The Fire Answered

LYRA'S POV 

Lorenzo waves us forward, and I feel my legs move before I fully decide to let them.

"Bind your blood," he says.

He turns to me with the blade already in his hand. I don't want to flinch, so I make myself hold my hand out anyway, and it shakes before I can stop it, betraying every bit of the fear I've been trying to keep off my face all night. The cut is fast. It still steals my breath, a bright, sudden sting that runs up my whole arm before I can brace for it. I press my lips together so no sound escapes.

Then Lorenzo takes Kael's cut hand and presses it to mine, blood meeting blood, and the sting fades into something else entirely, warmth, or maybe just the feeling of not being alone in this anymore.

"Speak your names," he says.

Kael goes first. "Kael Varga. Alpha of North Ridge." He sounds calm, too calm, like a man who's already made peace with whatever's waiting at the end of this.

Then it's my turn. My mouth has gone dry. "Lyra Cole."

Nothing happens.

I wait, my heart pounding harder with every second that passes, but nothing answers. I look at Kael. He looks back at me. Neither of us says a word, and the silence keeps growing until someone behind me whispers it out loud.

"False claim."

My stomach twists. Another voice repeats it, louder this time, and then Lorenzo is speaking, his face already settled into something final.

"The bond is not proven," he says. "By pack law, the claim stands false."

For a moment I don't fully understand what that means. Then two wolves start walking toward Kael, and understanding arrives all at once, cold and immediate.

"No." I move before I can think it through. An arm shoots across my path, blocking me. "This isn't his fault," I say, louder than I mean to. "If anyone lied here, it was me. I asked him to protect me. Punish me instead."

Nobody answers. The wolves reach Kael and take hold of his arms, one and then the other, and he doesn't fight them. That hurts more than if he had. He is the Alpha. He could throw them across this clearing if he wanted to. He just stands there instead, and I realize, too late, exactly what's happening. They're taking him from me.

"Kael." His eyes find mine. For one terrible second he looks almost tired, not afraid, not angry, just tired, like he's already accepted that this is where everything ends.

"No." I push against the arm holding me back. "Let him go!"

Nobody listens. Kael doesn't look away from me.

Then I feel. Heat, starting deep in my chest, spreading fast enough to steal my breath. I gasp. The pain comes so suddenly I grab my own arm, something burning beneath my skin like real fire instead of a wound. I cry out. Gold light tears across my arm, and the whole clearing seems to freeze around it.

Kael jerks at the same moment. I look up and see gold spreading beneath his skin too.

The wolves holding him let go immediately. He stumbles forward, and I don't even realize I've started moving until I'm already halfway to him.

Lorenzo stares at us, his mouth opening with no words coming out at first. Around us, the whispers die before they can become anything more. The light fades slowly, leaving both our arms burning faintly.

"The bond," he finally says, "is proven."

I should feel relieved. I don't, not yet. My whole body is still shaking, and I can't stop staring at Kael. He stood there and let them take him rather than turn against me.

I had spent so long afraid of him, of what he wanted, of what he might do if it ever came down to choosing between me and his people. And when it did, he hadn't even fought for himself. He'd simply stood there and let them take him.

My throat burns. Kael's eyes find mine across the circle, and neither of us moves. Then he starts walking toward me, fast, and I meet him halfway without thinking, without planning it, I just go.

When we stop in front of each other, we don't say anything. His hand finds mine, and this time I don't pull away.

Behind him, the clearing is slowly coming back to life. People are whispering. Someone asks what the bond means. Someone else demands an explanation. I hear none of it clearly.

Then I look past Kael, and I find Mara standing perfectly still. She isn't looking at him at all. She's looking at me, and whatever she's just realized, the fear in her eyes tells me it isn't over. Not even close.