Page 36

Torric

Packing should be simple.

Clothes. Weapons. Whatever supplies I need to not die in whatever hellscape we're walking into. Done.

Instead, my hands move without thought—rolling fabric, checking straps, adjusting weight—while my brain runs in circles, desperate to find something solid.

The bond won't shut up. Every few seconds it pulses, reminding me what just happened. What I felt when Kaia and Aspen—

Fuck.

I slam the pack harder than necessary, the sound echoing off stone walls. My fire rune burns beneath my shirt, responding to frustration I can't shake loose.

Kaia chose Aspen.

Not fate. Not prophecy. Not some cosmic arrangement none of us had a say in.

Her .

The thought sits in my chest like a coal I can't spit out. For months I've been telling myself this bond thing was inevitable. That whatever happened between us didn't matter because destiny would sort it out anyway. That I didn't need to risk anything because it was all predetermined.

Bullshit.

She chose him. Which means she could choose any of us.

Or none of us.

My hands freeze on the pack's straps. The possibility I've been avoiding crashes over me—what if I've been waiting for something that was never mine to begin with?

What if all my careful distance, all my reasons for not pushing, not claiming space, not being another complication in her already complicated life… what if it just made me invisible?

The fire rune flares, heat spreading across my chest. I need to move. Need air. Need something other than this room and these thoughts eating me alive.

The main hall buzzes with preparation when I arrive. Kieran's people loading packs, sharpening weapons, moving with the focused energy that comes before walking into danger. But I barely register any of it.

Because Kaia's there.

Standing too close to Aspen, their heads bent together over some map or supply list. She's smiling at something he said—that soft, unguarded expression I haven't seen directed at me in weeks. The easy familiarity between them makes my stomach clench.

I should look away. Walk past. Mind my own damn business.

Instead, I stand there like an idiot, watching them. Watching her .

The hollow ache in my chest spreads, settling into my bones like cold I can't shake. This is what I get for being a coward. For assuming she'd just… wait for me to figure my shit out.

"You know she chose us long before we came here, right?"

Malrik's voice cuts through my spiral. I turn to find him leaning against a pillar, arms crossed, watching me with those unreadable silver eyes.

"What?" The word comes out rougher than I meant.

He nods toward Kaia and Aspen. "You're standing there like she just picked her favorite and threw the rest of us away."

My jaw tightens. "Didn't she?"

"You're an idiot."

"Thanks for the pep talk, prince."

But Malrik doesn't rise to the bait. Instead, he pushes off the pillar, stepping closer. "She chose all of us, Torric. Before the bonds. Before the Hall of Echoes. Before any of this became inevitable." His voice drops. "The only question is whether you're going to choose her back."

Something in my chest shifts, not the bond, something deeper. "And if she doesn't want me to?"

"Then you're an even bigger idiot than I thought."

Before I can snap back, Kaia glances up. Her violet eyes find mine across the room, and for a heartbeat, everything else disappears. No Aspen. No crowd. No complicated magical bonds tying us all together.

Just her, looking at me like I still matter.

The moment stretches, charged with possibility I've been too afraid to acknowledge. Then her mouth curves into a small smile. Not the soft one she gave Aspen, but something fiercer. Something that's just mine .

My fire rune pulses once, heat spreading through my chest. But this time it doesn't feel like frustration.

It feels like coming alive.

Maybe Malrik's right. Maybe she has been choosing me all along.

Time to stop being a coward and choose her back.

The fire inside me doesn't just burn now. It points. And this time, I'm following.