, matching Rowen’s tone.

“I swear to the Spirits if anything happens to her . . .” he said, his words laced with warning.

My eyes widened at the severity of his voice. When I first came to live with the Wyn elves, Nepta had appointed Rowen as my bodyguard—a role he accepted and would sacrifice his life for. The trust he had in Maddock to let him take over was nothing short of a miracle.

“Nothing will happen to her,” Maddock swore, never breaking eye contact with Rowen, his joking tone nowhere to be found. “You know how strong she is.”

“I do,” my soul flame said before his emerald eyes shot to me with gleaming intensity. “If he bothers you in any way, remember the three most sensitive kill-points I taught you.”

I smirked. “I will.”

Maddock squeezed my hand. His palm was warm and encompassed mine, and an odd mixture of security and guilt raced through my emotions.

I didn’t want to be alone with Maddock or be nice to him. It was easier to be cruel than acknowledge he held a piece of my soul flame bond, and that my feelings for Rowen were now attached to this man who had followed me across the universe.

“Pay attention and stay close,” I said, glancing at him over my shoulder. “You ready?”

He nodded, and together, our bodies became less corporal, but I could still feel his hand in mine—a grounding sensation in such an ethereal journey. And layer by layer of light, we began to astral travel.

The threads of the cosmos unfurled around us, an interwoven tapestry of light and energy.

Maddock walked through the dangling vines, his eyes wide and reflecting the shimmering strands around us. We were on the astral plane. Together.

“So this is how you do it?” he asked in awe, his fingers hovering over the threads.

“Yeah. Don’t you?”

He huffed a laugh, his angular brown eyes lit with stardust. “Not even close. I just feel where I want to go, and I go there. This is way cooler, though. Like stepping into another dimension.”

I grinned, pride welling inside me, and with Maddock’s hand in mine, we traveled through the stars, the world around us shifting and swirling.

I had never traveled with anyone before. The feeling was unsettling, yet the shared experience blossomed into something unspoken between us.

But what happens on the astral field stays on the astral field.

I found the thread to the crater and pulled, clutching Maddock’s hand. And as slowly as disintegrating light, we traveled to the Ever-burn star.

We appeared within the massive depression of the earth, standing at the foot of the Ever-burn star.

I dropped Madds’ hand and gazed at the meteorite.

Why it had flickered out was still a mystery. I just hoped Maddock and I had enough strength to charge such a massive rock.

I placed my hands on the meteor, and Madds followed suit.

The smooth surface was cold beneath my palms, and deep within the rock, like a song muffled through the ocean, I felt the Alcreon Light. “The Light is in there,” I said, excitement coursing through me. “It has just retreated. ”

His eyes widened. “I feel it, too.”

“On the count of three,” I said, looking at him over my shoulder. His gaze met mine with a steely determination, and he nodded. “One, two, three.”

In perfect unison, we unleashed our Light, coaxing the retreated glow to burn bright once again.

When we had tried this in the weapons room, our wills had been clashing and fighting against each other.

Here and now, our Light harmonized as one, working together to infuse the Ever-burn back to her rightful glory.

Light blinded me as I poured my strength, willpower, and Light into the dormant star, rekindling what had dimmed.

Sweat dripped from my brow as we worked to awaken the Ever-burn star.

“Keep pushing,” I ground out, straining against the resistance.

The Light had retreated deep within the meteor, and I focused on channeling everything I had to resuscitate the star.

It was resisting, protecting itself from the darkness that engulfed this world.

But I pushed harder, feeling a timid flicker of trust.

“ You keep pushing,” Maddock gritted through his teeth. He mirrored my effort, fierce and focused. Seeing him care so much about a plight that wasn’t even his made my chest burn, urging me to dig deeper.

The stronger my resolve, the brighter it glowed, and suddenly, the meteor blazed to life, flooding the night in a radiant shower of Light.

Suddenly, everything was aglow. I could barely see, but then my eyes adjusted and I could only make out Maddock’s face, smiling. I returned the smile, realizing what we had accomplished. Together.

Without warning, Madds wrapped me in a hug, tight enough for me to lose my breath.

His arm slid firmly around me, one palm resting on my lower back as the other swept up my neck, his fingers tangling in my hair.

For a heartbeat, I leaned in and actually let myself be held by the man I hated. I might have even hugged him back.

Feeling me give in, he squeezed tighter.

When he didn’t put me down, I pulled away and cleared my throat.

Madds held my closed palm and tugged me a little closer. His breath washed over my face and hit my flushed skin like a cool cloud. I hated that my body and bond betrayed me.

“Good job,” I said curtly.

“Thanks. You too.”

I swayed on my feet. “I’m exhausted. I think I need a minute.”

“Me too,” he replied, and we sat with our backs against the glowing Ever-burn star.