Page 6

6

RHAEGAR

S he is dying.

The bond between us is fraying , slipping through my grasp like sand through clawed fingers. I feel it in the way her heartbeat stutters , in the way her breaths shallow into nothing more than ghosts of air.

It is an unbearable truth, one I refuse to accept.

Because she cannot die.

Not when she is the only thing tethering me to this world. Not when I have barely touched her, known her, unraveled the secrets in her veins.

She is mine.

And I do not let go of what is mine.

The hunters’ corpses still bleed onto the temple floor, the scent of death heavy in the air. But I do not linger. I do not even spare them a glance.

I move.

Gathering her fragile, broken body into my arms, I rise, the weight of her almost nothing against me. She should not be this light.

She should not be this still.

A growl rises in my chest, the sound low and dangerous , vibrating through the ruins. My wings unfurl, still incomplete , but enough to propel me into the sky. I do not think. I do not hesitate.

I simply go.

The wind rips past me as I fly, carrying the scent of forest dampness, of distant fires burning in unseen villages. Protheka stretches out below, vast and dark, its ancient scars hidden beneath the veil of night.

But I do not care for the world.

I care only for the fading heartbeat against my chest.

"Stay with me," I demand, though I’m not aware if she can hear me.

Nora does not answer.

The bond between us thrums , weakening. Unraveling.

No.

I tighten my hold on her, my claws accidentally biting into her skin as my wings push harder.

There must be something.

Something in these lands, some place, some power that can keep her breathing.

I search my mind, ancient, fractured memories shifting through my skull like shattered glass.

Suddenly, I remember.

Not far from here, beyond the river of black stone, there is a place where the earth itself bleeds with magic.

A ruin older than even the ones she found me in. A place where the veils between life and death are thinner than bone.

It is my only chance. Her only chance.

And I am not above gambling with forbidden things if it means keeping her alive.

I land hard, wings barely catching the impact as I stagger forward. The ground here is wrong. The trees are twisted, their bark as dark as onyx , the roots curling up from the soil like reaching hands. The air is thick , humming with a magic so old it no longer has a name.

I drop to my knees, cradling her against me. She does not stir.

"Nora."

Nothing.

She is slipping. I feel it, a pull in my chest, an emptiness I do not know how to fight.

The bond is breaking.

A snarl tears from my throat. I cannot let this happen. I can’t lose her. This feeling is so strong, it’s overwhelming. I don’t know the reason why I’m feeling this way. It might be the bond, but it’s also something else.

Gritting my teeth, I slice my palm open with one of my own claws, feeling the hot rush of blood spill over my skin. The old magic here— it responds to sacrifice. To price.

And I am willing to pay.

I press my bleeding hand to the earth, forcing the weight of my will into the soil.

"Take what you want," I whisper, voice laced with feral desperation.

The ground shudders beneath me.

A soft, whispering wind coils through the clearing, and the roots of the trees begin to shift.

I feel the magic stirring, uncoiling from its slumber.

A presence awakens.

Ancient. Hungry.

It watches. It waits.

I pull Nora closer, baring my teeth at the unseen thing that lingers just beyond the edge of the veil.

"Give her back," I growl, the demand carved from stone and fire.

The wind laughs.

Something presses against my mind, a weight, a knowing. It sees me. It sees her.

And it knows the truth of what we are.

"You ask for a gift that is not freely given," a voice whispers from the dark. “She’s supposed to die today. A being like her should not live. Purna is your enemy and this one will awaken evil.”

I feel the words coil through my ribs, settling deep into my marrow.

"Tell me the price," I snarl.

Another laugh, this one more amused.

"You would pay it? How foolish!"

I do not hesitate. "Yes."

Silence.

Suddenly, the ground splits beneath me.

A pulse of raw energy surges upward , flowing into her , into me. The bond between us tightens.

The power is cold and hot all at once , searing through the fraying edges of her soul, stitching her back together with something not entirely mortal.

Nora gasps, a choked, ragged breath.

Her body arches against mine, her fingers clutching at my skin as she jolts awake.

I exhale sharply, relief a foreign and unwelcome thing.

She is alive.

But something has changed.

Her eyes, they are no longer just amethyst.

They flicker.

Silver and violet. Light and dark. As if something old now lingers beneath the surface.

I do not know what I have done.

But I know one thing.

She was mine before.

Now, she is something else entirely.