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VIOLET

A s I made my first step into the waters, I knew: there was magic in the lake, and it was alive.

It coiled around my fingers, insistent, as if urging me forward, pulling at something deeper than skin. It curled around my wrists like an embrace, whispering with a voice I couldn't hear but somehow understood. The portal was waiting.

It was time.

A little too late,

I realized something in the blue-lit grotto had shifted. A new energy buzzed in the air, and it was familiar.

A chill ran down my spine. My breath caught, a sharp inhale that never entirely made it back out. The pulse of the lake faltered, the whispering magic around me hesitating as if it, too, had noticed the disturbance.

I turned, my heart pounding so loudly it drowned out the cavern's hushed silence. And there they were, my boys.

They stood by the shore in the dim glow of the cavern. Their chests rose and fell with heavy breaths, as if they’d just run a marathon, their eyes locked on me. Despite the distance, I saw pure, absolute worship in Quinn’s eyes, relief in Nicholas’s, and pride in Kenji’s.

Relief crashed onto me, so sudden and overwhelming that my knees nearly buckled.

They had found me; they had come for me, I realized.

I’d been able to save myself, but still, they’d come for me .

The weight I hadn’t realized I was carrying—the fear, the loneliness, the quiet, gnawing ache of always standing on my own—fractured. A crack, deep and sudden, split open something buried inside me. Relief flooded in, raw and overwhelming. It filled the hollow spaces, pressing against my heart until it ached in a different way—a way that felt too big, too full for me to handle.

“I summoned my magic to protect myself!” I squealed, the water rippling around me at my movements. “I’ll explain everything later. Now I have to go get Daisy.”

“You’re not going alone, that’s for sure.”

“No.” I cut their protests short, stopping them before they could take another step toward the lake. “I trusted you, remember? Now I’m asking you to trust me. This is something I have to do by myself.”

Silence followed, thick and heavy, enhancing the sound of droplets falling in the water.

The rumble of their magic seemed to bounce off the cave walls. They weren’t happy about it, that was for sure.

“I only get a few minutes” I added. “I promise I’ll be safe.”

I didn’t wait for their approval. I turned around while taking a deep breath. My grip tightened around the sharp rock I’d picked on the lakeshore, the rough edges grounding me against the whirlwind inside my chest. I lifted it, its sharp tip pressing into the pad of my thumb. One drop. That was all the portal demanded.

A voice slid into my mind like silk and steel, quiet but inescapable. It wrapped around my ribs, swirling smoke curling in my chest.

A heart for a heart, a soul for a name,

Speak now, lest silence seals your claim.

Who do you love, above all the rest?

Speak the names, bare your chest.

A truth for a truth, a secret untold,

Whisper it deep, let the binding take hold

I inhaled sharply, a tight, uneven breath that did nothing to steady the trembling in my hands. I had always known there would be a price. I’d seen it in Elphias’s mind and prepared myself to face whatever would come. But this… This was the one thing I had never been ready to admit. Not to them. Not to myself.

“Griffin” I said, my voice loud and clear. “My… My brother. And Daisy, my best friend.”

Deep down, I knew it wouldn’t work. Not because I didn’t love them more than anyone else—because they weren’t the only ones. I wasn’t surprised when nothing happened. The whole truth burned in my chest, but I held it down.

My boys had heard it, too; I knew that much. I felt the expectation crackling like electricity on my skin.

A part of me was still fighting it, maybe because then what I felt would be out there, tangible, concrete, impossible to take back. Maybe because things would drastically change again, and I didn’t know if I was ready for that.

But standing there, their presence filling the space that had felt so impossibly empty without them, I knew the truth. The absolute truth, the one I'd been too blind to see.

I had never been alone—I had never wanted to be alone. Not since they’d come around. And imagining a life they weren’t part of was painful and sickening, so why did I keep denying myself the freedom that would come with the truth?

I loved them. There was no changing that.

I exhaled, steady now. Sure. "Nicholas. Kenji. Quinn."

Their names left my lips like an offering, like a prayer, and the magic listened. I squeezed my eyes, heat blooming in my cheeks, while the truth started settling weightlessly in my chest.

I turned my head. "I love them most" I added in a murmur, just for them.

It was all it took: golden ripples spread outward, light spilling through the water like veins of fire, pulsing with the rhythm of something powerful.

The words hung in the air, real and irreversible, sinking into the magic as it tightened around me. The portal had accepted my offering, my deepest secret, my most felt confession, and was now opening.

I did what I’d read in Elphias’s mind: I pictured Daisy, her soft, blond curls, her rare smiles, the way she rolled her eyes back when I said something stupid.

I could already feel myself getting pulled away, but first, I turned to look at my boys one last time. Nicholas was frozen, his sharp, untamed energy gone, as if the world had tilted on its axis. Kenji’s jaw was clenched, fingers twitching, holding back something I couldn’t name. And Quinn—Quinn, who always had a smile, a teasing glint, something light to balance the weight of things—had nothing but raw, wide-eyed disbelief carved into his face.

They had heard it. They had felt it. As I did.

And for the first time in my life, I wasn’t afraid of the truth.

I couldn’t say the same for whatever was coming next.