ログインI felt it before I understood it. A shift in the air, something delicate and ancient snapping into place. A pulse of energy that reverberated through my body, so sharp and sudden that it stole my breath away. For a moment, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. It was as if the world itself had tilted on its axis, throwing everything into chaos. It didn’t hurt, not at first. But then the pain came. It was like the world was folding in on me, twisting everything that had been whole, bending it until I felt like I was coming apart at the seams. My breath hitched, my chest tightening with the force of something unseen—something strong, powerful, and impossible to ignore. The bond. The bond between me and Kieran—the bond that had been incomplete, weakened by the ritual, torn by choices I had made—was finally, irrevocably, complete. I gasped for air, my hands shaking as I reached out to steady myself. My fingers brus
It happened in an instant.One breath I was reeling from the intensity of the bond completing, feeling its raw power searing through me, pushing me to the edge of something I couldn’t even name. The next, everything shifted. The air thickened. The very ground beneath me seemed to pulse in time with my heartbeat, and the sky above felt too close, like it was folding inward.I felt... everything.Kieran’s grip on my hand tightened, his breath shallow as he tried to anchor me, to keep me steady. But it was like a flood had broken loose inside me, and there was no stopping it. I could feel the energy, the force of it, stretching outward, reaching beyond the confines of the room. Beyond the walls. Beyond the earth itself.I gasped, my chest tightening with the force of it, my body trembling under the weight of something so vast, so uncontrollable. It was like trying to hold a storm in my palms, but the storm wasn’t just weather. It wasn’t jus
I woke with a gasp, my body thrumming with a mixture of exhaustion and raw power that I couldn’t comprehend. The room was still, too still. And yet, the silence screamed at me. My mind felt thick, clouded, like I was waking from a dream that I couldn’t remember clearly, but the sensations—the pain, the pressure, the overwhelming weight of what I had given—remained with me.I barely had time to register the sensation of Kieran’s hand brushing mine, the faint pulse of warmth, before I was surrounded by the voices.“Is she awake?”“Seraphina?”I turned my head, but my limbs felt like they belonged to someone else. I could feel their eyes on me, waiting for me to speak, for some sign that I was still here, still the leader they needed me to be. But I wasn’t sure I could give them that. Not anymore.Caspian was standing just inside the door, his face unreadable. Kieran, still weak, was sitting beside me, his face drawn, his eyes filled with more questions than I
I couldn't breathe.The weight of what had happened crashed down on me, every breath ragged, my body trembling with the remnants of the ritual's power. The room felt too small, too suffocating, as the magic that had coursed through my veins bled away, leaving only the hollow ache of what I had lost.Ronan was gone.The words had been heavy in my mind, but they had never truly settled until I had turned to look at him, to see his lifeless form against the cold stone of the wall. His sacrifice—his life—had been the price to bring Kieran back, to save him. But it had cost me too. And as I sank to my knees, the exhaustion crashing over me, I realized there was no way to turn back. No way to fix the damage.Not even the steady sound of Kieran’s breath, the faintest rise and fall of his chest, could ease the raw grief burning in my heart.I had lost him. The price had been too high.But then, a sound—faint but undeniable—brok
I could feel it in the air before I even touched him. The stillness. The weight of everything that had led to this moment. The room seemed to pulse around me as I looked down at Kieran—still, motionless, breathing but barely alive—and I knew. I knew the choice I was making was irreversible. There was no turning back. Ronan had already prepared the ritual. The steps. The incantations. The sacrifice. I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to lose him, but I had no choice. Not when Kieran’s life hung in the balance. I had chosen Kieran. And now Ronan was offering his life, his essence, to bring him back. I turned toward Ronan, who was standing at the edge of the room, his face pale but resolute. His eyes were steady, unflinching, and I saw something in him that I hadn’t seen before. A quiet acceptance. The willingness to give everything, knowing full well the price. “I can’t,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “I can’t let you do this.”
I could feel the weight of Kieran’s hand in mine, the warmth of his fingers barely there but still, somehow, grounding me. Despite the stillness in the room, the slow ticking of time felt like it was pressing in from all sides, a suffocating rhythm that wouldn’t stop. I had no idea how long I had been sitting beside him—hours? Days? Time had become irrelevant when every second felt like a war waged in the space between us. Kieran’s breathing was still shallow, and though the healer had managed to stabilize him, the uncertainty of his survival gnawed at my insides like a hungry beast. The coma he’d fallen into was like an invisible barrier, a line I couldn’t cross. I could see the fight in him, the flicker of life that still burned in his eyes, but it was so faint. So fragile. And then there was Ronan. I hadn’t expected him to wake up. Not so soon. Not with the blood still staining his clothes, his body still battered from the battle that had







